Characteristics and distribution of nuclear medicine physicians

The authors examined the characteristics and distribution of physicians certified by The American Board of Nuclear Medicine (ABNM).

Three thousand seven hundred twenty-nine physicians were certified by the ABNM by 1989, and information on 3,389 physicians was obtained for this study from available databases.

The age distribution shows 24% (793) of patients were 60 years of age or older; 17% (560) were 55 to 59 years of age; and 21% (714) were 50 to 54 years of age. The average rate of physicians certified by the ABNM was 67.8 annually over the most recent 5 years. Those physicians with additional board certification in radiology, internal medicine, and pathology also were examined. The radiology/nuclear medicine group demonstrated the largest change, with 56.7% having dual certification in the initial 6 years of the ABNM and only 26.4% in the most recent 6 years. The ratio of state population to the number of certified nuclear medicine physicians within the state was found to vary from 30,000:1 in the District of Columbia to 370,000:1 in New Hampshire.

There will be a decline, and possibly a shortage, of comprehensively trained nuclear medicine physicians over the next 10 to 20 years. There is also a decreasing trend of American Board of Radiology (ABR) certification associated with ABNM certification. In addition, there is an uneven distribution of ABNM-certified physicians.