The Abdominal Transplant Surgery Workforce: Current state and future trends

Area of Science:

• Surgical Workforce Analysis
• Transplant Surgery Demographics

Background:

• Concerns exist regarding transplant surgical workforce challenges and job opportunities for new fellows.
• The American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS) Membership and Workforce Committee identified a need to assess current workforce dynamics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To characterize current practice patterns of transplant centers.
• To estimate future changes in the transplant surgical workforce over the next three years.

Main Methods:

• A survey was distributed to 235 identified transplant centers by the ASTS Membership and Workforce Committee.
• The questionnaire gathered data on transplant programs, surgeons, and projected staffing changes.
• Seventy-one centers (30.2% response rate) provided data for analysis.

Main Results:

• The recruitment outlook predicts a positive surgeon inflow at a 2:1 rate (incoming:leaving) over the next three years.
• The proportion of female transplant surgeons has significantly increased, rising from 3.7% in 1980 to 18.4% in 2010.
• Currently, 13.1% of practicing US transplant surgeons in the survey cohort are female, exceeding rates in many other surgical specialties.

Conclusions:

• The study indicates a positive job recruitment outlook for transplant surgeons.
• A notable narrowing of the gender gap within the transplant surgical workforce has been observed.