AANS Beyond 2021: Scientific Papers Collection-The Aging Neurosurgical Workforce

Video Transcription

Hi, my name is Rohan Singh. I'm a third-year medical student at Mayo Clinic and I'm presenting on the aging neurosurgical workforce. So in recent years there's  been an increased focus on the retention and recruitment of neurosurgeons to combat a workforce shortage. So in order to do this you need to continually  analyze trends in the neurosurgical community to ensure that we can properly cover the general population. So in this study we aim to characterize the  average years of practice of active neurosurgeons in the year 2020. So our methods for this we use the Physician Paranational Database which is upkept by  the Medicare and Medicaid services and we use the year of graduation for medical school as a proxy for the approximate number of years that a neurosurgeon has  been practicing. And we characterize this into blocks of 10 years from 0 to 10 years, 11 and 20, and then so on and so forth.  So here are results. In the year 2020 there were a total of 4,931 neurosurgeons that had billed at least one procedure through the Medicare system. The average  age of practice was 33.4 years and if you look at the table to the right you can see the number of surgeons broken up by the years of practice. And here we  have a pie chart kind of showing that graphically. You can see that the largest block is 11 to 20 years which encompasses 32.2% of neurosurgeons  followed by 21 to 30 years which encompasses 26.2% of neurosurgeons. And then the green, the orange, and the teal color reflects 31 years or more of  practice. So some key points. We believe that this data contributes to a greater sense of urgency for increased recruitment in the neurosurgical  community. Almost 30% of neurosurgeons have been practicing for over 30 years so it's concerning whether the current level of residents will be enough to  replenish the aging workforce. Additionally as the US population grows and ages the demand for neurosurgical care also increases. So future studies  are warranted into how to adequately address the disparity between neurosurgical workforce supply and the increasing demand in coming years. Thanks.

Video Summary

In this video, Rohan Singh, a third-year medical student at Mayo Clinic, presents on the aging neurosurgical workforce. He discusses the importance of retention and recruitment to combat the workforce shortage in neurosurgery. Singh used the Physician Paranational Database maintained by Medicare and Medicaid services to analyze the average years of practice of active neurosurgeons in 2020. The results showed that out of 4,931 neurosurgeons who billed at least one procedure through Medicare, the average years of practice was 33.4. The largest block of neurosurgeons had been practicing for 11 to 20 years (32.2%), followed by 21 to 30 years (26.2%). This data highlights the need for increased recruitment as almost 30% of neurosurgeons have been practicing for over 30 years. With the growing and aging population in the US, there is a greater demand for neurosurgical care, necessitating future studies to address the disparity between workforce supply and increasing demand. Credits: Rohan Singh, Mayo Clinic.

Keywords

neurosurgical workforce

retention

recruitment

average years of practice

workforce shortage