Current status of manpower in cardiology

There are 10,691 cardiologists in active practice in the United States and approximately 1,000 in training. This gives a ratio of 5.6 cardiologists per 100,000 population. Their numbers seem to be distributed about equally between Primary and Secondary Cardiologists. Approximately 70 percent are office-based outside institutions and about 50 percent of all cardiologists are certified in internal medicine and 10 percent certified in cardiovascular disease. Per population density, cardiologists are irregularly distributed, tending to concentrate in the metropolitan centers of the Northeast, Middle Atlantic and Pacific regions. These areas contain the larger cities having the heaviest concentration of medical schools. The East South Central, West South Central and West North Central regions contain significantly fewer numbers of cardiologists per 100,000 population. If the distribution of cardiologists is viewed in relation not to population density but rather to the medical specialist ratios per 100,000 population, it is seen that there is a very narrow percentage range of all medical specialists who are cardiologists. Thus, it appears that there is an even distribution of cardiologists in their relations to internal medicine and their specialties irrespective of region, population density or other factors. The ratios of general practitioners per 100,000 population do not vary greatly in most parts of the country, although there are approximately twice as many medical specialists as surgeons per 100,000 in the majority of the regions. Factors related to manpower maldistributions are many and complex. Our recommendations regarding more desirable manpower ratios and techniques to realize them are discussed later.