Specialty choice and race, is there a connection?

New data show the choices of America’s doctors by gender, race, and age. Here are some notable trends revealed by the 2021 data, which covers about 950,000 active physicians.

• Wide varieties in race/ethnicity
• Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander — 0.1%
• American Indian or Alaska Native — 0.3%
• Multiple races, non-Hispanic — 1.3%
• Black or African American — 5.7%
• Hispanic — 6.9%
• Asian — 20.6%
• White — 63.9%

Among the most popular specialties, by race/ethnicity:

• Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander — Sports medicine, pediatric anesthesiology, pain medicine and pain management
• American Indian or Alaska Native — Family medicine/general practice, preventive medicine, pain medicine and pain management
• Multiple races, non-Hispanic — Pediatric anesthesiology, sports medicine, vascular and interventional radiology
• Black or African American — Obstetrics and gynecology, preventive medicine, child and adolescent psychiatry
• Hispanic — Geriatric medicine, infectious disease, child and adolescent psychiatry
• Asian — Nephrology, interventional cardiology, geriatric medicine
• White — Orthopedic surgery, sports medicine (orthopedic surgery), otolaryngology

“One clear takeaway is that physicians from groups underrepresented in medicine are more concentrated in primary care and a few other specialties, like pain medicine and pain management,” says Michael Dill, the AAMC’s director of workforce studies...Read More

Are you surprised that different races have different specialty preferences?