More women are entering higher-paying physician specialties, particularly in surgery, according to a study published in JAMA.
The study, reported by Medscape Medical News Oct. 3, looked at 490,188 students — 47.4% women — to "pipeline" specialties from 2008 to 2022. Among the students, the proportion of women entering higher-paid specialties grew from 32.7% to 40.8%.
An increased interest in surgical specialties has driven the growth, jumping from 28.8% in 2008 to 42.4% in 2022. However, researchers saw no significant growth in nonsurgical specialties over time, and these specialties even saw some decreases in female applicants.
Specialties defined as having the highest compensation were neurosurgery, ophthalmology, orthopedic surgery, otorhinolaryngology, plastic surgery, general surgery, thoracic surgery (integrated), urology, and vascular surgery (integrated), and the nonsurgical fields of anesthesiology, dermatology, nuclear medicine, radiation oncology and radiology (diagnostic).
The lowest-compensated fields were all nonsurgical, including child neurology, emergency medicine, family medicine, internal medicine, internal medicine/pediatrics, medical genetics and genomics, neurology, nuclear medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pathology, pediatrics, physical medicine and rehabilitation, and psychiatry.