Cardiac surgeons are on average the oldest physician specialty out of more than 110 medical specialties, according to a study by Definitive Healthcare.
The study, published Nov. 16, analyzed more than 810,000 healthcare providers to calculate the average age of different physician and medical specialties.
Cardiac surgeons were the oldest out of any of the specialties, with an average age of 59 years old. Adult medicine and general practice specialists were tied for second, with an average age of 58 years old.
In contrast, pediatric cardiologists are the seventh-youngest specialty, with an average age of 48 years old.
The average age of all the providers included in the dataset was 53.9 years old, which is more than a decade older than the average age of the U.S. labor force, which is 41.8 years old.