Workforce

The COVID-19 pandemic had an overall negative impact on rheumatology training, with 25% reporting they did not feel physically safe in the workplace, according to poster data published in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

Results from the 2021 Medical Specialties Matching Program reveal that pediatric rheumatology fellowship programs filled less than 70% of their available slots, according to the American College of Rheumatology.

Rheumatology has been a lifelong love for me. When I was a small child, my parents were working and asked my aunt to care for me during the day. My aunt did not have kids of her own and showered me with love and attention. But I also watched her struggle with rheumatoid arthritis, which progressively made it harder for her to do her activities of daily living.

The AMA recently announced that it is strengthening its efforts to increase the rural physician workforce.

The number of physician assistants in the psychiatric workforce grew significantly between 2015 and 2020, according to study results presented at Psych Congress.

The AMA adopted a policy it hopes will enhance the diversity of the physician workforce, according to a press release.

The looming workforce shortage in rheumatology is not a new problem, and it is certainly not going away. But ongoing campaigns to draw talent to the specialty, novel paradigms of patient care and the unexpected twist of COVID-19 may be changing the game.

Race parity in the science and health care workforce remains a challenge, but opportunities for reform exist at the trainee, faculty and leadership level, according to a speaker at the virtual American Heart Association Scientific Sessions.

If medical schools at historically Black colleges that closed had remained open, they may have provided training for more than 35,000 additional medical students by 2019, according to research published in JAMA Network Open.

Fewer medical trainees are entering the field of HIV, leaving a shortage in the workforce that is likely to get worse, experts said. The trend coincides with slowed progress in reducing new infections, and likely complicates a lofty new federal plan to end the U.S. epidemic in 10 years.