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. 2020 Dec 21;35(49):e428.
doi: 10.3346/jkms.2020.35.e428.

Infectious Diseases Physician Workforce in Korea

Youngeun Jang  1 , Se Yoon Park  2 , Bongyoung Kim  3 , Eunjung Lee  1 , Seungjae Lee  1 , Hyo Ju Son  1 , Jung Wan Park  4 , Shi Nae Yu  4 , Tark Kim  5 , Min Hyok Jeon  4 , Eun Ju Choo  5 , Tae Hyong Kim  1
Affiliations

Infectious Diseases Physician Workforce in Korea

Youngeun Jang et al. J Korean Med Sci. .

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the infectious disease (ID) physician workforce in Korea. We investigated the acquisition of ID physicians from 1992 to 2019 with their current working place in the Health Care System. We defined ID physicians working at general or tertiary-care hospitals as active ID physicians. A total 275 physicians acquired ID as a sub-specialty. Among the 275, 242 were active ID physicians. The density of active ID physicians was 0.47 per 100,000 population. Of all the 17 administrative districts, 11 (64.7%) fell short of 0.47, and 131 medical institutions employed the service of ID physicians. The median number of beds per adult ID physician was 372 (interquartile range, 280-507). It is essential to secure human resources to respond to emerging infectious diseases and perform the inherent work of ID physicians.

Keywords: Distribution; Infectious Diseases; Physicians; Workforce.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. The accumulated acquisition of physicians with ID sub-specialty by year.
ID = infectious diseases.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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