Report of the ASCP/CAP/APC Joint Task Force on Pathology Manpower

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Abstract
A survey of residents in pathology graduate medical education (GME) and program directors in the specialty of pathology in the United States has been completed. The response to the survey on the part of both groups is judged highly satisfactory. The survey verifies in many respects an earlier survey of the same groups conducted in 1974–75 and thus appears to validate certain findings. It went beyond the earlier survey in certain areas, notably with respect to subspecialization, and the new findings are noted. Findings of the survey in accord with the survey of 1974–75 include: (1) approximately 75% of residency positions are filled; (2) 81% of residents are male, and the mean age of residents is 30.8 years; (3) 50% of residents in training plan to go into community hospital practice; (4) 58% of residents are in training or plan to obtain GME in a recognized subspecialty of pathology; (5) approximately 400-500 residents will complete GME programs, become eligible for certification, and enter the practice of pathology in each of the next four years; (6) the factors leading physicians to select the specialty of pathology are chiefly dependent upon an independent judgment of the merits and advantages of the field and not on the advice and example of others; (7) no great difficulty in obtaining positions was experienced by recent graduates of training programs according to program directors, with the possible exception of a minority of graduates of programs in the East and Great Lakes regions; (8) program directors believe that the current number of graduates meets current needs (except in certain subspecialty or special competence areas) and that supply and demand are approximately in balance. In one respect the current survey results from program directors differ from those of the earlier survey: 40% of current residents are foreign medical graduates (FMGs), a decrease from the 48% of FMGs found by the survey of 1974–75, indicating a decreasing number of FMGs in GME programs in pathology. Increasing numbers of United States citizens who are graduates of foreign medical schools are likely to replace them. More information was gathered on residents in subspecialty or special competence GME programs in the present survey as compared with the earlier one. These results indicate that of the subspecialties in which training is planned, the three most favored by current trainees are surgical pathology, hematology, and immunopathology. When program directors were queried about needs for subspecialists, they perceived the greatest needs occurring in forensic pathology, chemical pathology, and medical microbiology.

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