Scientific Session IV: Cardiac

Abstract

Objective: Limited access to cardiothoracic surgery in sub-Saharan Africa is well documented, with only one cardiotho-racic training program: Tenwek Hospital in Kenya. Given that 43.1% of U.S. general surgeons stay to practice in the state where they train, we aimed to assess the relationship between the number of surgical training programs and practicing surgeons in the U.S. Methods: The number of general surgeons and PGY-1 general surgery positions per capita in each state were assessed using American Association of Medical Colleges, American College of Surgeons, American Board of Surgery, and U.S. census population data. States without a training program were excluded. Differences were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: There was a median of 7.42 surgeons per 100,000 people (IQR 7.06-8.96). There was a median of 0.74 PGY-1 general surgery positions per 100,000 (IQR 0.55-1.02). States with PGY-1 positions greater than the national median had more general surgeons per capita than states with reported significantly less pain and 1.5-fold to > 10-fold reduction