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Need A Medical Specialist? Get Ready To Wait A Couple Decades.

The next couple decades are gonna be really challenging for anyone needing specialized medical care, to put it lightly.

Here’s why:

Med school has had a sharp increase in applicants this year (2020). That’s awesome!

But it takes 10–14 years to become a fully licensed specialist, which we’ll need a lot more of.

Whoops, I mean we *currently* need a lot more of, both for #LongCovid & current underserved conditions.

Waves of specialists are retiring — & because of a lack of incentives & financial support for med students to pursue certain specialties & sub-specialties, there already aren’t enough doctors to fill the specialist positions we’re losing as docs retire.

I’ll use the example of rheumatology, since I’m a rheumatology patient & professional in the US.

In late 2019, it was estimated that by 2030 we would need ~100% additional rheumatologists to fill positions due to retirement + expected demand.

100%. You read that right.

There has been a growing shortage of rheumatologists, with appointment wait times to see one up to a year in some cases.

That doesn’t include the extreme shortage of pediatric rheumatologists (<400 in US, ~10 US states don’t have…