Infectious Diseases Physician Workforce in Korea

Jang, Youngeun; Park, Se Yoon; Kim, Bongyoung; Lee, Eunjung; Lee, Seungjae; Son, Hyo-Ju; Park, Jung Wan; Yu, Shi Nae; Kim, Tark; Jeon, Min Hyok; Choo, Eun Ju; Kim, Tae Hyong

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.