I found this interesting. It is not news to anyone in medicine that there are significant surgeon shortages, and the USA will constantly be importing surgeons for the forseeable future just to meet needs. Outsourcing so to speak, or stealing well trained professionals from their poorer, even more underserved countries.
Interestingly, the laws of supply and demand are not in play here at all. A surgeon shortage should lead to higher pay, right? Wrong. A recent and interesting article examined reimbursement from 1906 to 2006 for 5 common general surgical operations, and found an average decrease in pay of 1.25% per year based on adjusted 2006 dollars. So the thyroid operation that medicare pays $950 for today would have paid $9500 in adjusted dollars 100 years ago (interestingly in the 30's, which had the best reimbursement of the last 100 years, it would have paid $21,700.)
Edit:
Found a couple more interesting articles
Breathholding Blaine...impressive!
Anatomy. I have never heard of this anatomist before, but the photos are incredible.
Random thoughts.
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