Work in progress.

Just like the US census of governments, the ASTRO workforce survey is conducted every half-decade, putting it on track to happen in years that end in “2” and “7.” That means last year was a workforce survey year, and the results are now out. Close to one-third responded of the nearly 4K practicing radiation oncologists surveyed. When it comes to race, roughly 70% were white, 20% Asian, and 10% a conglomerate of the rest, suggesting the field is slightly less diverse than Harvard. Figure 4 may be the most telling, depicting a precipitous drop in the proportion of private practitioners from over half in 2012 to just over one-third by 2017. If you’re wondering why, simply scroll down to Figure 5 to see that over half of those in private practice saw a decrease in pay over that time period while the majority in hospital settings saw an increase or at least stayed the same. TBL: The death of private practice is real. | Fung, Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 2018