A federal model cited by the Times estimates the U.S. will be short 33,200 geriatricians by 2025. This shortage isn’t due to a graduate medical education bottleneck — about a third of fellowships in geriatric medicine were unfilled in 2019, according to the report. The New York Times suggests the specialty’s relatively low pay — average total compensation for geriatricians was $233,564 in 2018, about half of what anesthesiologists earned — and lack of glamor may contribute to low counts of geriatricians.
However, the need is so high, a wave of new geriatricians is unlikely to materialize and meet demand, according to the report. Recognizing this, many medical centers and hospitals have started tapping geriatricians to help train the rest of the workforce to work with older adults, while medical schools are preparing students to work with older patients.
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