The impact of the aging population and incidence of cancer on future projections of general surgical workforce needs

Background Assessments of the future general surgery workforce continue to project substantial shortages of general surgeons. The general surgery workforce is targeted currently to maintain a surgeon/population ratio of 6.5–7.5/100,000. Methods We examined population and age-associated incidence of cancer to estimate the number of general surgeons needed for initial surgical treatment of the patient with cancer in the year 2035 compared with...