Medical Specialty Societies: How Much is Too Much?

Document Type

Conference Proceeding - Restricted Access

Publication Date

5-8-2026

Abstract

Medical societies play an important role in representing physicians and their interests. Our objective was to compare the number, size, and fiscal strength of vascular societies to other cardiovascular specialties.

All information was found via a systematic Internet search and with publicly available data (i.e. www.aamc.org). Medical societies representing vascular surgery, cardiology, cardiothoracic surgery (CTS), and interventional radiology (IR) in the United States were compared. Board-certified physicians (www.abms.org) and publicly available financial information were tabulated (www.ProPublica.org).

Board-certified vascular surgeons (n=4464) can choose to join 31 vascular societies (5 national, 10 regional, 12 city/state, 4 other). In comparison, 12 societies (2 national) represent CTS (n=5869) and 16 societies (1 national) represent IR (n=4032) physicians. Cardiologists (n=22843) are represented by 14 (5 national) societies and an additional 27 chapters of a parent national society. The available number of vascular surgeons per national society is markedly lower than comparative specialties (Figure I). Vascular societies generated $23M in revenue (2023 data) compared to $52M for CTS, $6M for IR, and $1.03B for cardiology. Cardiology societies generated 93% of the total revenue of these four specialties. National cardiology societies have 52 times the total revenue compared to vascular societies and 55X of the total assets ($1.97B vs. $36M).

Compared to similar specialties, vascular surgery has few surgeons, yet a high number of medical societies. This is particularly true when looking at the number of national societies relative to the number of surgeons. This fragmentation may dilute the medical, governmental, societal, and patient advocacy impact of vascular surgery compared to its peers.

Comments

2026 Research Day Corewell Health West, Grand Rapids, MI, May 8, 2026. Abstract 1912

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