Internal medicine board certification and career pathways in Japan

BMC Medical Education

Table 1 Characteristics of study subjects

		2010 report		2012 report
		(n = 104,193)		(n = 107,105)
Sex (n, %)
	Male	87,969	84.4	89,611	83.7
	Female	16,224	15.6	17,494	16.3
Years of experience (mean, standard deviation)
		24.2	14.7	24.5	14.6
Type of municipality (n, %)
	Special wards	36,303	34.8	38,823	36.2
	Cities	60,871	58.4	61,520	57.4
	Towns and villages	7,019	6.7	6,762	6.3
Type of medical institution (n, %)
	Academic hospitals	13,717	13.2	14,480	13.5
	Other hospitals	43,967	42.2	45,948	42.9
	Clinics and others	46,509	44.6	46,677	43.6
Main area of practice (n, %)
	Internal medicine	61,877	59.4	61,177	57.1
	Gastroenterological medicine	12,188	11.7	13,080	12.2
	Cardiology	10,829	10.4	11,541	10.8
	Respiratory medicine	4944	4.7	5337	5.0
	Neurology	4094	3.9	4361	4.1
	Diabetes and metabolism	3488	3.3	3966	3.7
	Nephrology	3085	3.0	3492	3.3
	Hematology	2118	2.0	2353	2.2
	Rheumatology	1058	1.0	1228	1.1
	Infectious diseases	303	0.3	367	0.3
	Allergy	209	0.2	203	0.2
Board-certified physicians (n, %)
	General internal medicine	13,896	13.3	13,607	12.7
	Gerontology	936	0.9	975	0.9
	Gastroenterological medicine	11,283	10.8	12,090	11.3
	Hepatology	3097	3.0	3583	3.3
	Cardiology	9150	8.8	9884	9.2
	Respiratory medicine	3602	3.5	4027	3.8
	Neurology	3285	3.2	3555	3.3
	Diabetes	3374	3.2	3763	3.5
	Metabolism	1293	1.2	1399	1.3
	Nephrology	2347	2.3	2622	2.4
	Hematology	1876	1.8	2055	1.9
	Rheumatology	1407	1.4	1618	1.5
	Infectious diseases	615	0.6	696	0.6
	Allergy	1196	1.1	1301	1.2
Number of board certifications (n, %)
	None	65,150	62.5	65,045	60.7
	1	24,149	23.2	26,518	24.8
	2	11,902	11.4	12,381	11.6
	≥ 3	2992	2.8	3161	2.9

ISSN: 1472-6920