Dive Brief:
- Doximity, which provides online social networking services for healthcare professionals, launched an interactive salary map called Career Navigator for physician assistants (PAs).
- Certified physician assistants can access the career navigator map by anonymously submitting a survey regarding their own salary to the online community.
- The company also released insights into the physician assistant profession, such as variations in salary by gender and locale, based on data collected from the map.
Dive Insight:
Physician assistants (PAs) are in high demand. The National Commission on Certification of Physician reported earlier this month 76% of new PA graduates have several job offers. And the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts a growth in the profession of 30% by 2024.
As demand for their services continues to grow, PAs can use the Doximity career map to better position themselves for career opportunities and salary negotiations. The insights Doximity published reveal discrepancies in PA pay based on gender, locale, experience, and specialty.
While physicians working in rural areas tend to earn more than those working in urban areas, the opposite is true for PAs. PAs in urban areas make approximately 5% more than those in rural areas.
The gender pay gap exists among PAs as it does elsewhere in healthcare, including in the health IT field. Male PAs make 11% more on average than female PAs.
Big data is making visualization of healthcare career trends more possible than ever before. Tools like Doximity's Career Navigator and the American Medical Association's Health Workforce Mapper, which was recently updated, can help policymakers identify areas with shortages and devise strategies to reduce healthcare discrepancies.