What Should the Next New Medical Specialty Be? 6 Physicians Weigh In

The first residency programs in the US were introduced in 1927. By the late 1930s, there were 13 recognized medical specialties, with corresponding certification boards. Medical specialization picked up steam after World War II, and positions in residency programs increased significantly. Today, the American Board of Medical Specialties recognizes 40 specialties and 89 subspecialties. And the AMA’s Specialty Guide lists 189 different types of training programs (including residencies and fellowships).

Medical specialization has come a long way, but the specialties and subspecialties we have today aren't a fixed group — factors including advancements in technology, epidemiological trends, demographic shifts, emerging care models, and cultural views on health might all influence which “new types of doctors” join the field in years to come.

After all, the term “hospitalist” was coined by the New England Journal of Medicine in 1996, but didn’t become a board-certified specialty until 2009. And while American Academy of Sleep Medicine was founded in 1975, sleep medicine only became recognized as a subspecialty in 2003.

So, what’s missing from the current list? What specialty or subspecialty needs to be invented next — in order to fill a gap in care, propel medicine into the future, address a specific condition, or otherwise improve our healthcare system?

We’ve been posing this question — what new medical specialty would you design? — to physicians with diverse training and career trajectories.

Here’s what six leading physicians had to say:

Amy Fogelman / Internal Medicine

"Something like narrative medicine and like legal communication — helping doctors explain how to translate complex medical information for non-medical audiences. So I don't know if it would be a specialty, exactly, but it would be more like a course for physicians. And it’s important — for taking care of patients, and for any physicians doing work in the legal world."

Read about Amy's expertise as a medical expert witness here.

Darien Sutton / Emergency Medicine

“You know what? We talk about pediatricians, we talk about geriatricians. I need a doctor to help me with the transition of just becoming an adult. I need someone who specializes in middle-age anxiety. I just need a doctor where all their patients are millennials — and this is me being selfish. We’re trying to figure stuff out. “Listen, I'm an older millennial, help me understand.” Many of us, and many of my friends, don't see regular doctors. What we need is a reinforcement of primary care so that we have more doctors available to answer these everyday questions of people who seemingly are healthy, but need to do certain things to reduce their risk later on in life.”

Learn about Darien's path from ER doctor to medical correspondent to TikTok star here.

Eric Bricker / Internal Medicine

“The serious oncologist, for serious stuff. Because there's a huge spectrum of like ductal carcinoma in situ for breast cancer versus, like, serious, serious oncology. Just like with emergency medicine. You got to triage them in and be like, "Do they need to be admitted?” And the equivalent is, "Okay, I'm a community oncologist … you need to be admitted to the serious oncologist."

Listen to Eric talk about the business side of healthcare here.

Tina Shah / Pulmonology & Critical Care

“I think I’d design a specialty focused on the wellbeing of the workforce. I think if we don't do this, then we will continue to see attrition across all the health professions.”

Listen to Tina discuss burnout solutions here.

Jared Dashevsky / Residency

“I guess it would be a mix — a physician executive specialty where you are practicing medicine, but also you're an expert in the system, which will make the physician better equipped to run hospitals instead of people with MBAs who've never treated a patient.”

Listen to more about Jared's unconventional, enterprising career here.

Jill Farmer / Neurology

“I would like to invent a pro-palliative Parkinson's specialty, meaning for patients who aren’t ready for palliative care yet, but who could rally benefit from those tenets of palliative care. I guess that's kind of like lifestyle medicine, but more focused on the elderly and those with chronic, neurodegenerative conditions. So many patients I see could get value from social resources that really are saved for those end-of-life [periods]. If brought in sooner, they could have a wonderful impact on patients’ care and quality of life.”

Read more about Jill's journey starting her own direct care practice here.

***

Have your own suggestion? Tell us in the comments which new specialty you'd design and why!