From a StatNews.com online article:

Most Americans probably aren’t aware of the decline in the number of individuals training to become transplant physicians and how it will affect the future of medicine. Neither are the 2020 presidential hopefuls, all of whom have policies they believe best provide health care coverage for Americans without acknowledging or calling attention to the fact that soon there may not be enough doctors to do the work once more people are insured. We need a plan for that.

During the 25 years I’ve been a transplant doctor, I’ve cared for hundreds of patients who received lung transplants. I’m now worried about the growing number of people who will need this lifesaving procedure in the future but who won’t have enough transplant physicians to do it.

At any given time in the U.S., about 120,000 people are waiting for the call that they’ve been matched with a donor for a new lung, heart, liver, or kidney. That number will continue to rise, but the number of doctors to take the 2 a.m. call that a donor has been found for their patient and perform the transplant is dwindling.

To read more: https://www.statnews.com/2019/10/17/transplant-physicians-number-dwindling/?utm_source=STAT+Newsletters&utm_campaign=20aba6d000-First_Opinion&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8cab1d7961-20aba6d000-150443417