Objective

To investigate how the health services research (HSR) workforce supply in the United States has evolved over the last five years.

Data Sources

Membership data of AcademyHealth participants, professional networking websites, PubMed, grant databases, and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System.

Study Design

Descriptive study comparing size and characteristics of the HSR workforce and graduates identified across multiple data sources. Lists of authors and principal investigators (PIs) were merged and de-duplicated to identify unique counts. Pearson's Chi Squared test was used to compare characteristics between members and non-members of AcademyHealth.

Data Collection

Downloaded files from websites and received survey data extracted by AcademyHealth between 2016 and 2020.

Principal Findings

The workforce size ranged from 9,610 to 28,136, depending on data source. Common employers included universities, government settings, and health systems. Little overlap in employers existed for individuals with potentially competing skillsets. The HSR workforce appeared more diverse than the US adult population, with two to three times greater representation among Asian individuals yet lower representation among Black/African American (30%) and Hispanic (75%) individuals compared to the US population. 87,721 master's and 3,105 doctoral degree graduates from core HSR fields were added over five years from public and not-for-profit institutions. Including for-profit institution graduates increased the count by 15% for master's and 30% for doctoral graduates. Hispanic (any race), Black/African American, and multi-racial individuals gained representation among core HSR graduates, with for-profit institutions substantially contributing to the number of Black/African American graduates.

Conclusions

The HSR workforce is growing with increasing diversity among its graduates compared to previous studies. Additional work is needed to understand how employers value the contributions of those trained in HSR. Continued efforts are needed to ensure HSR workforce diversity to frame critical research questions and develop programs and policies that reflect the needs of the community.

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