How the health services research workforce supply in the United States is evolving

AbstractObjectiveTo investigate how the health services research (HSR) workforce supply in the United States has evolved over the last 5 years.Data SourcesMembership data of AcademyHealth participants, professional networking websites, PubMed, grant databases, and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System.Study DesignDescriptive 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 nonmembers of AcademyHealth.Data CollectionDownloaded files from websites and received survey data extracted by AcademyHealth between 2016 and 2020.Principal FindingsThe workforce size ranged from 9610 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 skill sets. 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 with the US population. Exactly 87,721 master's and 3105 doctoral degree graduates from core HSR fields were added over 5 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 multiracial individuals gained representation among core HSR graduates, with for‐profit institutions substantially contributing to the number of Black/African American graduates.ConclusionsThe HSR workforce is growing with increasing diversity among its graduates compared with 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.