Home From The Editor A geography lesson

A geography lesson

Published in the May 2012 issue of Today’s Hospitalist

DOES THE REGION WHERE YOU LIVE affect your professional life as a hospitalist? According to this month’s cover story, the answer appears to be a strong “maybe.”

To examine the impact that geography has on hospitalists’ careers, we divided the country into six regions. We then used survey data to look at how hospitalists rated their regions on categories like professional satisfaction, work/life balance and workplace environment.

The results are fascinating. While some regions clearly did better than others, it turns out that each region has its own strengths and weaknesses. Spend a few minutes looking through the charts that accompany this story, and I guarantee you’ll come across data that will challenge what you think about hospital medicine.

To interpret the data “and to get more information on how geography affects hospitalists “we talked to people from across the country. They offer some interesting insights into how working in their region works for them.

For an even more in-depth view, you can look at the materials from this project that we’ve posted on our Web site. That now contains features including a white paper detailing the entire ranking process and an online quiz to help you find which region of the country might be a good match for your personal and professional preferences.

This is the first time we’ve done this kind of in-depth analysis on so much data. (To my knowledge, it’s the first time anyone has attempted to put regional data on hospitalists into perspective.) If you have your own spin on the data, get in touch and let me know.

edoyleEdward Doyle
Editor & Publisher
edoyle@todayshospitalist.com