General Surgeons Industry Profile

Practitioners in this industry use surgical techniques to diagnose, treat, and manage diseases and disorders. No major companies dominate the industry.

An estimated 310 million major surgeries are performed each year. Low-income countries have on average less than 2 operating theaters per 100,000 population, compared with the global average of 14.3 per 100,000 in North America and 25.1 theaters per 100,000 in eastern Europe, according to The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI).

Office of physicians, including general surgeons, has about 210,000 establishments and has an annual revenue of about $470 billion. In 2021, the specialties with the largest number of active physicians were primary care specialties of internal medicine (over 120,000), family medicine/general practice (over 118,000), and pediatrics (over 60,000), according to the 2022 Physician Specialty Data report by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Demand is driven primarily by population growth and rates of critical illness and injury. The profitability of individual practices depends mainly on expertise and reputation. Larger practices may enjoy economies of scale in administration and equipment purchasing. Smaller practices can compete successfully by specializing. The US industry is highly fragmented: the 50 largest firms generate about 20% of industry revenue.

In local markets, surgeons primarily compete with one another. Medical tourism is a fast-growing competitive threat: because surgery costs are high, patients are increasingly traveling to foreign countries for procedures that cost a fraction ...