Demand–supply of neurointerventionalists for endovascular ischemic stroke therapy

Fiorella and Cloft and authors Zaidat et al. discuss the impending oversupply of neurointerventionalists and echo debates ongoing in many medical subspecialties, namely, how to construct barriers to decrease the number of people entering a field.Between 2005 and 2007, the United Council of Neurologic Subspecialties created 7 new board examinations, complete with rigid application requirements.It is hard not to view these barriers as potentially self-serving.Many of the people initiating additional fellowships and new board examinations have managed well in their fields without those hurdles.While it is difficult to argue against more education, these requirements have a time and financial cost for trainees (and their departments) and could contribute to fragmentation within the field.