Methodology

Evidence and sourcing policy

Quantitative claims are shown only when the source, date and geography are identifiable.

Source order

1. Regulators and government systems: NMC, NBEMS, national surveys, registries and public programs.
2. Peer-reviewed evidence: epidemiology, workforce and technology studies where administrative data do not answer the question.
3. Market evidence: dated recruitment advertisements and job-platform searches, used as snapshots rather than permanent salary facts.
4. Expert interpretation: used to explain career structure, not to manufacture prevalence, workforce or income numbers.

Excluded practices

• No national salary range without a defensible source.
• No state prevalence created by applying a national rate to a state population.
• No “best branch,” opportunity score or AI-proof score.
• No treating disease burden as equivalent to private-paying demand.
• No mixing NMC MD/MS seats, NMC course records and NBEMS seats into one number.

Regional data policy

State-level analysis keeps disease burden, specialist supply, training capacity, infrastructure, public recruitment, private-market context and current openings as separate measures. A missing component is left missing rather than inferred from another.

Figure sourcing

Quantitative comparison fields link directly to the underlying regulator, government report or peer-reviewed source. Specialty pages also carry a review date and a full reference list. Where a state-level figure has not been normalized exactly, the site shows the national figure or leaves the field blank rather than estimating it.

Review cycle

Regulatory training data are checked against the current academic-year sources. Epidemiology and workforce claims show the source year. Pages carry a visible review date.