Infectious Disease Physician: how many are there, and how many are in private practice?

National totals

What this specialty covers

An internist who deals with infectious diseases of all types and in all organ systems. Conditions requiring selective use of antibiotics call for this special skill. This physician often diagnoses and treats AIDS patients and patients with fevers which have not been explained. Infectious disease specialists may also have expertise in preventive medicine and travel medicine.

Reading the sole-proprietor share

For this specialty, the sole-proprietor share is a count of NPPES records whose holder reported the sole-proprietor designation: 1,761 records, or 16.8% of the 10,484 active records. Because this is a self-reported NPPES field, it is an imperfect proxy for private practice and does not by itself show whether a physician owns a practice, works independently, or is employed by an organization.

By state

New NPI registrations by year

Counts reflect the year each NPI was first issued, among records still active today. The final year is partial: this data covers through 2026-01-11.

Data notes

• The sole-proprietor field is self-reported by the provider in NPPES and is an imperfect proxy for private practice.
• A sole-proprietor count shown as <11 is suppressed: the true value is below 11, which could include zero.
• - NPI data describe identifiers and reported attributes, not a complete census of currently practicing physicians.
• - The primary taxonomy is the classification reported in NPPES and may not capture every clinician who provides infectious disease care or every service provided by listed physicians.
• Providers are counted once, by their primary taxonomy code only.

Source: CMS National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES) Data Dissemination file, FOIA-disclosable public data under CMS-6060-N. Aggregated by Hero EMR on 2026-08-03; deactivated NPIs excluded; specialty assigned from the primary taxonomy code (NUCC 25.1). Counts below 11 are suppressed. Individual providers are never published. All provider data pages.

Common questions