Thoracic Surgery (Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery) Physician: how many are there, and how many are in private practice?

National totals

What this specialty covers

A thoracic surgeon provides the operative, perioperative and critical care of patients with pathologic conditions within the chest. Included is the surgical care of coronary artery disease, cancers of the lung, esophagus and chest wall, abnormalities of the trachea, abnormalities of the great vessels and heart valves, congenital anomalies, tumors of the mediastinum and diseases of the diaphragm. The management of the airway and injuries of the chest is within the scope of the specialty.

Reading the sole-proprietor share

For this specialty, 909 of the 6,588 active records, or 13.8%, are flagged as sole proprietors in NPPES. That self-reported field is an imperfect proxy for private practice because it may not reflect a physician's full mix of employment, ownership, or practice arrangements.

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.
• - Counts cover active NPI records with 208G00000X as the primary taxonomy, so they are not necessarily a count of unique physicians or current clinical positions.
• - An NPI's registered state and first-enumeration year may not show where care is delivered, whether the clinician is currently practicing in this specialty, or why a record was created.
• 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