• Bongyoung Kim, Byung Wook Eun, Eunjung Lee, Tae Hyong Kim, Suyeon Park, and Se Yoon Park.
• Department of Internal Medicine, Hanyang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
• J. Korean Med. Sci. 2022 Dec 5; 37 (47): e320e320.

BackgroundInfectious disease (ID) specialists are skilled facilitators of medical consultation who promote better outcomes in patient survival, antibiotic stewardship as well as healthcare safety in pandemic response. This study aimed to assess the working status of ID specialists and identify problems faced by ID professionals in Korea.MethodsThis was a nationwide cross-sectional study in Korea. An online-based survey was conducted over 11 days (from December 17-27, 2020), targeting all active adult (n = 281) and pediatric (n = 71) ID specialists in Korea (N = 352). Questions regarding the practice areas of the specialists were divided into five categories: 1) clinical practices of outpatient care, inpatient care, and consultations; 2) infection control; 3) antibiotic stewardship; 4) research; and 5) education and training. We investigated the weekly time-use patterns for these areas of practice.ResultsOf the 352 ID specialists, 195 (55.4%; 51.2% [144/281] adult and 71.8% [51/71] pediatric ID specialists) responded in the survey. Moreover, 144 (73.8%) of the total respondents were involved in all practice categories investigated. The most common practice area was outpatient service (93.8%), followed by consultation (91.3%) and inpatient service (87.7%). Specialists worked a median of 61 (interquartile range: 54-71) hours weekly: patient care, 29 (14-37) hours; research 11 (5-19) hours; infection control 4 (2-10) hours; antibiotic stewardship, 3 (1-5) hours; and education/training, 2 (2-6) hours.ConclusionID specialists in Korea simultaneously undertake multiple tasks and work long hours, highlighting the need for training and employing more ID specialists.© 2022 The Korean Academy of Medical Sciences.

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