A new physician compensation report from Medscape shows several medical specialties experienced notable pay increases in 2026, signaling continued shifts in healthcare workforce demand and reimbursement trends. Cardiology led all specialties with a 10% increase in compensation, followed closely by ophthalmology and radiology at 9%.
The report, based on survey responses from nearly 6,000 physicians across 29 specialties, found that most specialties saw at least modest salary growth compared to the previous year. Emergency medicine, anesthesiology, and orthopedic surgery also reported strong gains, while primary care specialties such as family medicine and internal medicine posted smaller but steady increases.
For healthcare organizations, these trends may reflect ongoing staffing pressures, specialty shortages, and changing care demands across the industry. The findings also provide insight into which specialties are seeing increased market value as health systems continue to compete for physician talent.
Specialties reporting the highest compensation growth included cardiology, ophthalmology, radiology, emergency medicine, anesthesiology, orthopedic surgery, and urology, while pediatrics and rheumatology remained unchanged year over year.
Resource: The physician specialties seeing the highest pay growth