Orthopaedic Surgery of the Spine Physician: how many are there, and how many are in private practice?

National totals

What this specialty covers

Recognized by several state medical boards as a fellowship subspecialty program of orthopaedic surgery, orthopaedic surgeons of the spine deal with the evaluation and nonoperative and operative treatment of the full spectrum of primary spinal disorders including trauma, degenerative, deformity, tumor, and reconstructive.

Reading the sole-proprietor share

For this specialty, the 11.6% sole-proprietor share is the proportion of records carrying that NPPES flag, not a definitive count of physicians in private practice. The flag is self-reported and is an imperfect proxy because it does not by itself establish ownership, employment arrangement, practice size, or clinical independence.

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 records are administrative identifiers, so the total should not be treated as a direct headcount of clinicians or a count of procedures.
• - Taxonomy and other NPPES fields may be provider-reported and can be updated after enumeration.
• - First-enumeration year reflects NPI issuance timing, not training completion, specialty entry, or practice opening.
• 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