You might have heard that Boston is a hub of hospitals and medicine. There are 20 hospitals in Boston, and by comparison, Seattle has just 13. You might have also heard that Boston is the College Town of America, which begs the question: what are people studying to contribute to the prominent medical industry? How does this compare to a place like Seattle, which although has a larger population, has significantly fewer hospitals?
Colleges
Seattle has just 8 colleges, while Boston packs in a remarkable 35. Of the medical degrees given in Boston, the biggest slice at 33% goes to those studying Registered Nursing, while in Seattle it is 42%. Although more of the medical-industry students in Seattle are studying to become an RN, Boston still cranks out more than 2.5x the number of nurses because of the sheer number of colleges. Not to mention, 7% of the Boston medicine students earn a "Nursing School" degree and 6% earn a "Nursing Practice" degree. I am not sure of the difference between these programs, but it is safe to say that Boston trains an overwhelming amount of nurses, especially compares to a bigger city like Seattle. Overall, Boston awards 2,900 degrees in the medical field, whereas in Seattle it is just 895.
Specialties?
Due to the amount of hospitals, Boston students are much more likely to specialize in something within the medical profession as compared to those studying medicine in Seattle. This also explains the proportionately high number of students getting a Registered Nursing degree in Seattle, because there is are less specialties offered there.
Some of the medical specialty degrees awarded in Boston include radiation therapy, dental hygiene, and speech language pathology, all of which are not given at all in Seattle. Even some of the west coast city's more unique medical degrees like music therapy, only gave 3 in 2017. This is overshadowed by the 42 given in Boston the same year.
Conclusion
In short, Boston has more colleges and therefore creates more medical professionals than Seattle, which may contribute to its booming medical industry. Considering how Seattle has a larger population, the next step would be to see how this comparative shortage of hospitals in Seattle impacts the health of the population. If we're assuming that the number of hospitals correlates with the general health of each city's population (which very well may not be true) I would predict that the health of Bostonians is generally better than those who live in Seattle.
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