When the National Resident Matching Program announced earlier this month that, for two years running, the number of U.S. medical student seniors who will train as family medicine residents rose, the clamor began: Does this indicate a trend? Will the worries about a shortage of primary care physicians be dispelled?
Not so fast, says Mona Singer, the executive director of the NRMP, a private nonprofit that provides a mechanism for matching medical students to open residency programs. “I think two years is really too soon to say it’s a trend,” she said. “If this happens for a third year with family medicine, I’d be willing to say it’s a trend.”
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The number of medical school seniors matched to family medicine residencies rose by 11 percent over last year, experiencing the strongest growth in the number of positions filled by seniors. Other primary care specialties that saw increases were pediatrics (3 percent) and internal medicine (8 percent).
Other specialties outside primary care that saw increases include emergency medicine – which grew for the sixth year in a row – anesthesiology and neurology.
The match program began in 1952 at the request of medical students who wanted an orderly and fair process to match their preferences with open U.S. residency positions. The program uses a computerized mathematical algorithm.
This year, 37,735 applicants participated in the program, which had more than 26,000 positions available. More than 94 percent of U.S. medical school seniors were matched to a first-year residency position – with 81 percent of those students being matched to one of their top three choices.
Singer says she hopes the increased interest from medical students in family medicine is due to students changing their outlook on specialty selection. “For many years, there certainly was a trend to go into the specialties that produced a higher income and in the specialties that had what we call lifestyle specialties – where you could work more or less regular hours as a physician," she said. "I don’t think anybody believes that would be true of family medicine or many of the primary care specialties.”
Roland Goertz, MD, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, an organization representing 97,600 physicians and medical students, said he thinks the increased interest in family medicine has more to do with the increasing emphasis in the healthcare industry on the patient-centered medical home model.
“Like anyone, young physicians that finish medical school training, whether MD or DO, want to choose a career that has a bright future to it and that has the base rewards,” he said, and the PCMH model fits that bill.
The PCMH model has “struck a chord with medical school graduates,” said Goertz. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has created an atmosphere, he said, in which the PCMH model may become a “possible true solution” to the nation's healthcare problems.
“They (medical students) understand that model,” he said. “They understand how it’s going to be important for the future.”