Resident match review shows subspecialties' lure

An increasing number of U.S. medical school graduates prefer any specialty but primary care.

By Myrle Croasdale, AMNews staff. Nov. 10, 2003.

Dorothy Andriole, MD, wanted to give U.S. medical students a perspective on what their odds were for matching in a particular specialty, so she decided to decipher data from the three major resident matching programs in the United States.

But the analysis she and her co-authors published is noteworthy for practicing physicians as well. The numbers underscore a change in the physician work force that some say is heading in the right direction. Others, however, worry that the trend will create worrisome inequities in U.S. health care.

Dr. Andriole's work reveals that a growing number of U.S. medical graduates prefer any nonprimary care specialty. "People vote with their feet, and this is where the trends are in what students would like to be doing," Dr. Andriole said.

The analysis looks at not only results from the National Resident Matching Program but also those from the American Urologic Assn. Office of Education Match and the San Francisco Matching Program for a more comprehensive picture.

Published in the supplemental issue of October's Academic Medicine, the article appeared at the same time a federal advisory group, the Council on Graduate Medical Education, came to the conclusion that to prevent a shortage of physicians by 2020, the number of medical students needs to be increased and the number of specialists raised.

Dr. Andriole acknowledged that her statistical analysis didn't address the reasons behind the numbers, but it does speak clearly about student preferences, she said.