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Match Day 2006: Liability becoming a lesser factor in specialty choice

U.S. medical students show a little more interest in high-risk fields.

By Myrle Croasdale, amednews staff. April 3, 2006.

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In recent years, the medical liability crisis may have made high-risk specialties less attractive to U.S. medical students, but the results of this year's Match show reluctance to join those fields is easing, particularly for obstetrics and gynecology.

In the 2006 National Resident Matching Program held March 16, graduates of U.S. allopathic medical schools filled 72.4% of obstetrics and gynecology programs, or 835 of the 1,154 positions. It marked the first time that U.S. allopathic graduates matching in ob-gyn has climbed out of the 60% range in three years.

Emily Binkley, a senior at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tenn., is among the U.S. graduates who helped improve those statistics. Binkley found out that she's headed to the ob-gyn program at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia. She said she isn't put off by the liability issues in her field, or the state where she will train, which the AMA says is experiencing a medical liability crisis.

"Lifestyle was my biggest concern, much more so than medical liability," Binkley said of her specialty choice.

However, when she interviewed at Pennsylvania Hospital, doctors there brought up the liability issue. As she considered her career options, many discouraged Binkley. But she said she had to follow her heart.

"I did my OB rotation, and I just loved it," she said. "I like the variety, from surgery to primary care. I saw the great relationships residents formed with their patients. I really want that."