Residency specialties that medical students are researching most

Each year as medical students prepare for Match, the sizable task of researching specialties and programs awaits. Any path to slimming the list of options can make the process less daunting. This exclusive user data reveals which medical specialties are getting the most attention when your peers weigh their residency program options. To get you started within a specialty, each link takes you to a list of the 10 most-viewed programs for that specialty. 

Rankings are based on user activity on FREIDA™ from Jan.1–Dec. 31, 2022. To qualify for this analysis, users must have searched by specialty and applied a state or region filter. FREIDA™, the AMA Residency & Fellowship Database®, allows medical students to search for a residency or fellowship from more than 13,000 programs—all accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. Explore over 180 specialties and subspecialties with FREIDA’s Specialty Guide, which details important specialty training information such as graduates’ career plans, specialty training statistics and related association information.

In 2022, FREIDA users tallied more than 6 million views of residency programs. With this collection, we share the 20 specialties that rose to the top for user interest based on total views to specialty programs.

Most popular medical specialties of 2022

1. Internal medicine – 2,058,587 million total views of 609 residency programs

2. Family medicine – 814,219 million total views of 740 residency programs

3. Surgery-general – 417,641 total views of 356 residency programs

4. Obstetrics and gynecology – 366,259 total views of 298 residency programs

5. Pediatrics – 352,836 total views of 215 residency programs

6. Psychiatry – 276,367 total views of 295 residency programs

7. Anesthesiology – 246,666 total views of 163 residency programs

8. Emergency medicine – 193,352 total views of 283 residency programs

9. Neurology – 155,331 total views of 175 residency programs

10. Radiology-diagnostic – 139,787 total views of 198 residency programs

11. Orthopaedic surgery – 98,103 total views of 207 residency programs

12. Pathology-anatomic and clinical – 95,669 total views of 144 residency programs

13. Physical medicine and rehabilitation – 68,659 total views of 105 residency programs

14. Transitional year – 64,779 total views of 186 residency programs

15. Dermatology – 64,104 total views of 141 residency programs

16. Urology – 40,693 total views of 150 residency programs

17. Ophthalmology – 35,728 total views of 125 residency programs

18. Internal medicine/pediatrics – 35,493 total views of 77 residency programs

19. Neurological surgery – 34,279 total views of 117 residency programs

20. Otolaryngology-head and neck surgery – 31,432 total views of 131 residency programs