Entry of Medical School Graduates Into Family Medicine Residencies: 2016-2017

Abstract

This annual report is an expansion on previous reports in this series that provides further evidence that the current medical school system is failing, collectively, to produce the primary care workforce that is needed to achieve optimal health in the United States. Inclusion of data on the performance of DO-granting and international medical schools, creates a more complete and complex picture of the contribution of all medical school types to the primary care workforce that should allow stakeholders to set goals, identify institutions with models from which to learn, and develop strategies for continuous improvement. US MD graduates made up 49% of the entering first-year class of family medicine residencies accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), a percentage that is not statistically changed from the 11-year average of 46%. Over the same time, the percentage of DO graduates in the entering class has been increasing at an annual rate of 1%, while the percentage of international graduates has been decreasing in a reciprocal manner. Production of family medicine graduates has varied widely between and within medical school types. The number of graduates entering family medicine programs accredited by the ACGME underrepresents the overall family medicine output by US medical schools since up to a third of DO graduates have historically entered residencies accredited only by the American Osteopathic Association. While marked differences between public and private continue among US MD-granting medical schools, the percentages are nearly equal between public and private for DO-granting medical schools, with a slightly higher percentage for private schools.