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Match Day 2019: Internal medicine slots up by 7.6%


 

Internal medicine residency positions rose by 7.6% for Match Day 2019, but the number of slots filled by U.S. allopathic seniors dropped for the fourth consecutive year, according to the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP).

Match day 2019: Internal medicine

First-year (PGY-1) IM slots rose from 7,542 to 8,116 as internal medicine manged to exceed the 6.5% increase in PGY-1 positions over 2018 for all specialties combined. The total numbers of applicants (38,376) and positions offered (35,185) were both record highs for the Match, although they were affected, in part, by “increased numbers of osteopathic programs that joined the Main Residency Match as a result of the ongoing transition to a single accreditation system for graduate medical education programs,” the NRMP noted in a statement.

Internal medicine programs filled 41.5% of PGY-1 positions with U.S. seniors, which was down from 42.4% in 2018 and 44.9% in 2017 and continues a fairly long-term trend of increased participation by international medical graduates. Overall, IM filled 97.2% of all available PGY-1 slots in this year, which was above the 94.9% for all specialties in the Match, the NRMP reported.

The primary care specialties – family medicine, internal medicine, internal medicine–pediatrics, internal medicine–primary, pediatrics, and pediatrics-primary – offered 15,946 first-year positions, just under half of the 32,194 available in this year’s Match. Overall, 7.8% more primary care slots were offered this year, compared with in 2018.

“The results of the Match are closely watched because they can be predictors of future physician workforce supply. There also is significant interest in the competitiveness of specialties, as measured by the percentage of positions filled overall and the percentage filled by senior students in U.S. allopathic medical schools,” the NRMP noted.

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