The head count of medical students choosing family medicine increased slightly, according to figures last month, with the specialty having its best showing in the National Resident Matching Program in more than a decade.
The fill rate for family medicine positions rose overall and in U.S. medical graduates. This year, 2,636 family medicine residency positions were offered. Of that, 91% were filled; 44% were filled by U.S. medical graduates. In 2007, 88% of the 2,603 positions were filled; 42% went to U.S. graduates.
Overall, 8.1% of all U.S. medical graduates who matched to a residency program chose family medicine in 2008, a 0.4% uptick from 7.7% in the 2007 match.
The American Academy of Family Physicians hailed the match numbers as evidence that medical students are beginning to see the value in family medicine again. But Dr. James King, AAFP president, said the specialty still has a “long way to go” in strengthening the pipeline of physicians entering the field. He said they are not sure why this year's figures rose.
In a 2006 AAFP report on the state of the physician workforce, the organization estimated that by 2020, there would need to be 139,531 family physicians to meet the primary care needs of all Americans. To meet that goal, U.S. residency programs would need to produce more than 4,400 new family physicians each year.
Medical students choosing family medicine and other primary care specialties have to overcome bias within medical schools, and are told they are “too smart” for family medicine, said Dr. Thomas Bodenheimer, a professor of family and community medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.