1322. Impact of Hospital Medicine on Trends in Infectious Diseases and Other Subspecialty Fellowship Applications

Abstract

BackgroundOver the last decade, the rapid growth of hospital medicine has raised concerns that fewer graduating internal medicine (IM) residents might be pursuing fellowship,1 including in ID.2 We analyzed national trends in applications to subspecialty fellowships over the last 10 years to examine the potential impact of hospital medicine on resident career choice.MethodsWe examined 2009–2018 data from the National Resident Matching Program Specialties Matching Service3 for applicants to eight IM subspecialties. The number of third year residents (R3s) was obtained from the American Board of Internal Medicine Resident Workforce Data.4ResultsThe number of matched applicants increased significantly over the last 10 years from 2,889 to 3,640 (P < 0.0001) and was highly correlated with the increase in number of R3s (r2 = 0.93, P < 0.001). All subspecialties saw a significant increase in matched applicants over time except ID and nephrology, which both saw initial decreases that reversed after converting to an “all-in” match. In 2018, ID had its highest number of matched applicants in the last 10 years.ConclusionDespite concerns that the growth in hospital medicine would lead to fewer IM residents pursuing subspecialty fellowship, the number of matched applicants to subspecialty fellowships has actually increased over the last 10 years, and has kept pace with the growth in R3s over this time. Initial decreases in the number of matched applicants in ID have now reversed after conversion to the “all-in” match, and the next few years will be critical to determine whether this trend continues.