AAFP celebrates new recruits to family medicine, acknowledges work ahead.

Abstract

Pause for just a moment to cheer this fact: on March 20, 2015, 3,060 graduating medical students choose a career in family medicine. That’s the news just released by the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) for the annual celebratory event commonly referred to as the Match. And with that announcement comes the realization that for the 6th straight year, the family medicine match rate ticked upward. Furthermore, 3,216 family medicine residency positions were offered in 2015, an increase of 84 positions compared to 2014. That overall family medicine fill rate of 95.1%—down slightly from 95.8% in 2014—represents 60 more positions accepted by graduates compared to last year. (Read an in-depth analysis http://www.aafp.org/medical-school-residency/program-directors/nrmp.html of the 2015 Match provided by the AAFP’s Medicine Education Division.) The AAFP’s count of students matching to family medicine includes students who matched into traditional family medicine residency programs as well as into programs that combine family medicine education with other focused training. Those additional programs are family medicine/emergency medicine, family medicine/preventive medicine, family medicine/medicine and family medicine/psychiatry. “The Academy congratulates and welcomes these new family medicine recruits,” said AAFP President Robert Wergin, MD, of Milford, Nebraska, in an interview with AAFP News. “When these residents complete their training programs, there will be plenty of patients across the country eager to welcome new family physicians to their communities.” All the well-wishing must be tempered by this sobering reality: The number of US seniors choosing family medicine slowed at an unexpected rate in 2015, to 1,422—with just 6 more US seniors lining up for the specialty than last year. Although the Academy will work in to determine specific factors for that slowing, Wergin pointed to a health care environment in which policy makers and payers have caused instability by shifting positions, reversing decisions and changing the rules—sometimes simultaneously. “This uneven environment likely is taking its toll on medical students who are anxious to finish their clinical training and move on with their careers,” said Wergin. In a press release http://www.aafp.org/media-center/releases-statements/all/2015/match-2015.html the AAFP issued, Wergin put it this way, “We saw a consistent and increasing growth in US medical students matching to family medicine during the implementation of health system reforms that emphasized the importance of comprehensive primary medical care. That has slowed down as policy makers have pulled back from supporting primary medical care.” Wergin highlighted the country’s need for more primary care physicians as the health care system continues to change. “The increase we’re seeing needs to accelerate dramatically if Americans are going to have necessary access to primary medical care,” Wergin said. “The American health care system is evolving from one that reacts to disease with expensive tests and rescue treatments to one that prevents disease and helps avoid complications from chronic conditions. That kind of system will need the expertise of many more primary care physicians working with a team of health professionals.”