Medical school expansion and development activity has increased the number of individuals graduating with Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degrees, but the number of residency positions has not responded to that growth, leaving newly minted physicians no place to train, according to a perspective article in The New England Journal of Medicine.
According to the article, "The Residency Mismatch," penned by John Iglehart, several factors have contributed to the gap between medical school graduates and residency slots. First, medical school enrollment has increased almost 30 percent from 2002, and the number of colleges of osteopathic medicine has doubled in the last 20 years. Overall, in 2002 there were 125 medical schools in the U.S., and there are 141 today.
However, with all of that medical school growth and the growing number of enrollees, the number of residency positions has remained stagnant. Federal funding for graduate medical education positions has grown at a rate of just 0.9 percent from 2001 through 2010, according to the article. This in large part is due to the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, which imposed a cap on Medicare's funding of advanced training. Additionally, the Obama administration has proposed cutting Medicare GME funding by $11 billion over the next 10 years, according to the author.
"Given enrollment growth, it may soon be impossible for all graduates of U.S. medical and osteopathic colleges to secure GME slots unless there is a sizable increase in the number of training positions," the author wrote.
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