• Although there remain critical shortages in key specialties, such as primary care, this story says medicine remains a “growth profession.”
• Enrollment in U.S. accredited medical schools was up 2% this year. Assuming all complete training, that is another 18, 290 doctors who came into the medical pipeline this year, Medpage Today reports.
• “…current estimates are that the U.S. will face a shortage of 124,000 to 159,000 physicians by 2025.”
• The next challenge is to create more residency positions. These are the post-graduate years in which newly-minted M.D.s work in teaching hospitals to complete their training, which takes years.
• There is a bill now stalled in Congress which would create more openings in residencies. It does no good to produce more medical students if they cannot complete their training as our licensing laws require. This bottleneck has to be corrected. The bill is named the “Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act.” Its passage would increase Medicare-supported training slots by 15%, says the head of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Medpage Today’s Snapshot of Class of 2013:

• “Men have a slight edge over women — 52% to 48%. That percentage breakdown mirrors the split among 2009 applicants (men, 22,014; women, 20,25

• “This year’s entering class had the largest number of black enrollees (1,312 or 7%) since 1999, reflecting a 4% year-over-year increase in black applicants to 3,482.

• “At 1,412, there are four fewer Hispanic enrollees this year. Applicant numbers dropped further — from 2008’s total of 3,086 to 3,061, a 1% decrease.

• “The number of American Indian enrollees dropped sharply — to 153 from 172 in 2008 (11%). The number of American Indian applicants fell by almost the same number — from 400 to 379 — but by a smaller percentage (5%).”

This excerpt is from a story is by Peggy Peck, Executive Editor, Medpage Today.

Medpage Today

“Medicine continues to be a growth profession, with more than two applicants vying for every slot in the class of 2013, according to the latest data from the Association of American Medical Colleges.

“Enrollment in AAMC colleges was up 2% this year compared with 2008, which works out to be 18,390 future doctors who entered medical school this fall.”

…”And this year four new medical schools — FIU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine in Miami, Commonwealth Medical College in Scranton, Pa., Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Paul L. Foster School of Medicine in El Paso, and the University of Central Florida College of Medicine in Orlando — accepted their first students, adding 189 to the entering class tally. Darrell G. Kirch, MD, AAMC president and CEO, said the increasing enrollment, although a good sign in a nation hungry for new doctors, also poses a problem for medical educators because medical school enrollment now appears to outstrip postgraduate training capacity. (Emphasis added)

“Kirch (head of the AAMC)  said current estimates are that the U.S. will face a shortage of 124,000 to 159,000 physicians by 2025.

“The medical schools are working to meet that need, he said, but more residency training positions are needed.

“Kirch used today’s enrollment announcement to plug a bill now stalled in Congress, the “Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act,” which he said would increase Medicare-supported training slots by 15%.”

Source: Medpage Today, October 21, 2009