ACP: Internal medicine residencies continue to grow

In the 2019 Main Residency Match, a quarter of all postgraduate year 1 positions were for internal medicine, making it the leading training medical specialty for another consecutive year, according to a press release issued by ACP.

However, policies are still needed to help guarantee that patients have access to general internal medicine care, according to ACP.

“The continual annual increases in the number of offered and matched internal medicine positions demonstrates national recognition for the value provided by internists in our health care system. ... However, currently only about 11% of graduating internal medicine residents report planning a career in general internal medicine, including primary care medicine, with an additional 19% planning to pursue hospital medicine,” Davoren Chick, MD, senior vice president of medical education at ACP, said in the release.

This year, a record high number of categorical positions (8,116) and primary care positions (396) were offered by internal medicine programs, increasing by 7.6% and 5.9%, respectively, from last year, according to ACP. Most (97.7%) of these positions were filled; of these, 44.3% were filled by medical school seniors in the United States, according to ACP.

Each year for the past decade, internal medicine enrollment has increased, while the proportion of seniors from the United States matching to postgraduate year 1 internal medicine positions has decreased, according to ACP.

“Internists have the expertise necessary to make an accurate diagnosis, propose a patient-centered management plan, partner with patients and their caregivers, and coordinate interprofessional team care across our complex health care system,” Chick said.

“Expansion of the internal medicine workforce is necessary to ensure access to specialty and subspecialty medical care for future patients, but to expand our general medicine specialist workforce we must also put patient care before paperwork, reduce administrative burdens for primary care physicians, and address inequities in care compensation models,” he added. – by Alaina Tedesco

Disclosure: Chick is employed by ACP.