No IMG from 2015 USMLE Residency For Medical PG Entrance

No IMG from 2015 USMLE Residency For Medical PG Entrance

By 2015, the number of graduates from US medical schools is anticipated to surpass the number of

positions in residency programs.1 Because the vast majority of US medical school graduates will choose to remain in the United States, and most residency programs will continue to give preference to US graduates, the number of international medical graduates (IMGs) who train in the United States is expected to decrease (Figure). Although many may see this as a positive development (US programs have been accused of exacerbating the “brain drain” from developing countries), this decrease may have additional unanticipated consequences for the diversity and activities of physicians practicing in the United States—a shift that could begin to affect patient care.

In the past few years new US medical schools were setup and already present increased their enrollment due to anticipated shortage of physicians that was feared in coming years. Because of these efforts, US medical students’ enrollments increased consistently from 2010 forward and are expected to reach 26 709 per year by 2016-2017 which equals a 37% increase if compared to figures of 2002-2003.

PGY-1 US Residency program slots however didn’t increase with the same pace as compared to US medical school’s enrollments.

In 2011 alone there were 26 386 PGY-1 positions in Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)–accredited programs out of which only 4 829 were filled by IMGs mostly in primary care, a fall of 0.3% since 2010.

Although many community hospitals rely on IMGs for the care of under served areas and population. Keeping in view the new law of Affordable Care Act and non-willingness of US Seniors to go into primary care it will become more difficult for such programs to fill all of their spots for PGY-1 spots.

A study done by Annals of Family Medicine last month also predicted that US will be needing more than 52,000 new primary-care doctors by 2025. But will that be IMGs or AMGs, that only future will decide.

The rapidly increasing number of US medical school graduates coupled with a constrained graduate medical education system will most likely effect the number of IMGs that will be matched to US residency programs in future Residency Matches.

Read more: http://www.medicalopedia.org/3946/no-more-imgs-for-residency-training-programs-after-2015-says-journal-of-american-medical-association/#ixzz2r6EelcCT