Today is the day that most medical students have been waiting for. When they open envelopes to reveal the contracts that will dictate where they will complete their residency. 
Match Day is an annual tradition that was started in 1952 by the National Resident Matching Program, the organization that coordinates residencies. The process begins when students meet and interview with various residency programs. They then submit their preferred residency choices to the National Resident Matching Program in rank order. The residency programs also send a list of their preferred applicants, and a computer program matches students to a program. According to Thomas Koenig, M.D, associate dean for student affairs at John’s Hopkins, the most popular specialty areas among this year’s graduates are general internal medicine, pediatrics, emergency medicine, ophthalmology, and general surgery. Match Day is a big deal for medical students, but by the end of the decade, it could be even bigger. An article in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) said US medical schools are expanding their programs to meet the physician shortage and are on track to produce 5,000 additional graduates by 2019. However, expanding medical school programs is just part of the equation. The American Medical Association and other physician groups are urging lawmakers to increase the number of residency slots available in order to accommodate the growing number of medical graduates. The federal government froze the number of Medicare-funded residency slots in 1997. According to the WSJ article, The Affordable Care Act will create 600 additional primary-care residencies in community health centers, outside of Medicare’s funding for teaching hospitals, but the funding is guaranteed only through 2015.
Match Day is an annual tradition that was started in 1952 by the National Resident Matching Program, the organization that coordinates residencies. The process begins when students meet and interview with various residency programs. They then submit their preferred residency choices to the National Resident Matching Program in rank order. The residency programs also send a list of their preferred applicants, and a computer program matches students to a program. According to Thomas Koenig, M.D, associate dean for student affairs at John’s Hopkins, the most popular specialty areas among this year’s graduates are general internal medicine, pediatrics, emergency medicine, ophthalmology, and general surgery. Match Day is a big deal for medical students, but by the end of the decade, it could be even bigger. An article in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) said US medical schools are expanding their programs to meet the physician shortage and are on track to produce 5,000 additional graduates by 2019. However, expanding medical school programs is just part of the equation. The American Medical Association and other physician groups are urging lawmakers to increase the number of residency slots available in order to accommodate the growing number of medical graduates. The federal government froze the number of Medicare-funded residency slots in 1997. According to the WSJ article, The Affordable Care Act will create 600 additional primary-care residencies in community health centers, outside of Medicare’s funding for teaching hospitals, but the funding is guaranteed only through 2015.
