4 ms·

What's odd is that a big part of this isn't really true. They can't afford to be picky - we desperately need more doctors - and yet they are. See https://www.u

What's odd is that a big part of this isn't really true. They can't afford to be picky - we desperately need more doctors - and yet they are. See https://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/top-medical-schools/articles/2018-12-03/why-its-hard-to-get-into-medical-school-despite-doctor-shortages https://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/top-m....

nradov 5y ago
Who is they? Right now the bottleneck is lack of funding for residency slots. There's no point of letting more students into medical school if they can't get matched to a residency program. Congress hasn't allocated enough funding. https://www.ama-assn.org/education/gme-funding https://www.ama-assn.org/education/gme-funding
- jonp888 5y ago
  I thought the US had a private healthcare system. Why don't the healthcare companies pay for it?
  - nradov 5y ago
    Which healthcare companies? The US has a hybrid private and public healthcare system. The bulk of residency program funding comes from the Federal government and is tied to Medicare. A few mostly non-profit provider organizations do fund a limited number of residencies on their own. In general though there's no financial incentive for teaching hospitals to fund their own residencies because after completing residency those doctors can then leave to work somewhere else.
SkyPuncher 5y ago
There's an artificial bottleneck in residency that's forcing this to happen. Every year a huge percentage of candidates go unmatched into residency programs.
- nradov 5y ago
  About 5% of medical school graduates don't get matched into residency programs. https://www.ama-assn.org/residents-students/match/if-you-re-feeling-disappointed-match-day-you-are-not-alone https://www.ama-assn.org/residents-students/match/if-you-re-...
  - SkyPuncher 5y ago
    It's actually higher than that. "US Allopathic" is an artificial qualifier to make that stat look significantly better. Overall, 20% of residency applicants don't get a position. [0] https://www.nrmp.org/main-residency-match-data/ https://www.nrmp.org/main-residency-match-data/
    - nradov 5y ago
      How is "US Allopathic" an artificial qualifier? That's basically everyone we would consider as a real doctor. Graduates of some foreign medical schools do apply for US residency matches but the numbers are small.
      - SkyPuncher 5y ago
        My wife went through MATCH 2 years ago, so I'm very familiar with the data. There is extensive data backing this: https://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/MRM-Results_and-Data_2021.pdf https://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/MRM-Results_... Page 13 has a nice graphical summary. NRMP is extremely good at communicating loads of data, but omitting some key facts that would support wide-spread reform of residency. They do a very good job of highlighting the places where things are working while downplaying the places where things aren't working. > Graduates of some foreign medical schools do apply for US residency matches but the numbers are small. About 1/3 of residency matches are actually foreign trained. That's not a small number.

nradov 5y ago

Who is they? Right now the bottleneck is lack of funding for residency slots. There's no point of letting more students into medical school if they can't get matched to a residency program. Congress hasn't allocated enough funding. https://www.ama-assn.org/education/gme-funding https://www.ama-assn.org/education/gme-funding

jonp888 5y ago
I thought the US had a private healthcare system. Why don't the healthcare companies pay for it?
- nradov 5y ago
  Which healthcare companies? The US has a hybrid private and public healthcare system. The bulk of residency program funding comes from the Federal government and is tied to Medicare. A few mostly non-profit provider organizations do fund a limited number of residencies on their own. In general though there's no financial incentive for teaching hospitals to fund their own residencies because after completing residency those doctors can then leave to work somewhere else.

SkyPuncher 5y ago

There's an artificial bottleneck in residency that's forcing this to happen. Every year a huge percentage of candidates go unmatched into residency programs.

nradov 5y ago
About 5% of medical school graduates don't get matched into residency programs. https://www.ama-assn.org/residents-students/match/if-you-re-feeling-disappointed-match-day-you-are-not-alone https://www.ama-assn.org/residents-students/match/if-you-re-...
- SkyPuncher 5y ago
  It's actually higher than that. "US Allopathic" is an artificial qualifier to make that stat look significantly better. Overall, 20% of residency applicants don't get a position. [0] https://www.nrmp.org/main-residency-match-data/ https://www.nrmp.org/main-residency-match-data/
  - nradov 5y ago
    How is "US Allopathic" an artificial qualifier? That's basically everyone we would consider as a real doctor. Graduates of some foreign medical schools do apply for US residency matches but the numbers are small.
    - SkyPuncher 5y ago
      My wife went through MATCH 2 years ago, so I'm very familiar with the data. There is extensive data backing this: https://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/MRM-Results_and-Data_2021.pdf https://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/MRM-Results_... Page 13 has a nice graphical summary. NRMP is extremely good at communicating loads of data, but omitting some key facts that would support wide-spread reform of residency. They do a very good job of highlighting the places where things are working while downplaying the places where things aren't working. > Graduates of some foreign medical schools do apply for US residency matches but the numbers are small. About 1/3 of residency matches are actually foreign trained. That's not a small number.