According to data released in February 2010, 1896 graduates of colleges of osteopathic medicine (COMs)—representing only 48% of eligible COM graduates—participated in this year's American Osteopathic Association (AOA) Intern/Resident Registration Program (ie, the AOA Match), the residencies of which started in July 2010.
1 That participation rate compares with 51% of eligible COM graduates who participated in the 2009 AOA Match
2 and 52% of eligible COM graduates who participated in the 2005 AOA Match.
3 Clearly, this trend is heading in the wrong direction.
The 2010 AOA Match results also document that although 2443 funded AOA-approved internship or residency positions were offered, only 1473 (60%) of these positions were filled, leaving 970 positions (40%) open.
4 These unfilled positions are in the subspecialties as well as in primary care—and in all types and sizes of hospitals with AOA-approved training programs. At the same time, in the 2010 National Resident Matching Program (NRMP [ie, allopathic medicine]) Match, there were 2045 participants who were COM graduates, among whom 1444 (71%) were matched and 601 (29%) were not matched.
5
These data reveal that substantially more COM graduates participated in the NRMP Match (2045
4) than in the AOA Match (1896
1) this year—an alarming trend. While acknowledging that many COM graduates will participate in the post-Match scramble, I believe that these data lead to several important questions, including the following:
As a graduate of a COM who completed strictly AOA-approved postgraduate training, I have predominantly worked at allopathic medical institutions. All these institutions have accepted my AOA-approved training and certification as equivalent to allopathic medical training.
I currently work as a medical director for the third largest nonprofit health system in the United States—the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System in New York State. This system has a $4 billion annual budget and 38,000 employees. My job is located just a few city blocks from where I lived as a child, in Glen Oaks, Queens. I have never regretted pursuing AOA-approved residency training, nor have I ever felt “held back” because of my training.
Furthermore, there are hundreds of other COM graduates who have been equally successful as I have been—or even more successful—after completing AOA-approved residency training. Clearly, completing osteopathic graduate medical education is an established pathway to career success.
Considering this record of success, I can't help but wonder what is so wrong with osteopathic graduate medical education that decreasing percentages of COM graduates are participating in the AOA Match, while COM graduates are instead choosing, in increasing numbers, to participate in ACGME-accredited residency training programs.