The American Osteopathic Association (AOA) Department of Education maintains historical annual data on approved, funded, and filled AOA positions, as reported by the National Matching Services (an AOA vendor) and the Trainee Information, Verification and Registration Audit (TIVRA) system. The current appendix includes an update for the 2014-2015 academic year. The AOA does not finalize postdoctoral training data until May of each calendar year. Trends and information on training slots from the AOA Match are also summarized.
Approved positions are the number of training slots awarded to a program by the Program and Trainee Review Council upon initial accreditation or through a request for an increase or decrease submitted by an already established program. Filled positions are the number of those approved training slots that are actually used to accommodate a trainee enrolled in the program. Growth in programs and positions is primarily a result of new programs at new hospitals and the expansion of other specialties at institutions with already established AOA residencies.
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Figure depicts trends of osteopathic physician (ie, DO) enrollment in osteopathic and allopathic postdoctoral training programs between academic years 2005-2006 and 20142015. The number of DOs in Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education postdoctoral programs, total DOs in AOA internship and residency programs, and osteopathic medical school graduates all show continued steady growth between 2008-2009 and 2014-2015.
Table 1 illustrates the distribution of AOA residency and internship programs and trainees filling available positions by state. Compared with the previous year, the following 10 states increased their number of trainees by more than 25%: Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Massachusetts, Montana, South Carolina, Utah, Washington, and West Virginia. In addition, the following 5 states have the greatest number of programs, positions, and trainees: Florida, Michigan, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Twenty-four states had a growth in the number of programs, with the District of Columbia sponsoring its first AOA residency program since 1980.
Table 2 shows the number of AOA-approved residency and fellowship programs and their approved and filled positions as reported by academic year and specialty. Forty-seven percent of residents are in the primary care specialties of family medicine (27%) and internal medicine (20%) for 2014-2015.
Table 3 depicts the net growth from 2013-2014 to 2014-2015 academic years of the AOA-approved residency and fellowship programs and approved and filled positions by specialty. Family medicine and internal medicine have experienced the greatest amount of growth since academic year 2013-2014. Family medicine grew by 374 positions and internal medicine grew by 505 positions. General surgery and orthopedic surgery also had considerable growth in the number of positions, with 123 and 86 positions, respectively.
The period of application for ACGME accreditation for current AOA-approved residency and fellowship programs began July 1, 2015. As of February 2016, 67 sponsoring institutions have applied for ACGME accreditation, 128 programs have applied for ACGME accreditation, and 31 programs have applied for osteopathic recognition.