The American Osteopathic Association (AOA) Department of Education maintains historical annual data on approved, funded, and filled AOA-approved positions, as reported by the National Matching Services (an AOA vendor) and the Trainee Information, Verification and Registration Audit survey tool. The current appendix includes an update for the 2015-2016 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 with a trainee enrolled in the program. Growth in programs and positions is primarily the result of new and expanded programs at institutions with new or already established AOA-approved residency programs.
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Figure depicts trends of osteopathic physician (ie, DO) enrollment in osteopathic and allopathic postdoctoral training programs between academic years 2006-2007 and 2015-2016. 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 2015-2016.
Table 1 illustrates the distribution of AOA internship and residency and fellowship programs and trainees filling available positions by state. Compared with the previous year, the following 6 states and the District of Columbia increased their number of trainees by more than 50%: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, North Carolina, and Tennessee. The following 5 states have the greatest number of programs, positions, and trainees: Florida, Michigan, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. In addition, the number of training programs grew in 14 states, with Maryland sponsoring its first ever residency program in 2015.
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. In academic year 2015-2016, 48% of residents are in the primary care specialties of family medicine (27%) and internal medicine (21%). In addition, 13% of residents are in emergency medicine.