Primary care reaches record incoming class in 2024 Match

© Nadia L/peopleimages.com - stock.adobe.com

There were a record number of primary care positions offered in the 2024 Match, with a 92.9% fill rate for the specialties this year, according to the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP).

That’s good news because the medical community and the nation are welcoming almost 4,600 future doctors, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP).

“Family medicine is unique because our lives are intertwined with our patients,” AAFP President Steven P. Furr, MD, FAAFP, said in a statement. “We treat entire families and communities – children, parents and grandparents. Our patients become part of our family and we become part of theirs.

“I am incredibly proud of all the students and graduates who matched into family medicine this year and celebrate their pursuit of our specialty, which is an essential part of our health care system,” Furr said.

This month’s Match figures showed 4,595 medical students and graduates matching into family medicine residency programs; there were 5,231 slots this year, or 124 more than in 2023.

There were a total of 19,423 primary care positions, or 46.8% of all positions offered in the Match, comprising family medicine, internal medicine, internal medicine-pediatrics, and pediatrics, according to NRMP. The total included 719 more primary care positions than in 2023, and the fill rate for the specialties was 92.9%.

NRMP noted the primary care fill rate fell by 1.4% this year, largely due to changes in pediatrics. That specialty had 3,139 categorical and primary positions this year, or 93 more than 2023, and filled 2,887 of them, or 92%, compared to the 97.1% fill rate last year. That left 252 pediatrics positions unfilled, an increase of 164 over 2023.

With the latest figures, the future of family medicine is bright, AAFP Executive Vice President and CEO R. Shawn Martin said in a statement.

“The next generation of family physicians are trailblazers and will enter health care at a time of rapid change and will lead the way to revitalize primary care,” Martin said. “I believe they are strongly positioned to meet the unique health care needs of the communities they will serve.”

ED medicine

Emergency medicine posted a two-year decline, but the 2024 Match offered 3,026 positions, up 16 from 2023, and filled 2,891 of them. The 95.5% fill rate was 13.9% more than 2023. There were 135 positions unfilled after the Match algorithm was processed, compared to 554 in 2023.

The 2023 fill rate had dropped by 17.9%, driven in part by the strain of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to NRMP.

Match President Donna L. Lamb cited the pandemic in her congratulations to all the future physicians.

“We are especially proud of applicants this year, many of whom began medical school the fall before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and had to quickly adapt to and thrive in a radically changed academic and training landscape,” Lamb said in a statement. “Their experiences and success speak to a remarkable resilience and dedication they will carry with them into practice.”

OB/GYN

Interest in obstetrics-gynecology (OB/GYN) was “very strong,” even with the upcoming two-year anniversary of Supreme Court decision on abortion in the case known as Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The 2024 Match had a 99.6% fill rate, continuing the trend of filling more than 99% of positions offered every year for the past five years.