CMAJ News

Higher percentage of medical school graduates seek family medicine residencies

Published at www.cmaj.ca on May 11

third of Canadian medical school graduates have chosen A family medicine for their resi- dencies, a percentage that primary care advocates say is good but still not good enough. “I think we would be a lot more comfortable if we reached 40%,” says Dr. Cathy MacLean, president of the College of Family Physicians of Canada. “Ideally, in Canada, what you want is 50% of physicians to be family doctors.” Compared to residency preferences as recently as 2003, however, this year’s results appear to bode well for the future of primary care in Canada.

Of the 2438 Canadian medical students Corp. Jupiterimages 2010 © who participated in the 2010 residency A record 2846 medical graduates will begin their residencies in July. match, 1388 applied for family medi- cine in the first iteration. Internal medicine was a distant sec- of Canadian medical students made medicine, including creating family ond in popularity (660 applicants), fol- family medicine their first residency medicine interest groups for students lowed by pediatrics (253 applicants). choice. Also encouraging is the fact and involving more family doctors in The least popular choices were hemato- that more male graduates are opting for teaching. logical pathology (four applicants), careers in primary care. “There has been a push to get more medical biochemistry (3 applicants) “Men are showing a steady increase medical students interested in family and neuropathology (3 applicants). in interest in family medicine,” says medicine as a career choice,” says “The match results follow a similar Sandra Banner, executive director and MacLean. pattern to previous years,” Dr. Mathieu chief executive officer of the Canadian Overall, 2846 medical graduates Dufour, chair of the education and pro- Residency Matching Service (CaRMS). will begin their residencies on July 1 — fessionalism committee of the Cana- The increase in popularity of family a record total. The increase in positions dian Association of Internes and Resi- medicine in recent years has been is the direct result of provincial invest- dents, writes in an e-mail. “It’s good, attributed to several factors, the most ments to accommodate increased however, to see that more residents significant perhaps being an increase in undergraduate class sizes. “The post- have chosen family medicine training, pay. The gap in income between family graduate system keeps pace with the since there’s a significant need for fam- physicians and specialists has shrunk in undergraduate system, unlike in many ily medicine physicians in Canada.” the past few years, which contributes other countries,” says Banner. After two iterations, a total of 823 not only to bottom lines but also to the Of the 2438 Canadian medical grad- Canadians were matched to family prestige of a career in primary care. uates in the match, only 4% failed to physicians positions. Nearly three-quar- Another factor may be increased find positions in the first iteration. The ters of the 775 Canadian graduates provincial investment in the creation of primary reasons that 90 Canadians did matched in the first iteration only primary care teams, which allow new not find residency spots were unrealis- applied to family medicine. doctors to work with nurses, pharma- tic career goals, failure to apply to a In a country hungry for more pri- cists, social workers and other health sufficient number of programs and fail- mary care physicians, these numbers care professionals instead of going it ure to apply to different geographic are certainly more encouraging than the alone. Medical schools have also made areas. The vast majority of those who match results of 2003, when only 24% efforts to increase interest in family did find positions, however, were

CMAJ•JUNE 15, 2010 • 182(9) E411 © 2010 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors News matched to their desired field. “Nine tions. Including those matched outside Canadians pursue medical studies in out of 10 go into their career of the CaRMS program, 429 IMGs found other countries. choice,” says Banner. “That points to residency positions, a 4% drop from “We have a lot of Canadians study- very well-working system.” last year. According to Dr. Nick Bus- ing abroad,” says Busing. “There will be International medical graduates ing, president and chief executive offi- an increase of pressure on the system (IMGs), on the other hand, were less cer of the Association of Faculties of from those folks.” — Roger Collier, successful this year than in 2009. Medicine of Canada, the demand for CMAJ Nearly 1800 IMGs participated in the postgraduate positions in Canada from 2010 match, but only 380 secured posi- abroad will only increase as more DOI:10.1503/cmaj.109-3260

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