The number of first-time applicants to medical school reached an all-time high this year as new and existing schools continued an expansion aimed at preventing a projected shortage of physicians, the Association of American Medical Colleges reported on Monday.
But as a Congressional “supercommittee” considers deficit-reduction proposals that could cut federal support for residency-training programs, serious questions remain about how the new doctors entering the field over the next decade will continue their training, the association warned.
First, the positive news: First-time applicants increased by 2.6 percent over last year, to 32,654. Total enrollment increased by 3 percent, with 19,230 students entering the association’s 135 accredited medical schools in the United States in 2011.
Applications from black students, which had dipped 0.2 percent last year, rebounded this year, with a 4.8 percent increase. Applications from Hispanic students grew by 5.8 percent this year, while applications from Native American students dropped 15.5 percent, to 169.
The latest numbers show that medical schools are on track to reach the association’s goal, set in 2006, of increasing enrollments 30 percent by 2017. So far, enrollment is up 16.6 percent over the baseline year of 2002.
But it’s what happens after students graduate from medical school that has association officials concerned. Upon graduation, new physicians are required to spend three to seven years of residency training under the supervision of more-experienced physicians before they can practice solo.
That training—which association officials estimate costs around $100,000 per year—is partly covered through Medicare, a program that is in the cross hairs of budget cutters, who have until Thanksgiving to come up with their deficit-reduction plan.
Even if the federal government continues the current level of Medicare support for the 26,000 existing residency-training slots, the nation will face doctor shortages as baby boomers age and doctors retire, the association reported.
“We are very concerned that proposals to decrease federal support of graduate medical education will exacerbate the physician shortage, which is expected to reach 90,000 by 2020,” said the association’s president, Darrell G. Kirch.
Meanwhile, enrollment in the nation’s 26 osteopathic medical schools climbed 6.5 percent this year, to 20,600, according to the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine. The association reports that more than one in five new medical students in the United States attends osteopathic schools, which emphasize primary care and often include a form of therapy that uses musculoskeletal manipulation.
