Match Day for Doctors.....Hooray!!! NOT!

Imagine training extremely hard for 4 years....AFTER college...only to find that you will have to train for another 3 or for before you ever will be able to say you are a board certified doctor....Now imagine that you may not get your first or second or even third choice as to where you will train for your last 3 to 4.

Every year medical students in their last year go from state to state interviewng for positions to train in the specialty of their choice. This trek last approximately 4 months from November to March. In Late February the medical students and the residency directors make their "wish list" much like an NFL Draft list...looking for their next All Star Doctor. This process culminates in Match Day...a day when all the US medical students open up an envelope and find out where they will spend 80 hours a week for the next 3-4 years.

Unfortunately, you can't be ranked if you never go for an interview..... So why in the Heck am I talking about this on a personalized medicine blog? Because this day determines how many residents match in the field of Medical Genetics.....

Despite what many DTC genetic companies may say, the true lasting power of genomic medicine lies with the physicians. So naturally the future lies with our future physicians....

For many years the most physicians enter the field of Internal Medicine, this year is no different 4800 total medical students will be training in Internal Medicine. Half of those will be US grads. Why does the percentage of US trained students entering US residencies matter? Because it shows how popular a field is for the US students......assuming the US grads get their picks first.

So what were the stats? Click here to see So where is the future?

The highest percentage US grad filled field? 100% in Fields like Dermatology-low work, load high pay

The lowest percentage? Medical Genetics 25%

Next we look at how many spots were filled as a determinant of popularity

The highest percentage filled? Once again Dermatology, etc 100%

The Lowest? You guessed it Medical Genetics at 50% filled. 10 spots!!! 5 filled!!!

This is consistent with the current training environment where only 50% of all training positions in medical genetics are filled. In dermatology you can make 1 million USD a year...In medical genetics 100-160k USD....

The Sherpa Says:

Match day? Maybe if Medical Geneticists made the money that ScientificMatch makes.......

How can we fix this gap? Corporate Genomics claims to have an answer.....I think mine is better.