Match Day gives sneak peek into future physician workforce

Nearly 37,000 future physician residents found their training homes for the next several years. The National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) conducted its annual Match Day on March 17. Match Day is when domestic and international medical school students and graduates learn in which U.S. residency programs they will train.

“The NRMP is honored to have delivered another strong Match for the many applicants pursuing their dreams of becoming physicians. The 2022 Match realized many significant milestones including a record number of U.S. MD and U.S. DO senior applicants and the largest number of total and first-year positions offered,” said Donna L. Lamb, DHSc, MBA, BSN, NRMP President and CEO in a press release. “What’s more, while all categories of applicants saw improvements over 2021, U.S. DO seniors achieved a 91.3 percent match rate, a 2.2 percentage point increase over last year, the highest on record for that group of applicants, and a rate on par with the match rate achieved for U.S. MD seniors.”

Of note, there were 1,433 fewer U.S. citizen and non-U.S. citizen international medical graduates who registered for the Match. In a press release from NRMP, it noted that “sustained concerns about travel regulations and possible variant strain outbreaks related to the COVID-19 pandemic could explain these lower participation rates.”

The 2022 Match offered the highest number of primary care positions to date, and 484 more than in 2021. Of the 36,277 first-year positions offered, 18,133 (50.0%) were in Family Medicine, Internal Medicine (categorical), Medicine—Pediatrics, Medicine—Primary, Pediatrics, and Pediatrics—Primary.

Specialties with 30 positions or more that filled all available positions were: Emergency Medicine, Pediatrics, Interventional Radiology (Integrated), Neurological Surgery, Orthopedic Surgery, Otolaryngology, Physical Medicine & Rehab, Plastic Surgery (Integrated), Radiology—Diagnostic, Thoracic Surgery, and Vascular Surgery.