By William L. Henrich, MD, MACP
Each year, fourth year medical students
around the country eagerly
await their entry into residency
programs. Match Day has become a
rite of passage for graduating medical
students across the country and across
the generations. For more than 50
years, Match Day has revealed to students
which residency program they
will attend once completing their final
requirements at medical school.
As significant as Match Day is for
the medical students, it is equally significant
for the healthcare
profession
as a whole. Match Day unveils the latest
trends regarding residency selection. “It tells us where our student’s
interests lie and is usually a strong
indicator of what to expect,” said Dr.
Nanette Clare, Senior Associate Dean
and Associate Dean for Academic
Affairs at The University of Texas
Health Science Center School of
Medicine at San Antonio (UTHSCSA).
Although the national trend for the
past several years has shown an
increase of residents selecting careers
in medical subspecialties rather than
primary care, at UTHSCSA we have
seen a slow trend back toward primary
care. This is very good news for a discipline
that has been under-subscribed
in recent years. Primary care needs in
the geriatric age group have been a particular
concern as the population ages.
Many factors are considered when
students decide which specialty to
choose for their career. One of these factors
is the ability to balance home life
with patient care. Over the past five
years, 47 percent of our graduates have
chosen a primary care specialty (internal
medicine, pediatrics, family practice
or ob/gyn). Another 21 percent have
chosen surgery or surgery subspecialties,
23 percent selected hospital-based practices
such as anesthesiology, diagnostic
radiology, emergency medicine or
pathology and 8 percent chose specialties
that are not primary care, but are
primarily office-based like psychiatry,
neurology, rehabilitation medicine, dermatology
or radiation-oncology.
The numbers for our students mirror
national trends. Preliminary information
about our current fourth year class
indicates similar choices to those stated
above, with perhaps a small increase in
those choosing primary care.
Approximately half of our graduates
will match to resident training sites in
Texas, which includes about 15-20 percent
who stay here in San Antonio. The
other 50 percent of graduates match to
programs across the United States.
Having such a large percentage stay here
in the South Texas Region or return to
San Antonio is critical, as our region
depends on the School of Medicine to
serve as a primary provider of physicians
and the Health Science Center for
healthcare professionals. In addition,
programs which exist at the Regional
Academic Health Center in Harlingen
provide educational rotations for
third and fourth year students, and
ultimately, lead to physicians assuming
positions of leadership in that
region of Texas.
Dr. Henrich is Dean of
the School of Medicine
and Vice President for
Medical Affairs at The
University of Texas
Health Science Center
at San Antonio.
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