More Family Medicine Residents in 2011
Match Day 2011 occurred in mid-March, the day when 16,000 medical school seniors learned where they would spend the next three to six years of residency training. Good news for family medicine, but is it good enough? The National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) announced that the number of U. S. seniors matched to family medicine positions rose by 11 percent over 2010.
NRMP reported: “Among primary care specialties, family medicine programs continued to experience the strongest growth in the number of positions filled by U.S. seniors. In this year’s Match, U.S. seniors filled nearly half of the 2,708 family medicine residency slots. Family medicine also offered 100 more positions this year.”
Pediatrics and internal medicine also increased in popularity among primary care disciplines.
It’s been said that if each of us saw our primary care provider regularly, the nation’s health care tab would be reduced almost 6 percent annually and that the result would be $67 billion in savings. That visit may nip conditions in the bud, before they become chronic, harmful and expensive.
The SignatureMD model of concierge medicine encourages patients to proactively engage in their own care with a physician who has the time to listen and the knowledge and experience to make a difference. It ensures that through personalized medicine, SignatureMD patients experience the highest quality care no matter how many physicians fill the ranks of family medicine.