Selected characteristics of graduate medical education in the United States
B. D. Rowley, D. C. Baldwin Jr and M. B. McGuire
Department of Data Systems, American Medical Association.
For the second year, the Department of Data Systems in the Medical
Education Group of the American Medical Association gathered information on
graduate medical education primarily by means of an electronic data
collection system. Eighty-eight percent of 6622 programs surveyed
responded, with 83% reporting detailed information on residents. Analysis
of graduate medical education data shows that the number of residents
increased by 34.9% from the academic years 1980-1981 to 1990-1991, while
the number of graduate year 1 residents decreased by 2%. In the same
decade, the proportion of women residents increased by 7.1%. The number of
minorities in graduate medical education has grown, but their proportions
within the total resident population have remained largely unchanged. The
number of graduates from schools of osteopathic medicine has increased by
265% over the same 10-year period. Between 1989 and 1990, a 31.6% increase
was recorded in the number of international medical graduates in graduate
year 1 residency positions; most of this increase (63.4%) occurred among
noncitizens of the United States.
