The AAMC 2022 Report on Residents reveals an increase in diversity among residents and ongoing interest in internal medicine and infectious disease specialties, among other notable findings.
According to the AAMC 2022 Report on Residents, the number of medical residents in training in the United States is continuing to rise.
The 2022 Report on Residents, compiled annually by the AAMC, contains numerous findings that are of interest to residency applicants, residency directors, and researchers. The report aims to provide insights into the changing experiences of medical residents. Some of the key findings from the report are highlighted below.
Diverse backgrounds and experiences
1-International medical graduates (IMGs) made up almost 23% of medical residents in 2021, with about one-third of those specializing in internal medicine.
2-Graduates of schools that award Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) degrees made up approximately 17% of medical residents, while graduates of schools that award Doctor of Medicine (MD) degrees made up 60% of all residents.
3-The percentage of women among all medical residents increased to 47.3% in 2021, compared to 46.4% in 2020 and 45.8% in 2019. Women were more prevalent in certain specialties such as family medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, and psychiatry, while men were more common in specialties such as anesthesiology, emergency medicine, internal medicine, radiology, and surgery.
4-Among U.S. citizen MD residents, 48.8% identified as White, 21.6% as Asian, 8.1% as Hispanic, 6.1% as Black or African American, 0.6% as American Indian or Alaska Native, and 0.2% as Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander. This is a slight change from the previous year when 50.0% of residents identified as White, 7.8% as Hispanic, and 5.8% as Black or African American. The other percentages remained relatively consistent.
Differences among specialties
5-All medical residents specializing in orthopedic surgery, otolaryngology, plastic surgery, or urology who took the U.S. Medical Licensing Exam Step 2-CK passed on the first attempt.
6-Approximately half of U.S. MD medical students changed their preferred specialty during medical school, with only 27.9% in 2022 indicating that they intended to pursue the same specialty they had chosen at the beginning of medical school.
7-The specialties with the highest continuity of preference were orthopedic surgery (51.0%), pediatrics (44.7%), and neurological surgery (42.3%). Internal medicine was the most popular specialty, accounting for nearly 20% of all residents. The number of residents specializing in infectious diseases increased from 779 in 2018 to 836 in 2021.
Post-residency
8-In recent years, 3.3% of active residents who graduated from an MD-granting school have held dual MD-PhD degrees.
9-Among those who completed residency between 2012 and 2021, 55.2% chose to continue practicing in the state where they completed their training, a figure that is slightly lower than the 57.1% recorded in 2020. California had the highest retention rate at 77.2%, while Wyoming had the lowest rate at 38.3%, followed by the District of Columbia at 36%.
10-Approximately 20% of those who completed residency training between 2012 and 2021 hold full-time faculty appointments, with 78.2% of those appointments being at the assistant professor level.