Appendix 1: Osteopathic Graduate Medical Education 2014

The American Osteopathic Association (AOA) Department of Education maintains historical annual data on approved, funded, and filled AOA first-year positions, as reported by the National Matching Services (an AOA vendor) and the Trainee Information, Verification, and Registration Audit (TIVRA) survey tool. This appendix includes an update for the 2012-2013 academic year. The AOA does not finalize postdoctoral training data until May of each year. Trends and information on training slots from the AOA Match are also summarized.

Approved positions are the number of training slots granted to a program by the Program and Trainee Review Council on initial accreditation or through a request for an increase or decrease submitted by an already established program. Filled positions are the number of those approved training slots that are actually used to accommodate a trainee enrolled in the program. Growth in programs and positions is primarily a result of new programs at new hospitals and the expansion of other specialties at institutions with established AOA residencies.

The Figure depicts trends of osteopathic physician (ie, DO) enrollment in osteopathic and allopathic postdoctoral training programs between academic years 2003-2004 and 2012-2013. The number of DOs in Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education postdoctoral training programs, total DOs in AOA internship and residency programs, DOs in AOA residency programs, and osteopathic medical school graduates all show steady growth between 2011-2012 and 2012-2013.

Figure.

Trends of osteopathic physician (ie, DO) enrollment in osteopathic and allopathic postdoctoral training programs. Data may change and should be considered incomplete until finalized in the 2015 osteopathic medical education issue of The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association (JAOA). Data for academic years 2003-2004 through 2011-2012 were previously published in the JAOA. ^aTotal college of osteopathic medicine (COM) graduates do not include previous years' graduates. ^bTotal DOs in American Osteopathic Association (AOA) internships include trainees who matched to osteopathic internship positions during both the Match and post-Match scramble. ^cRestructuring of the AOA internship, effective July 1, 2008. Abbreviation: ACGME, Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.

Table 1 illustrates the distribution of AOA residency and internship programs and trainees filling available positions by state. Compared with the previous year, the following 11 states increased their number of trainees by more than 25%: Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming. In addition, the following 5 states have the greatest number of programs, positions, and trainees: Florida, Michigan, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Eighteen states experienced a growth in the number of programs. New Jersey demonstrated the greatest program growth, increasing its number of programs from 67 to 79, a growth of 18%.

Table 2 quantifies the number of AOA-approved residency programs and approved and filled positions as reported by academic year and specialty. Forty-three percent of residents in AOA-approved residency programs are in the primary care specialties of family medicine (25%) and internal medicine (18%).

Table 3 illustrates the net growth from the 2011-2012 to 2012-2013 academic years of the AOA-approved residency programs and approved and filled positions by specialty. Family medicine and internal medicine experienced the greatest growth since academic year 2011-2012. Family medicine grew by 341 positions and internal medicine grew by 192 positions. Emergency medicine and general surgery also demonstrated considerable growth in terms of the number of positions, with 148 positions and 94 positions, respectively.