Posted on March 22, 2001 at 11:47 a.m.

BIRMINGHAM, AL — Fifty-seven percent of UAB’s 2001 School of Medicine graduates will pursue postgraduate residency training in one of the primary care fields. During today’s 'Match Day' ceremonies, 57 percent of the UAB graduates learned they had been accepted into residencies in one of the primary care fields; internal medicine, family practice, pediatrics or obstetrics/gynecology. Thirty-one percent will do residencies in internal medicine, which is an increase from 20 percent in 2000.

Match Day is when graduating seniors at medical schools all across the country simultaneously find out where they will be doing their residency training and in what field. The program is run by the National Resident Matching Program.

“At UAB, we encourage our graduates to consider the primary care fields, and in the last few years we’ve seen the number of graduates who pursue residencies in primary care go up dramatically,” said Kathleen G. Nelson, M.D., associate dean for students. “There is a great need for more primary care physicians in this country, particularly in the rural south and inner cities.”

Nelson also said that the majority of the class of 2001 would be remaining in the region. Seventy five percent will receive their residency training at hospitals in the southeast. Fifty percent will remain in Alabama.

“Young physicians tend to establish their permanent practices in the same state or region where they received postgraduate training,” she said. “More residents remaining in-state translates into better health care and better access to health care for all Alabamians.”

According to the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP), 51 percent of all graduating medical school students nationally were matched to residency in internal medicine, family practice or pediatrics this year. This figure is down 4.9 percent from last year. Some specialty residencies showed increases, such as anesthesiology, up by 5.8 percent, and pathology, up 8.1 percent.

Approximately 20,000 fourth year medical students across the country received their residency assignments in today's Match Day, now in its 49th year.

NRMP also reports a continued decline in the number of non-U.S. citizen international medical school graduates (IMG’s) who registered to participate in Match Day 2001. Non-U.S. citizen IMG’s are foreign students who attend medical schools outside the United States and Canada. The number of non-U.S. IMG’s dropped by 1,171 from last year.

Of the 14,455 active U.S. medical school seniors who participated in Match 2001, 93.7 percent (13,542 individuals) received a first-year residency training position. The number of osteopathic physicians receiving a match has increased dramatically from 480 matched applicants in 1995 to 876 in 2001.