One-quarter of applicants did not didn’t receive a position
MONDAY, Nov. 2, 2015 (HealthDay News) — According to the American Medical Association (AMA), 2015 was a record-breaking year for fellowship applications.
The National Resident Matching Program Specialties Matching Service featured 9,538 applicants participating in at least one of the fellowship matches for 8,503 fellowship positions. The positions were offered by 3,674 programs within 56 subspecialties. The highest number of fellowship applications was seen in internal medicine, which was not surprising given it is the largest specialty in terms of practitioners. Cardiovascular disease and pulmonary disease and critical care medicine were the other top subspecialties.
The number of residents applying for a fellowship outpaced the number of positions available in many fields. The most competitive subspecialties based on the ratio of the number of applicants to positions include: hematology (the ratio of applicants to positions was more than 7:1); oncology (more than 5:1); pulmonary disease (nearly 4:1); pediatric sports medicine (more than 3:1); gynecologic oncology (nearly 2:1); minimally invasive gynecological surgery (nearly 2:1); and pediatric surgery (nearly 2:1).
“The results show that competition for a fellowship remains high as nearly one-quarter of the residents who applied for fellowships didn’t receive a position,” according to the AMA.
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