Medical School Enrollment Continues to Rise to Meet Physician Need
10/21/2009
Washington, D.C.—Enrollment in both new and existing U.S. medical schools continues to expand to meet the nation's need for more doctors, according to data released today by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). First-year enrollment in the nation's medical schools rose this year by 2 percent over 2008 to nearly 18,400 students.
Four new U.S. medical schools—FIU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, The Commonwealth Medical College, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Paul L. Foster School of Medicine, and the University of Central Florida College of Medicine—seated their first entering classes this year, accounting for half of the 2009 enrollment increase. In addition, 12 existing medical schools expanded their 2009 class size by 7 percent or more. (See chart "U.S. Medical School Expansion, 2009" for more information.)
"The nation's medical schools are working hard to meet the growing demand for more physicians by boosting their enrollment," said AAMC President and CEO Darrell G. Kirch, M.D. "But we must also increase the number of residency training slots to prevent a bottleneck in the pipeline of new physicians, and ensure access to care for the millions of Americans who hopefully will attain coverage under health care reform."
Expansion in medical school enrollment as well as graduate medical education, or "residency" training positions is needed to avert an expected shortage of 124,000 to 159,000 physicians by 2025. As a result, the AAMC supports the "Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act" (S.973/H.R.2251), which increases the number of Medicare-supported training positions for medical residents by 15 percent (approximately 15,000 slots). None of the reform bills currently before Congress includes more Medicare funding for graduate medical education positions. Instead, both the House and Senate legislation would redistribute about 1,000 unused residency training slots among a small group of targeted states.
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