IMG Performance in the 2014 Match

Source: ECFMG

For the twelfth consecutive year, the number of first-year (PGY-1) residency positions offered through the National Resident Matching Program^® (NRMP^®) Main Residency Match^® increased. A total of 26,678 first-year positions were offered in the 2014 Match. This represents an increase of 540 positions compared to last year and an increase of more than 6,000 positions since 2002.

The number of IMGs who matched to first-year positions increased by 106 compared to 2013. Of the 12,482 IMGs who participated in the 2014 Match, 6,357 (50.9%) matched. In the 2013 Match, 6,251 (49.3%) IMGs were matched to first-year positions. (The preceding data include a small number of Fifth Pathway applicants who participated in the 2013 and 2014 Matches; for 2014, these data include 15 Fifth Pathway participants who are not represented in the data below for non-U.S. citizen and U.S. citizen IMGs.)

Of the 7,334 IMG participants who were not U.S. citizens, 3,633 (49.5%) obtained first-year positions. The number of non-U.S. citizen IMGs who obtained positions in 2014 increased for the third year in a row, this year by 77.

Of the 5,133 U.S. citizen IMG participants, 2,722 (53.0%) were matched to first-year positions, an increase of 31 over last year. This is the eleventh consecutive year that there has been an increase in the number of U.S. citizen IMGs matching to first-year positions.

The total number of IMGs who will fill PGY-1 positions for the 2014-2015 academic year may be higher than the number obtaining positions through the 2014 Match. Although the majority of PGY-1 positions in the United States are filled through the Match, in past years a significant number of IMG applicants obtained positions outside the Match. For example, while 4,886 IMGs obtained PGY-1 positions through the 2012 Match, 7,117 IMGs entered PGY-1 for the 2012-2013 academic year.

Beginning with the 2013 Match, the NRMP introduced an “All-In” policy. This policy requires that, to participate in the Match, programs must register and attempt to fill all of their residency positions through the Main Residency Match, or through another national matching plan. Programs must place all positions in the Match or no positions in the Match. This policy has been a factor in the higher numbers of both positions offered through, and IMGs participating in, the Match for the past two years. Compared with 2012, the year preceding the introduction of the All-In policy, the number of positions offered through the 2014 Match increased by 2,672 (11.1%), and the number of IMGs participating in the 2014 Match increased by 1,348 (12.1%). The All-In policy has also, presumably, reduced the number of positions available outside the Match. For more on the NRMP’s All-In policy, visit the NRMP website and Ask the Experts: The NRMP’s New “All-In” Policy, a resource of the ECFMG Certificate Holders Office (ECHO).

About the Match

The annual NRMP Match is the system by which applicants are matched with available residency positions in U.S. graduate medical education (GME) programs. Participants submit to the NRMP a list of residency programs, in order of preference. Ranked lists of preferred residency candidates are likewise submitted by U.S. GME programs with available positions. The matching of applicants to available positions is performed by computer algorithm. The Match results announced in March of each year are for GME programs that typically begin the following July.

Additional Resources on the Match and Match Results

The preceding Match data are based on the Advance Data Tables: 2014 Main Residency Match® compiled by the NRMP. These tables provide detailed information on the positions offered and filled by the Match in 2014 and prior years. To access these tables, or to obtain further information on the NRMP, visit www.nrmp.org.

Late each year, JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association traditionally publishes an in-depth analysis of graduate medical education in the United States. This analysis includes the number of IMGs entering and continuing in U.S. GME programs and a breakdown of IMG resident physicians by specialty and subspecialty. Visit your medical school’s library or http://jama.ama-assn.org.

– See more at: http://www.ecfmg.org/news/2014/04/03/img-performance-2014-match/#sthash.20Aa40rE.dpuf