2020 Match® Results for Family Medicine

Family Medicine in the 2020 NRMP Match:

• Family medicine* offered 13.7% and filled 13.4% of the total positions.
• The overall fill rate in family medicine was 92.5%. By applicant type they were:
  • 33.2% U.S. MD seniors
  • 29.9% DO seniors
  • 27.5% IMGs
  • 16.8% for U.S.-citizen IMGs and 8.6% for non-U.S. citizen IMGs

*Includes family medicine-categorical, plus combined programs: emergency medicine-family medicine, family medicine-osteopathic neuromusculoskeletal medicine, family medicine-preventive medicine, and psychiatry-family medicine.

In 2020, the most significant growth for family medicine came in the number of DO seniors who matched to family medicine residencies. One hundred four more DO seniors matched to family medicine when comparing the 2020 NRMP results (1,399 DO seniors) with 2019 results combining both the NRMP (989) and AOA (306) matches. Offset by the decline in U.S. MD seniors who matched to family medicine in 2020, 44 more U.S. MD and DO seniors matched to family medicine year-over-year.

Compared with 2019, family medicine residency programs in the 2020 NRMP Match:

• Offered 557 more positions (4,685 vs. 4,128)
• Matched 487 more students and graduates (4,335 vs. 3,848)
• Matched:
  • 60 fewer U.S. MD seniors (1,557 vs. 1,617)
  • 410 more DO seniors (1,399 vs. 989)
  • 42 more U.S. IMGs (788 vs. 746)
  • 36 more foreign IMGs (405 vs. 369)
  • 6 fewer previous graduates of U.S. MD-granting schools (120 vs. 126)
  • 65 previous graduates of DO-granting schools (2019 data not available)
  • 1 Canadian, fifth-pathway, or other
• Had an overall fill rate of 92.5%, down from 93.2% the year prior and the lowest fill rate since 2010
• Had a historically low fill rate for U.S. MD seniors (33.2% vs. 39.2% in 2019, 45.1% in 2018)
• Offered 13.7% of all positions in the Match (vs. 12.8% in 2019)
• Matched:
  • 8.6% of all U.S. MD seniors who matched (vs. 9.1% in 2019)
  • 23.4% of DO seniors who matched (vs. 19.5% in 2019)
  • 25% of U.S. IMGs who matched (vs. 24.9% in 2019)
  • 9.6% of foreign IMGs who matched (vs. 9.2% in 2019)

The 2020 NRMP Match results continue an 11-year trend of increases in the number of family medicine positions offered and filled. Results also indicated growth in the number of students entering family medicine of all applicant types except for U.S. MDs, with only the second year-over-year decrease in U.S. MD seniors matching to family medicine during the last 11 years. The number of family medicine positions filled in the 2020 NRMP Match is the highest in the history of the specialty and has been each year since 2013. However, the number of positions filled with U.S. MD seniors remains 783 below the historical high of 2,340 in 1997, and leaves the workforce input still half of where it needs to be to achieve 25% of U.S. medical graduates matching to family medicine by 2030 (12.6%).

The 2020 results also reflect the lowest fill rate for the specialty since 2010. The gap between positions offered and positions filled in family medicine had steadily diminished each year until a record high fill rate of 96.7% was achieved in 2018. The fill rate for family medicine has increased significantly since 2003 when it hit a low of 76.2%. If recent history is an indicator, many of the 350 family medicine positions unfilled after the first round of the 2020 NRMP Match are anticipated to be filled during the NRMP Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program® (SOAP). In 2018, only 11 family medicine positions were unfilled post-SOAP, and 33 in 2019.

By contrast, the fill rate in family medicine for U.S. MD seniors decreased drastically between 1996 (72.6%) and 2005 (40.7%) and had increased each year since to 46.6% in 2018. In 2019, the fill rate for U.S. MD seniors in family medicine reached a historic low of 39.2%, and continued a downward trend in 2020 to 33.2%. This result is likely impacted by family medicine positions moving from the AOA to the NRMP Match, causing a significant increase in the number of positions offered in family medicine and the number of osteopathic students matching in family medicine, shifting the trend line for positions filled and offered and increasing the proportion of positions filled with DO students and graduates. It is also likely due to program growth, as a significant number of new family medicine residency programs were accredited late into the application cycle and likely listed positions with intention to fill during the SOAP.

It is unknown the extent to which the SAS, the number and timing of new programs entering the Match process, or the increasing average number of programs to which students are applying contribute to these results. Regardless, this trend is deeply concerning for the U.S. primary care workforce and calls for U.S. MD medical schools, especially, to admit and graduate classes more likely to enter primary care specialties and serve in underserved areas. It is the only sector not contributing to growth in the family medicine workforce.

Family Medicine Positions Offered and Filled: 5- and 20-Year Data

Beyond the NRMP Match

Some of the growth seen in the NRMP Match in recent years can be attributed to a change in the match services available to programs and students and do not reflect changes to the actual workforce input.

Historically, another prominent matching program for medical students or graduates was the AOA Intern/Resident Registration Program (AOA Match), which matched 886 graduating osteopathic medical students, including 306 into family medicine, during its final year in February 2019. Historically, this program matched students into graduate medical education programs that were either solely accredited by the AOA or are dually accredited by the AOA and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). However, 2020 marked the first year without an AOA match as all programs transitioned to ACGME accreditation and to the NRMP Match.

The United States is the only country that trains osteopathic physicians, so the AOA Match did not include international medical graduates.

Looking Forward

The nation’s family physicians, through the America Needs More Family Doctors: 25x2030 Collaborative, are calling for 25% of all U.S. medical school seniors and graduates—both allopathic and osteopathic—to match into family medicine by the year 2030. This vital and ambitious goal was envisioned and is supported by the eight family medicine organizations that represent Family Medicine for America’s Health to better deliver the primary care workforce needed for a high-functioning, affordable U.S. health care system.

Achieving this goal will take both reform of the nation’s graduate medical education system to provide the composition of training opportunities that reflect the workforce needs of the U.S., increasing residency training in family medicine and other primary care specialties and a few subspecialties. It will also take societal and educational support of transformed pathways before and during medical school to increase the diversity of U.S. medical graduates—in the broadest sense of the term—to better reflect and care for the U.S. population.

The cultural and systematic shifts needed to achieve this rebalancing of the U.S. physician workforce need immediate attention across sectors and communities, including teaching hospitals, payers, health policy makers, employers, and individuals. The nation’s primary care workforce shortage is already affecting patients and communities in every single state and exacerbated with each passing day. Family medicine is calling for dramatic changes to be implemented immediately across the pipeline, process of medical education, practice transformation, and payment reform, building with each year, toward the 2030 goal.

The family medicine community commits itself to leading and supporting this change, partnering with the public and private sector, medical schools and residencies, sponsoring institutions, policymakers and public officials, payers, communities, and their patients to change the trajectory.

Looking Back

Two significant procedural changes to the NRMP Match process affect the results data from the NRMP, meaning variances and trends do not directly reflect changes in the physician workforce pipeline.

Single Accreditation System: From 2014-2020, the U.S. graduate medical education system shifted to a single accreditation system (SAS) under the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. The 2020 Match is the first year in which there was no AOA Intern/Resident Matching Service. This means that a portion of the growth in family medicine in the NRMP Match does not reflect new training positions, but rather the shift from one matching service to another.

The NRMP’s All-In Policy: Instituted in 2013, this policy changed how programs offered their positions, with programs that had previously only offered only a portion of their positions in the NRMP Match now offering all their positions in the Match. Again, some of the increases for family medicine, and overall, in the years since then have been a result of a shift in how positions were filled rather than reflective of new training opportunities or an increasing workforce.