[Medical graduates from the Odense University 1972-1998. Recruitment and employment]

The aim was to create and maintain a registration of all medical graduates from Odense University from the first graduates in 1972 and to describe the graduates' background and subsequent professional employment. All graduates from 1972 to 1998 are included. About 55% of the graduates came from secondary schools in the country og Funen, 20% from southern Jutland and 15% from Copenhagen and Jutland north of Vejle. About 45% became general practitioners after 5-22 years (median 11 years), a third of them in the county of Funen. Twenty-five percent became consultants after 11-17 years (median 14 years), twenty-five percent of these in the county of Funen. The cumulated death rate was 5% for the ages 30-55 years. At 17 years after graduation 83% had become specialists, at ten years the number was 55%. In conclusion, Odense University recruits 75% of its medical students from southern Denmark. Of the graduates that become general practitioners, about two-thirds are employed in southern Denmark, for consultants the corresponding figure is 50%.