Selected characteristics of graduate medical education in the United States

For the second year, the Department of Data Systems in the Medical Education Group of the American Medical Association gathered information on graduate medical education primarily by means of an electronic data collection system. Eighty-eight percent of 6622 programs surveyed responded, with 83% reporting detailed information on residents. Analysis of graduate medical education data shows that the number of residents increased by 34.9% from the academic years 1980-1981 to 1990-1991, while the number of graduate year 1 residents decreased by 2%. In the same decade, the proportion of women residents increased by 7.1%. The number of minorities in graduate medical education has grown, but their proportions within the total resident population have remained largely unchanged. The number of graduates from schools of osteopathic medicine has increased by 265% over the same 10-year period. Between 1989 and 1990, a 31.6% increase was recorded in the number of international medical graduates in graduate year 1 residency positions; most of this increase (63.4%) occurred among noncitizens of the United States.