Gauging Medical Students' Interests in Infectious Diseases

Infectious diseases (ID) is a crucial specialty in medicine, yet applications for fellowship have declined even as the United States faces an imminent shortage of ID physicians. Career interests often develop in medical school, but little is known about which interests and experiences are associated with interest in ID.

To evaluate interest in ID among medical students and identify factors associated with interest and disinterest in ID careers, we developed a 26-question survey to gauge interest in ID. All 16 medical schools in Texas were contacted and invited to participate.

A total of 262 students across 9 medical school campuses completed the survey. Those interested in ID as a career had a significantly higher interest in public (P < .0001) and global (P < .0003) health. The presence of an ID campus interest group (P < .0015) and direct experience with the ID profession (P < .0001) were also associated with interest. The most common reasons for lack of interest were lack of interest in pursuing internal medicine or pediatric residency, lack of compensation, and lack of procedures. Those interested in ID expressed interest in a wide variety of career pathways within ID, the most common being general inpatient and outpatient ID, as well as medical microbiology and global health/tropical medicine/travel medicine.

Based on this survey, recruitment efforts for new ID fellows might include focusing on students with interests in public and global health, as well as increasing direct exposure to ID at the medical school level.