Monday, March 31, 2008

Interesting Factoids Overheard at the ACC Meeting

Overhead at the ACC Meeting today in Chicago:

There are 174 active cardiology training programs in the United States.
Ten programs do not participate in the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP).
Of the 164 remaining programs, there were about 1200 applicants to fill 699 training positions for Cardiovascular Disease. 6 positions went unfilled.
Approximately 40% of applicants were from non-US medical schools.

Ref: The NRMP's stats - informative, but their stats did not mention the total number of applicants who applied for the 699 positions.

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Although there are about 4000 doctors who call themselves "electrophysiologists" in the US, only about 1700 carry valid board certification from the American Board of Internal Medicine in Cardiac Electrophysiology.

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Just thought you'd like to know...

-Wes

3 comments:

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Ian Furst said...

Lack of good applicants has been a major problem in dentistry as well -- in 1989 we had 1.3 applicants for every position (http://www.jdentaled.org/cgi/reprint/69/9/1064.pdf) . It's gotten slightly better but it's still not great. Interestingly, our colleges went to high stakes qualifying examinations around the same time. Cause and effect?
www.waittimes.blogspot.com

DrWes said...

Ian-

The problem, a I see it, is not that there are not good applicants, but many, many capable individuals will not receive fellowships due to cardiology's competetive terrain. It is not uncommon for a single program to receive 600 requests for a fellowship position. Also, non-US med school applicants are putting additional strain on US applicants' ability to find a US-based position.

BTW, I'm blog-rolling you.

Cheers-