Results of the 2015 National Resident Matching Program:® Family Medicine-A Comparison With 1997 and 2009.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: This article is a continuation in a series of national studies conducted by the American Academy of Family Physicians that reports the performance of family medicine and other primary care specialties in the National Residency Matching Program® (NRMP) Main Residency Match, hereafter called the Match. 2015 Match data were compared to 1997, the year of the highest number of family medicine positions offered and positions filled by US seniors in the Match and 2009, the year of the lowest number of family medicine positions offered and positions filled by US seniors in the Match. Despite a 31% growth in the number of US seniors matching into family medicine since 2009, that number remains 39% lower than the number of US seniors matching into family medicine in 1997 (1,422 versus 2,340). There were 442, or approximately 10%, fewer positions offered in all primary care specialties and 1,194 fewer US seniors matching into primary care in the 2015 Match than in the 1997 Match. Primary care specialties were defined by the authors to include family medicine categorical as well as combined programs (family medicine-psychiatry, family medicine-emergency medicine, family medicine-preventive medicine, and family medicine-internal medicine), medicine-pediatrics, medicine primary care, and pediatrics primary care as listed in the NRMP publications. Family medicine offered 80% of all primary care positions in the 2015 Match. Sixty-nine percent of all US seniors matching into primary care in 2015 matched into family medicine residency programs.