Fellowship

This year’s ID fellowship Match brought similar, if not slightly improved, results when compared with last year.  The number of applicants increased by nearly 5% (337 vs 321 last year) and U.S. graduate interest in ID appears to have been sustained.  In fact, more U.S. graduates matched in ID this year than last (169 applicants this year vs 158 last year).  U.S. graduates filled 51.8% of slots (compared with 49.2% last year).  The remainder of positions filled went to U.S. foreign educated (12.3%), osteopathic residents (12.9%), and international medical graduates (22.7%).  The percent of programs that filled increased slightly for another year (68.6% this year vs 66.2% last year vs 63.3% 2 years ago) and the percent of positions filled was nearly identical to last year (81.3% vs 81.5%). 

Forty-nine programs (31.4%%) failed to fill all available slots in the Match with 23 programs (46.9%) failing to fill any slots.  Similar to last year, the programs that did not fill all or some of their slots were not necessarily the same as last year and the geographic distribution of unfilled slots varied slightly from last year.  The size of the unfilled programs varied, with some offering single positions and others as many as four positions; the majority of unfilled programs offered fewer than three positions.  Eighteen applicants failed to match; it is not known yet whether those applicants obtained positions after the Match.

Infectious Diseases continues to be one of the two Internal Medicine subspecialty fellowships that offers more positions than the available pool of applicants; the other field is Nephrology which filled only 43.6 % of programs and 62.7% of positions. However, this year’s results demonstrate that there has been slight growth in the applicant pool for another year. 

The IDSA Training Program Directors Committee has been exploring the factors that may be impacting the ID Match.  We have already surveyed programs that have failed to fill in the Match and are currently reviewing potential interventions that may increase interest in our field and heighten awareness of the diverse training options that are available.  We are hopeful that combined efforts to bolster recognition of ID nationally among students and residents and enhanced recognition of training opportunities will ultimately result in improved Match results for our field.

IDSA continues to work to generate interest in ID. This year we will be merging the IDSA Medical Scholars, the HIVMA Clinical Fellowship and the HIVMA Medical Students programs that provide funds for students to participate in research and/or clinical enrichment experiences. The combined program has been titled the GERM (Grants for Emerging Researcher/Clinician Mentorship) Program and will be accepting applications within the next month.  Details should be available on the IDSA website soon. In addition, the ID Student Interest Group funding continues to be a resource for IDSA members at any medical school to conduct medical student focused activities to attract interest in our field.  Additionally, robust mentorship programs, including the IDSA Foundation IDWeek Mentorship Program, will be continued to foster interest among residents and students in careers in ID.