Family medicine remains unpopular with med students
===================================================

* Donalee Moulton

Despite 2 attempts to fill the country's family medicine training slots, almost 10% of the positions remained vacant after the 2001 residency match, the Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS) reports.

Sandra Banner, CaRMS executive director, says 38 positions for FPs — 8; of the 476 openings — remained unfilled after the final round of placements; only 10 positions remained unfilled in all other specialties combined. (An unknown number of vacancies has since been filled by individual program managers working outside CaRMS.) In 2000, only 6 family medicine positions remained vacant at the same point.

The vacancies were spread fairly evenly across the country, with the University of Western Ontario having the largest number, 9. Dalhousie University, which emerged from the initial round with more than half of its 41 positions unfilled, managed to fill all but 6 slots by the time the second round ended (see *CMAJ* 2001;164[8]:1194). The second round allows schools to recruit unmatched graduates of Canadian schools and graduates of foreign medical schools. Dr. Richard MacLachlan, Dalhousie's head of family medicine, says the decreasing number of students interested in the specialty is cause for concern. This marked the second consecutive year that Dalhousie emerged from the first round with numerous unfilled positions. Dr. Paul Rainsberry, director of education at the College of Family Physicians of Canada, says the number of unfilled family medicine slots has increased every year since 1997.

MacLachlan said medical educators and health professionals need to determine why Canadian graduates appear to be losing interest in this career option, and especially in rural family medicine.

In 2001, 28% of graduates of Canadian medical schools listed family medicine as their career of choice, down from 35% 5 years ago. In 1993, the country's deputy ministers of health said that 50% of the country's residency slots should be set aside for family medicine.

“We've never come close to that target,” says MacLachlan. After the 2001 residency match, it appears the country is moving even further away from it.