GEORGIA BOARD FOR PHYSICIAN WORKFORCE CHARACTERISTICS OF RESIDENT PHYSICIANS IN TRAINING DURING 1996 & 2006 FALL 2009 RESIDENT PHYSICIANS BY NUMBER AND SPECIALTY A resident is a physician who has finished medical school and is receiving training in a specialized area such as: family medicine, internal medicine, radiology, etc. Approximately 2,000 resident physicians are training in Georgia each year. Residents are issued a resident physician training permit by the Georgia Composite Medical Board (GCMB) and actively see patients at teaching sites under the supervision of a faculty physician. A resident may not practice independently outside of the training site unless they have an unrestricted license from the GCMB. Certain requirements must be met to obtain an unrestricted physician license. Resident physicians, who graduated from a U.S. medical school, may apply for an unrestricted license after one year of graduate medical education (residency) training. Resident physicians who graduated from an international medical school must complete three years of graduate medical education to be eligible for an unrestricted license. The figures contained in this fact sheet are reflective of resident physicians who had an unrestricted license to practice medicine in 1996 and 2006. There were a total of 772 licensed resident physicians in 1996 and 355 in 2006. Specialty Breakdown of Resident Physicians* General Surgery was the only core (Number and Percent) specialty with an overall increase 1996 & 2006 between 1996 and 2006. In 1996, Specialty Number/Percentage Number/Percentage 7.4% of licensed resident in Specialty in Specialty physicians were training in General 1996 2006 Surgery. That percentage increased Family Medicine 95 (12.3) 17 to 11.3% in 2006. (4.8) General Surgery 57 40 Internal Medicine and Family (7.4) (11.3) Medicine saw the largest declines. Internal Medicine OB/GYN Pediatrics Other Specialties TOTAL 121 (15.7) 54 (7.0) 24 (3.1) 421 (54.5) 772 21 (5.9) 12 (3.4) 7 (2.0) 258 (72.6) 355 (The change in Internal Medicine may be reflective of more residents going into sub-specialties.) In 1996, 15.7% of the resident physicians were in Internal Medicine. The percentage decreased to 5.9% in 2006. In 1996, 12.3% of licensed (100.0) (100.0) resident physicians were *Georgia Board for Physician Workforce physician licensure survey; 1996 & 2006 Note: Each number and percent calculated looking at all residents, how many are in each specialty. training in Family Medicine. The percentage decreased to 4.8% in 2006. The tables show there were fewer licensed resident physicians in 2006 than in 1996. There are several potential reasons for the notable difference. One answer may be an increase in the number of international medical school graduates filling Georgia's residency programs, particularly in the core specialties. International medical graduates cannot obtain an unrestricted license until completion of three years of graduate medical education. This means the international medical school graduate would be done with residency training at the time of obtaining an unrestricted license. Another possibility may be generational differences among resident physicians. In years past, it was not uncommon for a U.S. medical school graduate to obtain an unrestricted license after one year in order to "moonlight" or work outside the training site for additional money. Today's generation of new physicians seems to be more interested in family time. The table below looks at the core specialties and what proportion of the licensed physicians are residents. Proportion of Residents* by Specialty (Number and Percent) 1996 & 2006 Specialty Percentage of Percentage of Residents in Residents in Specialty 1996 Specialty 2006 Family Medicine 95 17 (5.0) (0.8) General Surgery 57 40 (8.2) (6.2) Internal Medicine 121 21 (7.0) (0.9) OB/GYN 54 12 (6.1) (1.2) Pediatrics 24 7 (2.5) (0.5) Other Specialties 421 258 (3.0) (1.5) TOTAL 772 355 (5.6) (2.0) *Georgia Board for Physician Workforce physician licensure survey; 1996 & 2006 Note: Number and percentage were calculated by determining how many licensed physicians in each specialty were residents. The decrease in the number of resident physicians translates into residents representing a smaller proportion of the licensed physicians in their specialty. For example: In 1996, 5% (95) of physicians licensed in Family Medicine were residents. That percentage and corresponding number decreased to .8% (17) in 2006. As shown in the previous table, General Surgery was the only core specialty with an increase in resident physicians. However, the overall proportion of General Surgeons in a residency setting followed the same pattern of decline as other core specialties between 1996 and 2006. DEMOGRAPHICS OF RESIDENT PHYSICIANS The following table compares the percentage of male and female resident physicians, by specialty, for 1996 and 2006. Percentage Percentage of Resident Physicians By Gender, By Specialty 1996 & 2006 100 91.2 75.0 67.9 72.9 76.5 23.5 52.4 47.6 54.2 45.8 57.1 42.9 44.4 55.6 25.0 75.0 90 80 64.2 35.8 64.7 35.3 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Family Medicine Internal Medicine Pediatrics OB/GYN General Surgery Other Specialties 8.8 25.0 32.1 27.1 1996 Male 1996 Female 2006 Male 2006 Female In 2006, thirty percent (30%) of resident physicians indicated they were black, Asian, or "other" race (up from 20% in 1996). The most significant increase was found in the "other" race category. The percentage increased by 7.9% between 1996 and 2006 (from 0.9% in 1996 to 8.8% in 2006). The percentage of black resident physicians remained consistent between 1996 and 2006. Percentage Percentage of Resident Physicians by Race All Specialties Combined 1996 & 2006 100 90 80.4 80 70.4 70 60 50 40 30 20 9.8 9.6 9.3 11.2 8.8 10 0.9 0 White Black Asian Other 1996 2006 Percentage Percentage of Resident Physicians by Age and Specialty 1996 & 2006 70.5 29.5 53.3 46.7 78.5 21.5 87.5 12.5 83.3 16.7 71.4 28.6 88.9 11.1 100 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 FM 1996 FM 2006 IM 1996 IM 2006 PEDS 1996 26.8 20.5 26.3 20.8 73.2 79.5 73.7 79.2 PEDS 2006 OB/GYN OB/GYN GS 1996 GS 2006 OTHER OTHER 1996 2006 SPEC SPEC 1996 2006 < 35 > 35 The majority of resident physicians, regardless of specialty, were age 35 and under in 1996 and 2006. From 1996 to 2006, there was an increase in the percentage of residents age 35 and older in the specialties of Pediatrics and Family Medicine. The percentage of Pediatric residents age 35 and older increased from 16.7% to 28.6% and Family Medicine from 29.5% to 46.7%. The specialty of Family Medicine had the greatest percentage of residents age 35 or older in both 1996 and 2006. Georgia Board for Physician Workforce 1718 Peachtree St., N.W., Suite 683, Atlanta, Georgia 30309, (404) 206-5420 www.gbpw.georgia.gov Cherri Tucker, Executive Director. Colette Caldwell, Carla Graves, Kelly McNamara, and G.E. Alan Dever, M.D., Ph.D., contributors.