Dually accredited family practice residencies: wave of the future.

NY), accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), became approved by the American Osteopathic Association (AOA). The first class completed osteopathic medical training in 1998. This combined osteopathic and allopathic family medicine residency is used here to illustrate key issues and trends facing dually accredited family practice residency programs and osteopathic graduate medical education. In the past 5 years, there has been a significant decline in the number of graduates of both osteopathic and allopathic medical schools in the United States who pursue family practice residency training programs. The number of ACGME-accredited family practice residency training positions has decreased from 3293 in 1998 to 2983 in 2002. Despite this, only 79% of the positions were filled. 1 The number of AOA-approved family practice residency training positions available in 2002 was at an all-time high of 1552, yet only 50% of the positions were filled. 2 There were 2569 graduating students from colleges of osteopathic medicine in the United States in 2002. Only 53% of the graduating students participated in the AOA Intern Resident Registration Program, 1 with the highest percentage of participants from states where an osteopathic rotating internship is required for licensure (ie, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Florida, Oklahoma, West Virginia). In 2002, a total of 261 osteopathic medical school graduates chose matriculation directly into allopathic family practice programs. 3 According to data provided by the AOA Department of Medical Education in 2003, preliminary results from the 2003 AOA intern match indicate that 47% of 2650 projected graduates participated. Of that number, 338 internships were linked to osteopathic family practice residencies, with 215 positions filled. In 2002, only 59% of ACGME-accredited positions were filled by graduates of allopathic medical schools in the United States; 11.1% were filled by graduates of osteopathic medical schools. 3 Currently, 11% of graduates of osteopathic medical schools are training in allopathic family practice residency programs. 2 There are 132 AOA-approved family practice residency programs and 497 ACGME-accredited family practice programs in the United States, while there are only 22 dually accredited programs, most of which have been dually accredited for less than 5 years. We polled dually accredited programs as to the number of years they have been accredited by both organizations and the number of prospective osteopathic medical school graduating students. We also inquired as to the percentage of osteo-pathic medical school graduates who took the American Osteo-pathic Board of Family Physicians' …