Experts are touting a “record” 2022 National Resident Matching Program Match Day on Friday, with strong applicant interest in diagnostic and interventional radiology.
This year’s match included a total of 39,205 positions offered, the largest in history. Out of those, 36,277 were first-year slots, also the largest on record and a more than 3 percentage-point increase over last year, according to the National Resident Matching Program.
Both diagnostic and interventional radiology were among specialties with 30 or more slots that filled all available positions, underlining the high levels of competition and interest in the field.
“The NRMP is honored to have delivered another strong Match for the many applicants pursuing their dreams of becoming physicians,” Donna Lamb, MBA, president and CEO of the National Resident Matching Program, said in a statement. “The 2022 Match realized many significant milestones including a record number of U.S. MD and U.S. DO senior applicants and the largest number of total and first-year positions offered.”
There was a total of 42,549 active applicants this year who submitted certified rank order lists. And 34,075 of those matched to first-year positions for a rate of 80.1%, a 1.6 percentage point uptick over last year. NRMP said growth in the number of first-year positions was highest in emergency medicine, family medicine, psychiatry and internal medicine. EM actually had 219 unfilled positions this year and saw a 7 percentage point drop in positions filled compared to last year.
“The number of unfilled positions, driven in part by the decreased number of ranks submitted by U.S. MD and DO seniors for emergency medicine, could reflect changing applicant interests or projections about workforce opportunities post residency,” NRMP noted.
For more on the results, the program has tables with detailed data on radiology and other specialties. The American College of Radiology and Rad Partners also shared some advice for newly matched physicians in recent blog posts.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.