"Family Medicine Specialty Choice at Matriculation and Graduation"
Jack Westfall, MD, MPH, Clinical Professor of Family Medicine, and Doug Fernald, MA, Senior Instructor of Family Medicine, are co-authors on the article "Family Medicine Specialty Choice at Matriculation and Graduation." The authors compared the specialty choice reported on the American Association of Medical Colleges annual allopathic Matriculating Student Questionnaire from 2014 to 2017 with the Graduation Questionnaire from 2018 to 2021. Findings indicate the historic concern about students being talked out of family medicine during medical school is still partially valid, yet the data reported in this study show that the majority of students entering family medicine at graduation had reported a different specialty when they entered medical school. The article shows the critical importance of family medicine departments helping recruit and support medical students’ family medicine choice during medical school.
