Latest / Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast / Match Day to Practice: Residency Success and Workforce Readiness

Transcript

Match Day to Practice: Residency Success and Workforce Readiness · Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast

• 0:00
  Hi, everyone. This is Lucas Voss with Becker's
• 0:02
  Healthcare. Thanks so much for tuning in to
• 0:04
  the Becker's Healthcare podcast series. It's great to
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  have you. We have an exciting topic today,
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  one of my favorites on education
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  and our great healthcare professionals.
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  Atollan is furthering the careers of aspiring health
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  care professionals, helping to solve critical workforce shortages
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  across the health care industry.
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  And to talk about that, very excited to
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  have Scott Lyles with me, president at Tollen
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  Medical, a veterinary at Tollen Global Education.
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  Scott, thanks so much for being here today
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  and taking the time. Hey, Lucas. Delighted to.
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  Thanks for the opportunity.
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  Absolutely. And I wanna turn the floor over
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  to you. You are going to have to
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  introduce yourself to our audience, and I also
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  wanna hear a little bit more about your
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  work in health care and just a little
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  bit about Atalem's,
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  medical education footprint.
• 0:55
  Absolutely.
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  Well, again, thank you for the opportunity to
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  join. As you, you teed up, my name
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  is Scott Lyles. I'm the president
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  of Aetalum's Medical and Veterinary Schools.
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  Aetalum
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  is the number one provider of health care
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  professionals in The US marketplace
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  that expands to nurses,
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  of all stripes,
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  doctors and veterinarians.
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  We're the second largest provider
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  of doctors,
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  in The United States and the largest provider
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  of doctors of color and the largest provider
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  of veterinarians.
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  We do this through,
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  education,
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  tertiary education. In the case of,
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  the nursing schools, we have two different platforms,
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  Chamberlain and Walden, nursing, which provide undergraduate
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  and graduate programs, including nurse practitioner and, physician's
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  assistants. The medical schools which I run, we
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  provide terminal MD degrees,
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  for primarily US Doctors. We have a few
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  we choose to, practice in Canada and The
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  UK and elsewhere. We're, quite an international
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  footprint. And in the case of the veterinary
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  schools, our terminal degree
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  is, 99%
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  DVMs. We do have a PhD program,
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  as well.
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  Our two medical schools are in The Caribbean,
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  the American University of the Caribbean Medical School,
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  which is in Saint Martin,
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  and Ross University School of Medicine,
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  which is in Barbados.
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  Awesome. Thank you so much for that introduction.
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  A wide variety,
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  a broad scope here.
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  One of the things I I wanna touch
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  on is is match day, and it's obviously
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  a lot of folks are familiar with with
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  that term.
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  It's it's very special for medical professionals,
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  obviously, and it's just behind us for for
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  most folks.
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  What are some of the trends
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  you've seen related to specific medical specialties and
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  and residencies? What are what are some of
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  the trends you're seeing there? Yeah. Well, thanks,
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  Lucas. And let me, just add to that.
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  That match day is a truly glorious day
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  Yeah. For medical students. It's for for most
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  of them, it's the Super Bowl even eclipsing
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  their graduation day,
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  which is, you know, for the families
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  equally,
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  equally glorious.
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  But match day,
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  for folks who may not be aware is
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  it it's the day that kicks off a
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  few weeks
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  of graduating medical students getting their residency placements.
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  This is when they become doctors. Mhmm. And
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  the trend in match day
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  has been
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  that on match day, about ninety three or
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  ninety four
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  % of students on that single day
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  will get to know where they're gonna be,
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  placed in residency.
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  A, a couple of the key trends that
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  have gone on recently
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  are that we have seen a decline
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  in the number of general practitioners. So folks
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  who are going into family practice,
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  folks who are going into general medicine,
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  internal medicine,
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  which are, typically, those are considered,
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  the general practice areas. We've seen a decline
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  in those. It's, actually below 50%
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  now,
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  across The United States.
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  And we've tended to see this has come
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  as specialties have really increased, and we've continued
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  to see that this year. Some of the
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  hottest specialties,
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  that are out there are orthopedic surgery,
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  obstetrics,
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  continue to be really, really, highly sought after
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  specialties.
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  Yeah. Absolutely. And I'm I'm glad again that
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  you've touched on the the the sort of
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  how special this process is simply because it's
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  it's career defining and it's life defining for
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  a lot of folks.
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  Would they end up in places that they
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  might stay for for a long period of
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  time?
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  Watching
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  some of these students, watching some of these
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  folks become doctors and entering their their their
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  next phase of their lives, essentially,
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  what are some of the characteristics
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  that define especially this last crop of medical
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  residents that that you've been seeing? What are
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  some of those characteristics?
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  Well, I'll I'll speak specifically
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  for our medical schools. Lucas, this is an
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  area
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  of which we are very, very proud at
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  Etalem and really fits into our
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  overall mission
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  of providing access to to medical health care.
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  We at Ross and AUC
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  continue to see a very, very high rates
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  of
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  first time
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  college,
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  professionals who are coming out. So these are
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  these are members of their families. It's the
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  first time,
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  that anyone in their family has been to
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  tertiary education, much less,
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  a professional program like, medical school.
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  We have a very high level of peoples
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  of color,
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  women
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  who are coming out of our schools, and
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  this has been a continued trend.
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  We also, as I noted,
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  see very high levels
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  of placement in
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  general health care, general practice. Yeah. For our
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  students,
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  this year, and this has echoed previous years,
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  we've seen around 60% placement of our students
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  in some form of general practice, whether that's
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  family practice, internal medicine, general medicine.
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  We see folks going, into that field, which
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  is great for The US health care system.
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  The US health care system has shortages of
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  doctors,
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  full stop.
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  In general practice,
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  those shortages
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  are really acute,
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  and we're very proud that we are providing
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  so much support for that area.
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  The second area that, has been a trend
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  is I I noted, you know, Lucas, a
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  little bit of that movement
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  away from general practice,
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  at large towards more specialty. We've also seen
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  a real concentration
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  within,
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  larger cities and larger more affluent geographies,
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  where where folks are going. And this this
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  notion of health deserts
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  or of medical care deserts,
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  that gets touted
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  is something that we've seen accelerating over the
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  last few years and gets amplified
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  with residency.
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  You know, when people go
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  to,
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  you know, very high end areas in the
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  in the suburbs
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  or very well healed hospitals,
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  that tend to serve,
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  a clientele
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  who really don't have a shortage of health
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  care options.
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  That happens at the expense
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  of areas that don't have that same luxury.
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  And what we see is with our students,
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  they are attending at a higher rate,
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  certainly a much higher rate than average,
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  of matching
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  in these areas that are otherwise known as
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  health care deserts where we're able to provide
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  a really significant level of support for those
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  communities.
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  Yeah. And that's such an important piece of
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  the puzzle, I think, especially for, as you've
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  mentioned, right,
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  health care deserts, rural America specifically,
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  having that general practitioner that's home in that
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  community is so key because a lot of
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  the communities we know this have lost their
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  doctors, have lost their providers. And, again, it
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  goes along with the shortages that we're experiencing,
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  all across the board there.
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  Now you you've touched on this a little
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  bit. What role does
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  international education play in this
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  and really alleviating
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  some of these pressure points,
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  both in supporting student access and preparing graduates,
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  right, to serve then in the communities that
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  we touched on, in the communities that really
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  need it most?
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  You know, it's a it's a great question,
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  and there's really two pieces to it. If
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  we think at the beginning of the pipeline
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  of medical education, this is people applying to
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  and getting into medical school, we have had
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  a chronic
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  shortage of supply
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  within MD programs
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  in The United States for multiple years.
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  Fewer than half of applicants
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  have been accepted into a US, MD program.
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  It's been about around 45%.
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  Fluctuates a little bit year over year, but
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  has generally stayed somewhere between 45
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  and just below 50%.
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  That translates into a shortage of doctors,
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  four years hence when it's match day for
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  those,
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  folks who were at one stage first year
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  students.
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  While the DO programs have really expanded,
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  they're not coming anywhere near to closing the
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  gap.
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  We reckon there's somewhere around a 30 to
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  31,000
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  student
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  gap between folks who want to,
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  be doctors and those folks who get a
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  seat in US schools.
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  DO programs close about 8,000 of those.
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  So they're so well above 20,000
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  student gap
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  in terms of getting the folks into medical
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  school who will ultimately become doctors.
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  That translates into tens and tens of thousands
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  of doctors shortage
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  as we go through
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  that life cycle
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  of medical education and ultimately into being
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  a doctor. And that is only becoming more
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  acute as we have more and more people
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  retiring.
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  So international medical,
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  programs
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  help to close that gap, in particular ones
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  like Ross
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  Medical and like AUC
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  who are geared towards training doctors who will
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  ultimately practice
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  in The United States. The vast majority of
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  our doctors, over 95% of our students, rather,
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  who practice wind becoming doctors in in The
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  US. So the IMG, the international medical, programs,
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  and the international medical graduates played a critical
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  role in helping,
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  to close
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  that gap. Any given year, we think there's
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  around 16,000,
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  folks who decide to,
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  study internationally,
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  and
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  those are folks who ultimately
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  may have the chance to come back and
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  be doctors in The US. There are some
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  programs that don't prepare them for that. Ours
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  do. And so we are, we're really helping
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  the entirety
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  of the system.
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  Yeah. And I one of the things that,
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  you know, we went from from our conversation
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  earlier on match day and and sort of
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  the exciting piece to this and and how
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  exciting it is for folks on on match
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  day itself to now you you've touched on
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  it. A lot of these folks, this is
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  the calling for them. They wanted to be
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  doctors their whole lives.
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  And there there are significant hurdles, and this
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  is a pathway for them to be able
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  to achieve their dream and their calling, which
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  is very important, I think.
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  That's absolutely right. Let me just add just
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  one point on that because you couldn't be
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  you couldn't be more spot on,
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  is
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  these folks have had the calling to be
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  doctors all of their lives.
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  And the only reason that they're not having
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  the same opportunity that they may have thought
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  about when they were in high school or
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  when they were in their undergraduate
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  is the shortage of seats in US medical
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  school. So they you know, to our point,
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  international programs, which have high placement rates like
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  we do, have the opportunity to help them
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  realize their dream.
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  Yeah. Absolutely.
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  When I was doing
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  or preparing for this podcast rather,
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  my favorite question that I wanted to ask
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  you was one of the last ones here
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  for us today.
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  What would you say to a prospective medical
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  student who has concerns? They may not be
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  a match for a career in health care.
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  I just wanted to hear your thoughts and
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  your perspective on this. What what will you
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  say to them?
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  You know, what I what I would say
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  is that
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  because of the situation that we have in
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  in US medical education,
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  a lot of students are told that they
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  just don't have what it takes to be
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  a doctor. Okay. And that is because of
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  an artificial shortage that we've we've created.
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  We have successfully,
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  over decades,
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  helped people become doctors who were told throughout
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  their entire undergraduate career that they wouldn't make
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  it.
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  We have very, very successfully done that. This
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  year, for '25,
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  our match day rate was just a little
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  bit over ninety three percent.
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  That puts us bang on average with USMD
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  Mhmm. And a little bit ahead of USDO.
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  And I will say for our in our
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  school's
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  recognition, that's about 20 points
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  higher than the average,
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  other international
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  institutions.
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  So we
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  have a strong,
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  track record and a strong history
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  of helping these folks who have dreamed of
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  becoming doctors
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  to realize that dream in The United States.
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  I think that's an important fact to hear,
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  an important statistics to hear for them or
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  for those that have that dream and want
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  to achieve that dream. Scott, thank you so
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  much for your insights and your time today.
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  This was fantastic.
• 13:51
  Thank you, Lucas. I very much appreciate it.
• 13:54
  It was great having you, and we also
• 13:55
  want to thank our podcast sponsor at Talon
• 13:57
  Global Education.
• 13:59
  And you can tune into more podcasts from
• 14:00
  Becker's Health Club by visiting our podcast page
• 14:03
  at beckershospitalreview.com.