Crypto News: Emergency medicine's PR crisis

Hi, it's Tanaz in New York. Young doctors, it seems, have a dwindling interest in emergency medicine, which isn't great news for the rest of us. But first...

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After a global pandemic that put major strains on emergency medicine practitioners, it seems fewer young doctors are interested in the field.

Match Week is a much anticipated — and sometimes dreaded — rite of passage for medical students applying for residency programs. It's when they are assigned to the hospitals that will train them. And heading into the 2023 Match the week of March 13, more than 550 emergency medicine residency positions were left unfilled.

Emergency medicine is having a bit of a PR problem. And as you might imagine, this does not exactly bode well for the future of emergency care. At some point down the line, we may find ourselves short on doctors that shoulder the weight of America's public health.

During the pandemic, emergency departments around the country acted as front line defense, absorbing much of the shock to the health care system and leaving some physicians working longer hours with fewer resources.

"Why would you want to consider going into this specialty when you see on the news and hear from colleagues that they're only using a quarter of their rooms and wait times are more than double or triple than they used to be," Christopher Kang, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians, tells me.

Between 2018 and 2021, the number of vacant emergency medicine positions prior to Match Week hovered between 13 and 30. But working conditions during the pandemic and reports of poor job prospects have driven that number to 555 in 2023.

A report suggesting the field may actually soon be overcrowded could also have dissuaded medical students from applying. It found that by 2030, there would be an excess of about 8,000 emergency physicians.

One reason for this is that there are more spots for training individuals to go into emergency medicine than there are actual job openings. For about two years, senior residents have had a hard time finding jobs in the field, according to Jonathan Jones, president of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine. "Medical students are hearing about this. Why would you want to go into a specialty that you may not actually get a job in?" he says.

This year, most of those slots left open after Match Week were filled through a supplemental process that helps eligible students who didn't match with their chosen programs pair with open positions.

Declining interest in the field won't have an immediate impact on patient care, but experts worry that in the absence of significant changes, emergency departments may find themselves short staffed sooner than they think.

ACEP has convened a task force to better understand the factors that led students to favor other specialties over emergency medicine and to develop strategies to mitigate them.

Until then, it seems likely that interest in emergency medicine among young doctors will continue to wane. — Tanaz Meghjani

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