To the Editor: The Research Letter by Dr Ebell1 suggested that US senior medical student interest in specialties is related to mean specialty salary. However, Ebell used as his measure of interest the US senior fill rate in each specialty in the match program. In my view, this is an incorrect metric of interest because it depends entirely on the denominator (how many positions are offered within a specialty). The number of positions available in a specialty has nothing to do with student interest but rather reflects local needs of hospitals, specialty interests, and other factors unrelated to students.
A better gauge of student interest is the numerator (how many students selected the specialty). For example, in looking at the Figure in the study by Ebell, it may appear that no one is going into family medicine. However, more US seniors chose this residency specialty than all but 2 other specialties (internal medicine and pediatrics).
Replotting the Table data in the study by how many US seniors entered training in each specialty compared with mean overall salary (Figure), there appears to be very little correlation; if any, it seems to be negative. Perhaps more students would choose the higher-salary specialties if more positions were available, but that argument only illustrates the difficulty of trying to gauge the rationale for difficult personal decisions using aggregated data.
ENT indicates otolaryngology; Ob/gyn, obstetrics/gynecology.
Financial Disclosures: None reported.
Country-Specific Mortality and Growth Failure in Infancy and Yound Children and Association With Material Stature
Use interactive graphics and maps to view and sort country-specific infant and early dhildhood mortality and growth failure data and their association with maternal
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