Compared to Non-AHEC Residents, a Higher Percentage of NC AHEC Residents are Practicing in NC

By Julie Spero

Mar 18, 2019

53% (n=1,135/2,157) of physicians who completed an AHEC residency between 1997-2017 were practicing in NC in 2017
41% (n=4,561/11,233) of physicians who completed a non-AHEC residency between 1997-2017 were practicing in NC in 2017
Compared to non-AHEC residency graduates, a larger percentage of family medicine physicians, general internists, and pediatricians* who graduated from an AHEC residency were in NC in 2017

Percentage of graduates of NC residency programs from 1997 to 2017 in practice in NC in 2017, AHEC vs Non-AHEC residency, by Specialty

Notes: Data include active physicians in the 2017 AMA Physician Masterfile who reported completing residency training in North Carolina between 1997 and 2017. The AMA Physician Masterfile used for this analysis includes data on residency institution (ex. UNC Hospitals), but not residency program (ex. UNC Hospitals Internal Medicine Residency Program). We assumed in the reported counts that, for example, a physician who graduated from an AHEC residency and reported a practice specialty of internal medicine completed an AHEC internal medicine residency. However, the AMA Masterfile data does not specify which residency program physicians completed and these counts may not align with total counts of graduates in each residency program. Furthermore, data do not include NC residency graduates from the time period that no longer appear in the AMA Masterfile or who are inactive (e.g. dead, no longer practice medicine, etc.).

Specialty categories were defined as follows: Family Medicine (Family Medicine, FM-Preventive Medicine, FM-Sports Medicine, FM-Geriatric Medicine, General Practice), General Internal Medicine (Internal Medicine, IM-Family Practice, IM-Geriatrics, IM-Sports Medicine), General Pediatrics (Pediatrics, Adolescent Medicine), Obstetrics & Gynecology (Obstetrics & Gynecology, Gynecology, Obstetrics), General Surgery (General Surgery, Abdominal Surgery, Colon & Rectal Surgery, Critical Care Surgery, Pediatric Surgery, Surgical Oncology, Trauma Surgery, Vascular Surgery, Head and Neck Surgery, Transplant Surgery).

**AHEC Residencies **are defined as a residency housed at an AHEC Center or a Rural AHEC site, including: Charlotte AHEC, Greensboro AHEC, Mountain AHEC, Southeast AHEC, and Southern Regional AHEC.

Non-AHEC Residencies include all other NC residencies. Wake AHEC has roughly 50 residents on site, but all are residents on rotation from UNC Health Care and are considered UNC residents. AHEC provides a small amount of funding for primary care and psychiatry residencies at Duke University Medical Center, East Carolina University/Vidant Medical Center, UNC Health Care, and Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

Funding & Acknowledgements

The HPDS is maintained by the Program on Health Workforce Research and Policy at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in collaboration with the North Carolina Area Health Education Centers Program (AHEC), and the state’s independent health professional licensing boards. Ongoing financial support is provided by the NC AHEC Program Office. Although the NC HPDS maintains the data system, the data remain the property of their respective licensing board. This information or content and conclusions are those of the authors and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by NC AHEC. To learn more about NC AHEC please visit: https://www.ncahec.net.

Compared to Non-AHEC Residents, a Higher Percentage of NC AHEC Residents are Practicing in NC

Recent Posts