For osteopathic medical students training in this country, Monday, Feb. 13, was a big day — American Osteopathic Association (AOA) “Match” Day.

Match Day is the day that medical students who applied in the AOA’s Intern/Resident Registration Program find out how they fared with their choices of AOA-approved internship/residency programs, i.e., what osteopathic internship and residency training positions they will find themselves in this summer or fall.

The program allows students and graduate medical programs to “match” their rank order lists of preferences for programs and students. An application and interview process precedes submission of students’ and programs’ Match lists.

“The Match,” says the AOA, “provides an orderly process to help students obtain positions of their choice, and to help programs obtain students of their choice.” The Match is not unlike similar programs used in other professions, including allopathic medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, psychology and law.

The AOA Match helps osteopathic students focus on osteopathic internships and residencies rather than applying to the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education’s allopathic programs, says Keith Watson, D.O., associate dean of postgraduate medical education.

This year, of 2,886 graduating osteopathic students, 1,407, or almost 49 percent, were matched with AOA-approved internship/residency programs.

In five states what drives graduates’ Match participation is that these states require an osteopathic internship to acquire a license to practice in the state, says Watson. “If you are in one of those five states, three of which are Pennsylvania, Florida, Michigan, you must participate in an AOA-approved osteopathic internship to be licensed. It’s state law.”

Because Ohio has no such law, he says, the schools at Philadelphia and Michigan have an advantage in Match participation because the law is an incentive for their students to remain within AOA systems in order to train.

Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine (MSUCOM) and Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM) had the highest match rates — 86.2 percent and 70.3 percent, respectively — and 116 and 249 students participating in the Match. PCOM had the second highest number of students.  

For OU-COM, almost 60 percent of its 107 eligibles were matched with osteopathic programs. OU-COM placed number six in percentage match rankings. That’s up from last year’s 52 percent, says Watson.

“The rise in participation in the AOA Match this year is a good thing. Until about three or four years ago, we consistently ranked number three behind P-COM and MSU-COM,” says Watson.

“I know we have good programs in the Centers for Osteopathic Research and Education (CORE) that encourage people to participate in the AOA Match. The CORE was the nation’s first accredited osteopathic postgraduate training institution.”

Watson says there are at least three very good reasons why our graduates — and graduates of osteopathic schools — should consider our graduate medical education (GME) programs.

“One, CORE hospitals are partners with the college in this internship/residency enterprise and because of that medical students in these programs benefit from excellent role modeling and mentoring. Two, the osteopathic philosophy is not being taught in allopathic GME programs. And, three, CORE programs are some of the finest and most focused programs in postgraduate medical education in the nation, and these programs are part of the continuum of education that begins at OU-COM.”

An important part of that continuum, Watson says, is the maintenance and continuation our graduates’ osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMM) competency — yet another reason to choose osteopathic internship/residency programs.

“We are working diligently to make sure that we have a continuum of OMM training in the Residency Program Advisory Committees Education Day programs and the CORE system. We are going to put into place an augmented form of that this year, so that this piece of their education is strengthened.”

“We’re encouraged that so many students are choosing osteopathic — and we believe CORE — hospitals for their internships and residencies.”

And that’s what the Match is all about.