As usual, applications for medical majors concentrate in popular departments and large Seoul hospitals

The “polarization of application” for medical majors seems to have become a fixed phenomenon.

In the medical interns’ application for majors for the first half of 2023, the competition continued to be fierce in the so-called popular departments of “derma(tology)-ophthal(mology)-plastic (surgery)” and “ortho(pedics)-rehab(ilitation)-radio(logy)” departments.

On the other hand, “unpopular” departments, such as emergency medicine, cardiovascular thoracic surgery, pediatrics, and obstetrics/gynecology, had a hard time again.

Even among unpopular departments, there were winners and losers. For instance, while the pediatrics and adolescent department hit bottom by recording a record-low application rate, the urology department rebounded, registering a higher number of applicants than the enrollment quota this year.

According to Korea Biomedical Review’s analysis of application data at 67 training hospitals on the deadline of Wednesday, the ophthalmology department recorded the highest competition rate. One hundred and fifty-six medical interns applied for 91 spots, registering a competition rate of 171.4 percent.

Dermatology, cosmetic surgery, and orthopedics also remained popular, recording the application rate of 151.6 percent, 156.7 percent, and 153.8 percent. The two departments with relatively fewer contacts with patients – radiology and rehabilitation medicine – also showed a high application rate of 144.1 percent and 153.9 percent. Psychiatrists also were popular, with an application rate of 145.2 percent.

The neurosurgery department, which had drawn attention due to a nurse’s death from a stroke at Asan Medical Center, showed an application rate of 130.5 percent as 124 applicants vied to take 95 spots.

Also, unexpected changes occurred in some unpopular departments that had fallen short of meeting enrollment quotas for years.

A case in point was the urology department.

While the pediatrics received the worst-ever report card, urology managed to rebound.

The sixty-five hospitals wanted to recruit 199 pediatricians, but only 33 applied for the department. In contrast, the urology department recorded an application rate of 112.2 percent after failing to meet the quorum for several years.

The cardiothoracic surgery department failed to meet the quorum this year, too. However, the number of applicants increased this year, reducing the number of unfilled slots. The quorum of the cardiovascular thoracic surgery department was 67 but 37 medical residents applied for it, recording an application rate of 55.2 percent.

Ob/Gyn (75.7 percent) and surgery (66.2 percent) saw their application rate rise by 14.7 percentage points and 6.5 percentage points but could not avoid falling short of the quota.

89.2 percent of provincial training hospitals fail to recruit sufficient residents

There were also wide differences between training hospitals in the greater Seoul area and those in the provinces.

Of the 27 hospitals that filled their quota for medical residents, 20 were in the Seoul metro region. The other seven were in provinces – Chonnam National University Hospital, Jeonbuk National University Hospital, Cheju Halla General Hospital, Chosun University Hospital, Gyeongsang National University Changwon Hospital, Chungnam National University Hospital, and Inje University Haeundae Paik Hospital.

However, 34 province-based training hospitals, 89.2 percent of the total 41, still needed to fill their quota.

By hospital, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital saw the highest application rate of 140.7 percent, as 83 interns applied for 59 slots. In contrast, the Korea Institute of Korean Radiological and Medical Sciences marked the lowest application rate of 62.5 percent, as only 10 applied for 16 positions.

Severance Hospital needed to stay within the quota, as 173 applied for 177 openings. As a result, it was the only Big-Five hospital that failed to fill its quota.

Severance Hospital failed to fill the quota due to its pediatrics department, for which there were no applications. The hospital wanted to recruit 11 pediatricians but there were no applicants.