Career choices of McMaster University medical graduates and contemporary Canadian medical graduates.

The MD program at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ont., differs from that at most other Canadian universities in the profile of students admitted and in its teaching methods. To investigate influences of selection policy outcomes and the education program, the career choices of 408 McMaster graduates were compared with those of 1620 graduates of other Canadian English-language schools by analysis of data from the CMA's Physician Manpower Data Bank. Compared with graduates of other schools, McMaster graduates were more likely to have chosen internal medicine, less likely to have chosen surgery and equally likely to have chosen primary care as their medical field. Of those in primary care, a higher proportion of McMaster graduates than other graduates held certification in family medicine. This was largely responsible for the overall higher rate of certification in the McMaster group. While the nature of practice and time spent on patient care did not differ between the two groups, several variables, including time spent on professional activities other than patient care, proportion involved in research and classroom teaching, and proportion of salaried physicians employed by universities, indicated a higher than average level of interest in academic medicine among the McMaster graduates. This could be partially explained by differences in the student profile if students who are interested in education are more likely to choose an educationally innovative medical school.