Congressional proposals to expand graduate medical education (GME) have set a goal of funding 3,000 new postgraduate year-1 (PGY1) slots for 5 years for a total of 15,000 new residency positions. Proposed legislation has suggested that the Workforce Commission, the Health Research and Services Administration (HRSA), and the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) provide input on how new GME positions would be distributed among specialties and states. Currently, these entities do not have a methodology to translate data from workforce projection models into actionable information that could be used to determine how new GME positions should be allocated by state and by specialty.

This policy brief outlines such a methodology and uses a case example to illustrate how the methodology could be applied.