Residency Footprinting
What happens when I click on Residency Footprinting? This link takes you to a mapping engine that allows you to map the practice locations of Family Medicine residency program graduates, thereby creating a "footprint" of the program that you select.
What is a Residency Footprint map? There are three types of maps available in the Residency Footprint mapmaker. The first is a point map showing the locations of a program's graduates by county. The second type is a map where the core counties served by a program are shaded. The third is a map demonstrating the impact that withdrawal of all graduates of a program would have on Primary Care Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs).
What data are used to determine my program's Footprint? We use physician practice location information from the American Medical Association Physician Masterfile and graduate medical education information from the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). From a geocoded Masterfile, HealthLandscape extracts practice location (including county) and specialty information for each active physician practicing in the U.S., and from the AAFP database the residency program codes for each Family Physician in the U.S. HealthLandscape uses this information to attach each physician to a residency program and a county of practice. To calculate withdrawal impact, HealthLandscape also uses the HPSA county designations from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the Masterfile practice location and specialty of all physicians included by HRSA in their definition of primary care.
How do the data then become Footprints? To create this 'Footprint' map , HealthLandscape calculates the number of graduates from a program in each county, ranks these counties from highest to lowest, and selects counties to be shaded that have the highest number of graduates in them until 70% of all graduates are accounted for. For example, if a program has 100 active graduates practicing in the U.S., and 50 are practicing in County A, 15 in County B, 5 in County C, and 3 each in Counties D- M, only Counties A, B, & C (which constitute 70% of graduates) will be shaded in the Residency Footprint map. This methodology, which borrows from business industry literature on market service area, is thought to be a reasonable standard for gauging the core service area of the residency program.
How are withdrawal maps created? HealthLandscape calculates the number of HRSA-defined primary care physicians per county for each US county, subtracts from that total the number of graduates of the residency program selected, and then calculates whether the new physician to population ratio would change the HPSA status of affected counties. A primary care physician-to-population ratio of less than 1:3500 is a chief criterion used to designate Primary Care HPSAs, and is used by HealthLandscape to determine withdrawal impact.
How can I use Residency Footprint maps? Footprint maps can be used to show which areas your graduates are serving, whether your graduates are caring for underserved communities, whether your graduates are working in rural communities, and whether your graduates are practicing in your state. They can also be used to illustrate the importance of your program and to identify the communities that depend on your graduates. Such maps are useful for advocating for your program and securing funds.
