Evaluating Residency Programs by Whether They Produce Good Doctors

Not all physician training programs are alike. Many physicians and non-physicians believe that graduates of some training programs deliver better care, although this intuition has not been tested. Residency programs provide physicians with in-depth specialty training (usually lasting 3-6 years). Can the quality of that training be judged by the downstream outcomes of patients treated by their graduates? Should patients pick their doctors in part by where they trained? This Issue Brief looks at one specialty—obstetrics and gynecology (OB)—and explores whether OB training programs can be distinguished by the quality of care their graduates provide.