When it came to education and training issues important to family medicine in 2014, rising Match numbers and progress on both the workforce and graduate medical education reform fronts were among the highlights. Here's a look at some of the key events from the past year.

Catherine Louw at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, celebrates with her fianc, Ryan Coe, after learning she'll soon head to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Family Medicine Residency.

In February, AAFP News reported that more osteopathic physicians matched to family medicine than any other medical specialty in the recently completed American Osteopathic Association (AOA) Intern/Resident Registration Program, which pairs graduating osteopathic physicians with residency programs nationwide.

When the results were tabulated, family medicine filled 519 of 880 open positions in the 2014 osteopathic Match.

The good news continued in March, when results of the 2014 National Resident Matching Program, commonly known as the Match, highlighted the same sort of positive trend for allopathic family medicine programs. For the fifth straight year, the number of medical students choosing family medicine ticked higher than the previous year.

Specifically, 3,000 students, including both U.S. medical school graduates and international medical graduates, chose family medicine; that figure represents a 2 percent increase (62 more positions filled) compared with the 2,938 family medicine spots filled in 2013. Moreover, of this year's total, 1,416 U.S. seniors matched to family medicine; that's 42 more than in 2013, or a 3 percent increase.

Finally, a total of 70 more family medicine residency positions were offered in 2014 compared with 2013 (3,132 versus 3,062), yet the higher number of students matching into the specialty maintained the same fill rate of 96 percent.

Those numbers are especially encouraging given the ongoing need to feed the primary care workforce pipeline. Nowhere is this need felt more keenly than in the nation's more remote communities, where tens of millions of Americans rely on rural health professionals for their care.

In January, a Capitol Hill forum on rural health care highlighted the shortages of primary care physicians and other health professionals in rural areas for policymakers and other interested parties. Panelists who spoke during the event, which was sponsored by the Robert Graham Center on Policy Studies in Family Medicine and Primary Care, pointed to the success of the Rural Training Track Program and stressed the need for continued support of this program.

According to panelist Amy Elizando, M.P.H., vice president of program services for the National Rural Health Association in Washington, 62 million Americans rely on rural health care professionals. Another panelist, former AAFP President Ted Epperly, M.D., of Boise, Idaho, pointed to a number of strategies needed to grow the U.S. rural physician workforce, including a focus on the kindergarten-to-12th-grade pipeline. Students who would make good primary care physicians need to be identified and encouraged early, particularly those in rural areas. In addition, students need shadowing and mentoring opportunities, loan repayment programs, and recruitment efforts that are aimed at retaining them in primary care, said Epperly.

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Strong Match, Advances in Workforce Reform Top Education Gains Last Year