Medical School Type and Rural Practice among Japanese Internal Medicine Physicians: Analysis of 2018-2022 National Census Data

We aimed to elucidate the relationship between medical school type, and subsequent rural practice among internal medicine (IM) doctors.We analyzed data from the national census of medical doctors for 2018, 2020, and 2022.The primary outcome was retention in or migration to rural areas.Rurality was defined using tertiles of municipal population density.Key independent variables consisted of medical school category, and for an exploratory analysis, participation in a regional quota program was included.Medical schools were categorized as former imperial universities, urban public universities,