There is no consensus on whether the level of debt carried by medical students has a strong effect on their choice of medical specialty. Dr. Herbert Pardes and others have suggested that medical school debt has been a direct cause of the US primary care shortage. However, the amount of debt carried by medical graduates suggests the opposite. Students in more competitive specialties had significantly less debt on graduation, meaning that they weren't reliant on higher future compensation to repay loans. In 2016, 80% of family medicine residents graduated with debt, while only 74% of anesthesiology residents and 60% of ophthalmology residents graduated with any debt. The mean debt of students that did have debt entering family medicine residencies was $181,000, while the mean debt of those entering dermatology residencies was $153,000.