2013 Results and Data Book from NRMP’s Main Residency Match

Here's the press release: 2013 Results and Data Book from NRMP’s Main Residency Match, and here's the data book for the 2013 Match

The data book also reports on the second year of the new SOAP scramble, but not in the same detail as last year's report. Last year I predicted that more of the visible action would move to the first round (reflecting more action before the beginning of the official scramble), but this year's data book doesn't give that information.

Here's the press release, though, which gives a good overview of the data, which seem to reflect a successful match year.

The National Resident Matching Program® (NRMP®) is pleased to announce the publication of its Results and Data 2013 Main Residency Match --- the most comprehensive Match data resource produced annually by the NRMP. The report provides statistics on the most successful Match in NRMP history, in which 28,130 of 29,171 available residency positions were filled.    

Included in the report are statistical tables and data graphs from the Main Residency Match and a state by state breakdown of each participating U.S. residency training program, with the number of positions offered and filled for each. This year, for the first time, the report includes results and charts from the Match Week Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program® (SOAP®)-- the process used by NRMP for unfilled residency positions.

This year’s Results and Data Book is notable because the 2013 Match was the first to utilize NRMP’s All In Policy, which requires participating programs to register and attempt to fill all their positions through The Match.

NRMP Executive Director Mona M. Signer said, “Readers of the 2013 Results and Data Book will see the overwhelming success of the All In Policy. The 2013 Match produced the highest fill rate in NRMP history, and match rates rose for nearly every applicant group.”

Results and Data 2013 Book Facts

Applicant Numbers (Comparisons to 2012) 

• 40,335 registrants (1,958 more)
• 34,355 active applicants (3,000 more)
• 17,487 U.S. allopathic medical school seniors (960 more)
• 2,677 osteopathic medical school students/graduates (317 more, highest ever)
• 5,095 U.S. citizen international medical school students/graduates (U.S. IMGs) (816 more)
• 7,568 non-U.S. citizen international medical school students/graduates (IMGs) (740 more)

Applicant Match Rates 

• 74.1 percent of all applicants were matched to PGY-1 positions
• 93.7 percent of U.S. allopathic seniors matched to PGY-1 positions; of those, 78.8 percent matched to one of their top three choices
• 53.1 percent of U.S. IMGs were matched to PGY-1 positions, up from 49.1 percent in 2012 and the highest Match rate for this applicant group since 2005
• 47.6 percent PGY-1 Match rate for IMGs, an increase of seven percentage points from 2012

Increased Positions/High Fill Rates
Available residency positions increased to 29,171, 2,399 (9 percent) more than in 2012, when 26,772 positions were offered. The increase is due primarily to implementation of the All In Policy, which resulted in some specialties offering significantly more positions in 2013. Internal Medicine offered 1,000 more positions, Family Medicine offered 297 more, and Pediatrics offered 141 more than the prior year.

The overall position fill rate increased 1.1 percentage points to 96.4 percent, the highest in NRMP history. In 2013, only 1,041 first-year and second-year positions were unfilled; of those, 939 were placed in SOAP, and all but 61 were filled.

Notable Specialties
Often Match results can be an indicator of competitiveness. This year, several specialties and specialty tracks had 100 percent fill rates: 

• Medicine Emergency Medicine
• Pediatrics Primary
• Pediatrics/Psychiatry/Child Psychiatry
• Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation – Post graduate year one (PGY-1)
• Plastic Surgery – Post graduate year two (PGY-2)
• Psychiatry Family Medicine
• Radiation Oncology (PGY-1)
• Thoracic Surgery

The following specialties filled more than 90 percent of positions with U.S. seniors: 

• Plastic Surgery: 95.7 percent
• Otolaryngology: 94.5 percent
• Neurological Surgery: 93.1 percent
• Orthopedic Surgery: 91.8 percent

Couples in the Match
In 2013, a record 1,870 applicants (935 couples) participated in the 2013 Match. They continued to enjoy great success with a match rate of 95.2 percent. Couples have been able to participate together in The Match since 1984. The two partners identify themselves as a couple to the NRMP and submit rank order lists of identical length. The algorithm treats their lists as a unit, matching the couple to the highest linked program choices where both partners match.

SOAP - Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program
The NRMP launched the Match Week SOAP in 2012 to replace the "Scramble" and to streamline the process for unmatched applicants and the directors of unfilled programs. During SOAP, eligible applicants use ERAS® to apply to programs with unfilled positions and offers are extended to applicants based upon the number of unfilled positions remaining in the program.

U.S. seniors accepted the majority of positions (595 of 878) filled during SOAP. More than 13,808 applicants were SOAP-eligible, 261 more than in 2012. This year, 406 unfilled programs elected to participate in SOAP, offering 939 of the 1,041 positions not filled when the matching algorithm was processed.

A total of 1,327 offers were sent to applicants. By the conclusion of SOAP, 93.5 percent (878 of 939) of the positions had been filled.

How the Match Works
Conducted annually by the NRMP, The Match uses a computerized mathematical algorithm to align the preferences of applicants with the preferences of residency program directors in order to fill the training positions available at U.S. teaching hospitals. Research on the NRMP algorithm was a basis for Dr. Alvin Roth’s receipt of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Economics.

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The National Resident Matching Program® (NRMP®) is a private, non-profit organization established in 1952 at the request of medical students to provide an orderly and fair mechanism for matching the preferences of applicants for U.S. residency positions with the preferences of residency program directors. In addition to the Main Residency Match, the NRMP conducts matches for more than 40 subspecialties. For more information, contact NRMP at 1-866-653-NRMP (6767) or visit http://www.nrmp.org. For interviews, please email cherbert@nrmp.org.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1278215#ixzz2V7ttPAqX