Concerns about remote interviewing for the surgery match

 I don't doubt that every year people are nervous about the residency Match, and worries this year are related to the special situation of the Covid pandemic, in which interviews will be remote.

Irene Wapnir forwards the following:

From the AM College of Surgeons Bulletin: Interview crisis:

It May Be Too Late toAvoid a Crisis in the Surgery Match This Year

Ronald J. Weigel, MD, PhD, FACS; Steven C. Stain, MD, FACS; and L. Scott Levin, MD, FACS, FAOA

Are you hearing that outstanding medical students applying for surgical residencies are being wait-listed for an interview at top training programs? The problem may be yet another unfortunate consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In normal years, programs have cancellations because there is a physical limitation for how many interviews a student can do. This year, the pandemic forced programs to go to virtual interviews, and a small group of top students nationally appear to be filling all the interview slots for the top programs. If this is true, then many of those programs may go unfilled in the match.

For example, if the average number of interviews offered by a program is 100, and these programs are all competing for the same pool of 100 intern applicants, the pool of top students interviewed may be too small to fill all the slots in these programs. Additionally, the current interview process may create disadvantages for minority applicants and students from schools that are not considered "top tier."

With virtual interviews allowing students to interview at a larger number of programs, we may need a different system nationally for the allocation of interview slots, such as rolling acceptances for interviews with students being required to commit only to a set number of programs, which would allow additional students the opportunity to be interviewed. The solution will require program directors and surgical leaders nationally to discuss this issue. It may be too late to avoid a crisis in the match this year.

Surgery Match: Considerations and Possible Solutions

In their article, "It May Be Too Late to Avoid a Crisis in the Surgery Match," Drs. Weigel, Stain and Levin highlight challenges with this year's surgery match. Regarding this, the ACS proposes that program directors, deans and chairs, as well as candidates, consider the following to ensure as fair and equitable a process as possible during this extraordinary time:

Program Directors, Deans, Chairs

• Review the consequences that oversubscribing to slots has to programs and other candidates with students
• Don't offer slots to more candidates until those offered have a reasonable time to respond
• Make lists of candidates of interest who are not interviewed to ensure slots are offered when available

Candidates

• Consider limiting the number of interviews scheduled to a reasonable amount. Consider the impact on your colleagues of taking up too many interview slots—be fair to other applicants
• Release interview slots if you know you will not use them
• Release slots when you have completed enough interviews and experienced reciprocal interest that you are confident you have a well-prepared rank list