The residency selection committee guide to accepting applicants

The time is rapidly approaching when 3rd year medical students will decide a) whether they want to apply to residency training programs, 2) in which specialties and 3) which programs.

Given the present rules of the games, a lot will depend on grades, recommendations on clinical rotations and scores on Part 1 of the USLME exam. Beginning, next year, the Part 1 exam will be pass-fail, so those responsible for accepting residency training applicants will not have those scores as a selection criterion.

In addition, medical schools are beginning to revise their curriculum in response to all the changes and so have the personas of one of their customers changed- medical students

Add to that the enhanced anxiety about the entire process due to COVID, and, well, you get the picture.

So, how should residency selection committees rethink who and how they pick applicants from the pool?

1. Be customer/applicant centric and create the appropriate product-market fit
2. Do the job multiple stakeholders want you to do in core educational offerings and electives
3. Offer alternative career pathways for those not interested or only partly interested in a life-long clinical career
4. Differentiate your program by answering Why, Why now, Why us?
5. Pick the best athlete, not people to fill skill positions. How many QBs played safety in college?
6. Give applicants the data driven chances of being accepted
7. Create a whole product solution, partnering with regional resources and partners, so residents can further pursue their non-clinical interests instead of, or, to complement their clinical ones
8. Use techniques to encourage diversity and inclusion
9. Supplement ACGME competencies to include technology and medicine, the business of medicine, systems science and healthcare informatics, including clinical informatics and artificial intelligence
10. Train the trainers, since most will not have the knowledge, skills, attitudes and competencies to teach the subjects nor do they have the incentives to do so

11. Integrate pre-med, medical school and residency

12. Redefine the triple threat

As a former program director in a highly competitive specialty, my job was easy. I just picked the AOA who looked like me, and, if I had to make a choice between one and the other, used biased, invalid reasons for doing so.

Match day is usually the second week of March. You have 10 months. Given how long it takes to make decisions by committees in medical schools, I'd start planning now and don't just choose the faster horse or the ones that look like you.

Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA is the President and CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs