The COVID-19 pandemic is upending the conventional in-person interview application process for radiology residency match season. But a trio of international imaging students recently proposed solutions to mitigate the anticipated problems with the new process.
This year’s online format promises to be more convenient and essentially free compared to traveling for face-to-face interviews. While safer, the cost factor along with additional unpredictable variables will likely increase the number of applications and force out many qualified residents, authors wrote Dec. 1 in Academic Radiology.
Tushar Garg, an interventional radiology medical student at Seth GS Medical College & KEM Hospital in Mumbai, India, and colleagues propose capping the number of residency interviews to avoid overwhelming the system and ensure qualified applicants are accepted.
“The infrastructure and research needed to implement this seamlessly would take many years,” they added. “However, limiting the number of interviews an applicant can accept and attend can be applied immediately and could be a more viable option for the upcoming cycle.”
Based on past data from the National Resident Matching Program, the students hypothesized that if the number of interviews is cut off at nine, all applicants would have a 90% chance of matching without inundating the system and forgoing qualified students.
They proposed two ways to cap interviews.
One solution requires programs to give applicants an interview token, which is redeemed after their meeting is finished. Applicants would only be allowed to redeem a certain number of tokens in order to enforce the cap.
In the second option, students receive interview chances from all programs at once and are forced to accept a fixed number of meetings by an established deadline.
Both the idea of capping interviews and each of the proposed solutions will face obstacles, the authors noted.
“It will be challenging to obtain a consensus on the number of interviews to cap,” the authors explained. “Furthermore, it would be difficult to gain acceptance from programs and applicants due to the fear of this interview cap potentially harming both parties' match outcomes.”
Read the entire letter to the editor published in Academic Radiology here.
Matt joined Chicago’s TriMed team in 2018 covering all areas of health imaging after two years reporting on the hospital field. He holds a bachelor’s in English from UIC, and enjoys a good cup of coffee and an interesting documentary.