Gupta Ronish, Norris Mark L, Barrowman Nicholas, Writer Hilary
Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Clinical Research Unit, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Perspect Med Educ. 2017 Dec;6(6):388-395. doi: 10.1007/s40037-017-0383-8.
Scholarly activity is considered valuable in the resident selection process by candidates and program directors alike, despite existing literature suggesting applicants with scholarly work do not perform better in the match. These studies, however, are limited in that they have only measured whether candidates have successfully matched or not. To try and reconcile the existing disconnect in the value of pre-residency scholarly activity, we sought to deepen the understanding by investigating whether pre-residency publication is associated with a higher rank-order list match achievement.
Anonymized data were collected from the Canadian Residency Matching Service for individuals matched to paediatric programs from 2007-2012. The primary analysis was to identify whether documentation of ≥1 pre-residency publication was associated with achieving a first-choice match. Secondary analyses included evaluating for an association between multiple pre-residency publications, academic presentations or a graduate degree and match outcome.
Of a total of 843 matched individuals, 406 (48.2%) listed ≥1 pre-residency publication and 494 (58.6%) matched to their first-choice program. The possession of ≥1 pre-residency publications was not associated with matching to a candidate's first-choice program (odds ratio = 0.94 [95% confidence interval = 0.71-1.24], p = 0.66). Similarly, listing ≥2 publications, ≥3 publications, a graduate degree, or an academic presentation was not associated with achieving a first-choice match.
The results provide increased support for the notion that in aggregate, candidate scholarly activity does not influence match outcome. Accordingly, it is recommended that medical student research activities are fostered with the goal to improve their skills as scientists, and not simply to achieve a better residency match outcome.
尽管现有文献表明有学术成果的申请者在住院医师匹配中表现并不更优，但学术活动在住院医师选拔过程中被候选人和项目主任都视为有价值的因素。然而，这些研究存在局限性，因为它们仅衡量了候选人是否成功匹配。为了试图调和住院医师培训前学术活动价值方面现有的脱节现象，我们试图通过调查住院医师培训前发表的论文是否与更高的排名列表匹配成就相关来加深理解。
从加拿大住院医师匹配服务中心收集了2007年至2012年匹配到儿科项目的个人的匿名数据。主要分析是确定是否有≥1篇住院医师培训前发表的论文与获得第一志愿匹配相关。次要分析包括评估多篇住院医师培训前发表的论文、学术报告或研究生学位与匹配结果之间的关联。
在总共843名匹配的个体中，406名（48.2%）列出了≥1篇住院医师培训前发表的论文，494名（58.6%）匹配到了他们的第一志愿项目。拥有≥1篇住院医师培训前发表的论文与匹配到候选人的第一志愿项目无关（优势比 = 0.94 [95%置信区间 = 0.71 - 1.24]，p = 0.66）。同样，列出≥2篇论文、≥3篇论文、研究生学位或学术报告与获得第一志愿匹配无关。
这些结果进一步支持了总体而言候选人的学术活动不会影响匹配结果这一观点。因此，建议培养医学生的研究活动，目标是提高他们作为科学家的技能，而不仅仅是为了获得更好的住院医师匹配结果。
