Department of Surgery, Division of Trauma and Surgical Critical Care, Kendall Regional Medical Center, Miami, FL, USA.
Department of Surgery, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA.
Am Surg. 2023 Apr;89(4):952-960. doi: 10.1177/00031348211050831. Epub 2021 Nov 4.
To match medical students into residency training programs, both the program and student create rank order lists (ROLs). We aim to investigate temporal trends in ROL lengths across 7 match cycles between 2014 and 2021 for both matched and unmatched residency applicants and programs.
retrospective study of ROLs of 7 match cycles, 2014-2021. Residency match and ROL data were extracted from the NRMP database to assess the number of programs filled and unfilled, length of ROLs, position matched, and average ranks per position for osteopathic (DO) and allopathic (MD) medical programs.
For filled residency programs, the average ROL length consistently increased from 70.72 in 2015 to 88.73 in 2021 ( = .003), with ROL lengths consistently longer for filled vs unfilled residency programs ( < .001). The average ROL length for matched applicants increased consistently from 10.41 in 2015 to 12.35 in 2021 ( = .002), with matched applicants having consistently longer ROLs than unmatched applicants ( < .001). From 2015 to 2021, in both MD and DO applicants, progressively lower proportions of applicants matched their first and second choices.
Trends across the past 7 residency match cycles suggest that ROL lengths for both programs and applicants have been increasing with matched programs and applicants submitting significantly longer ROLs than unmatched applicants. Additionally, fewer applicants are matching at their preferred programs over time. Our findings support the mounting evidence that the Match has become increasingly congested and we discuss the possible factors that may be contributing to the current state of the Match as well as potential solutions.
为了将医学生匹配到住院医师培训项目中，项目和学生都要创建排名顺序表（ROL）。我们旨在调查 2014 年至 2021 年的 7 个匹配周期中，匹配和不匹配住院医师申请人和项目的 ROL 长度的时间趋势。
这是一项对 2014-2021 年的 7 个匹配周期的 ROL 的回顾性研究。住院医师匹配和 ROL 数据是从 NRMP 数据库中提取的，以评估每个职位的程序填充数量和未填充数量、ROL 长度、匹配的职位以及骨科（DO）和全科学位（MD）医学项目的平均排名。
对于已填充的住院医师项目，ROL 长度的平均值从 2015 年的 70.72 持续增加到 2021 年的 88.73（ =.003），且已填充的住院医师项目的 ROL 长度始终长于未填充的住院医师项目（ <.001）。匹配申请人的平均 ROL 长度也从 2015 年的 10.41 持续增加到 2021 年的 12.35（ =.002），且匹配申请人的 ROL 长度始终长于不匹配申请人（ <.001）。从 2015 年到 2021 年，在 MD 和 DO 申请人中，越来越少的申请人能够匹配他们的第一和第二选择。
过去 7 个住院医师匹配周期的趋势表明，项目和申请人的 ROL 长度都在增加，匹配的项目和申请人提交的 ROL 长度明显长于不匹配的申请人。此外，随着时间的推移，越来越少的申请人能够在他们首选的项目中匹配。我们的研究结果支持了越来越多的证据，即 Match 变得越来越拥挤，我们讨论了可能导致当前 Match 状态的因素以及潜在的解决方案。
