Department of Neurological Surgery, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA.
University College of Medical Sciences and GTB Hospital, GTB Enclave, Dilshad Garden, Delhi, India.
Clin Neurol Neurosurg. 2024 Oct;245:108472. doi: 10.1016/j.clineuro.2024.108472. Epub 2024 Aug 5.
Limitations to medical student clinical rotation opportunities brought on by the pandemic has the potential to exacerbate differences in access to clinical experience between medical schools, and thus impact the distribution of graduates matching into neurosurgical programs nationwide. The utilization of virtual interviews that started after the pandemic are likely here to stay. In this study we seek to evaluate match rates for American (AMGs) and international medical graduates (IMGs) across the 6 most recent academic years, examining specifically the rate of home-institution matching before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
All neurological surgery residents for the years 2018-2024 were included in this analysis, with basic information about each resident being collected using publicly available online resources. For any remaining programs where information was not publicly available, program directors were contacted. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 26.0 with a level of significance p<0.05.
Of the total of 1271 AMGs, 1005 (79.1 %) matched away from their home institution. When dividing the 6 academic years into 3 subgroups (pre, intra, and post COVID-19), there was no significant variation between the rates of home institution matching (pre=21.0 %, during=20.4 %, post=21.3 %, p=0.740). Similar results were found while assessing IMGs (pre=28.6 %, during=30.8 %, post=32.3 %, p=0.777). Our analysis found no variation in match rates when isolating for gender across the 6 years studied either for AMGs or IMGs. However, overall institute-specific variations were found where some programs showed increased likelihood of home program match (p<0.001).
Preliminary data analysis suggests that contrary to the broader trends seen in other specialties, neurosurgery applicants do not exhibit a significant shift towards matching in closer proximity to their home institutions post COVID-19 pandemic and during the virtual interviews era.
由于疫情导致医学生临床轮转机会受限，这有可能加剧医学院之间获得临床经验的差异，并因此影响全国神经外科项目的毕业生分配。自疫情以来开始使用的虚拟面试可能会继续存在。在这项研究中，我们评估了过去 6 个学年中美国医学生（AMG）和国际医学生（IMG）的匹配率，具体考察了 COVID-19 大流行前后在家属医院匹配的比例。
本分析纳入了 2018-2024 年所有神经外科住院医师，使用公开在线资源收集每位住院医师的基本信息。对于任何其他信息未公开的项目，联系了项目负责人。使用 SPSS 版本 26.0 进行统计分析，显著性水平 p<0.05。
在总共 1271 名 AMG 中，有 1005 名（79.1%）选择了离家机构较远的地方进行匹配。将 6 个学年分为 3 个亚组（疫情前、疫情中和疫情后），在家属医院匹配的比例没有明显变化（疫情前=21.0%，疫情中=20.4%，疫情后=21.3%，p=0.740）。在评估 IMG 时也发现了类似的结果（疫情前=28.6%，疫情中=30.8%，疫情后=32.3%，p=0.777）。我们的分析发现，在 6 年的研究中，无论 AMG 还是 IMG，当按性别进行隔离时，匹配率没有变化。然而，我们发现了机构特定的总体差异，其中一些项目显示出在家属医院匹配的可能性增加（p<0.001）。
初步数据分析表明，与其他专业中看到的更广泛趋势相反，神经外科申请人在 COVID-19 大流行后和虚拟面试时代并没有明显倾向于在家属医院附近进行匹配。
