Podcasts about acceptance program soap

What happens on Match Day? How many residency programs are there in the US? How many medical students matched in 2025? What happens if you don't match? Jeanette Calli, chief of match operations at the National Resident Matching Program, discusses the latest main residency match results, including Match Day participation rates and trends in the residency match process. Also covering Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program (SOAP) results for residency placements. American Medical Association CXO Todd Unger hosts.✶✶✶✶ 

What happens on Match Day? How many residency programs are there in the US? How many medical students matched in 2025? What happens if you don't match? Jeanette Calli, chief of match operations at the National Resident Matching Program, discusses the latest main residency match results, including Match Day participation rates and trends in the residency match process. Also covering Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program (SOAP) results for residency placements. American Medical Association CXO Todd Unger hosts.

**LISTEN HERE, THEN WATCH THE VIDEO FORM OF THIS EPISODE ON YOUTUBE.COM/ACMEDICALORG** For today's episode, we further elaborate on Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program (SOAP): what it is, the timeline schedule, how it can benefit you, and discuss ways to prepare for it. If you did not get to chance to attend our most recent webinar "Final Chance to Match During the 2022 SOAP" on Dec. 2, we invite you to watch the recorded version, soon to be released on our YouTube channel some time within the next week or two. Have questions? Contact us at podcast@acmedical.org

In our world of today, many marginalized communities face systemic injustices when seeking medical care, which leads to disproportionate rates of chronic illness and even death. OBGYN resident Dr. Nina Snowden, after having felt the brunt of these disparities herself, has dedicated her life to making a difference no matter how small. Keep listening to find out more about this IMG's story of determination and resilience. As a US IMG, Dr. Snowden completed her undergraduate and master's degrees in the US and even served as a registered dietician. After having faced a tragedy, however, Dr. Snowden felt inspired to start medical school at a later age than most students. It is this resolve that guided her through her medical education as she moved step by step to fulfill her calling to be a physician. She attended the St. George's University in Grenada and was able to maintain good grades throughout her time there. When asked to share the highlights of her journey to the match, Dr. Snowden dropped the following gems of advice: Make good use of your resources - Dr. Snowden recommends the IMG Roadmap course as an excellent guide to help IMGs land the residency they've been dreaming of. Networking is key! Dr. Snowden took it upon herself to show initiative and reach out to as many people within her intended field. She joined organizations, attended conferences and introduced herself to program coordinators in order to improve her chances of matching. Ignore the naysayers - Though Dr. Snowden admits to not having had the most stellar scores on USMLE, she did not let the negative opinions of others prevent her from applying to the specialties that she was interested in. Ultimately, the only person who needs to believe in you, is you! Leverage your application if your scores are not within your desired bracket - Dr. Snowden ensured that she had a back up plan and so, attained letters of recommendation from each one of her core rotations in case she had to participate in the The Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program (SOAP). She boosted all the other areas of her application so that her scores were just one component of many. Overall, despite a rough beginning, Dr. Snowden was determined not to become a statistic, and despite being an underdog, she was determined to achieve all of her goals. As such, she constantly reminded herself to: Strive to do better in all things. Once you do your best, everything else will fall in line. Feeling inspired? You can reach out to Dr. Snowden to find out more about her phenomenal story via her Instagram @drnina_obgyn and her email: nina.s.snowden@gmail.com Listen to the full episode using the links below: Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/69-imgroadmap-series-77-dr-nina-snowden-obstetrics/id1490731292?i=1000522741273 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5aP5rRjsmZM2aXkx63ymag Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy9mOGMzY2EwL3BvZGNhc3QvcnNz/episode/N2QzYjEyNjEtY2E1Yy00MGE5LTg3NjAtYWY4NzhhNzU3M2M5?sa=X&ved=0CAUQkfYCahcKEwiwv4-3nejwAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/ninalum/support

Have your challenges and bad experiences ever made you feel like giving up? Dr. Foluwakemi Olufehinti's story will give you all of the inspiration you need to persist in the face of adversity until you achieve your goals! Nigerian-born Non-US IMG Dr. Olufehinti completed her medical education at Ross University, which was then situated on the Caribbean island of Dominica. As a student, she had to adjust to a different learning and testing style, but eventually, she gained success despite the various difficulties she faced. When it comes to the match, Dr. Olufehinti's story is far from traditional. She essentially applied on three occasions, twice in the traditional match process and once through the the Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program (SOAP). On her first try for the 2019 match period, though she received 7 interviews, she did not match. She decided to try again through SOAP, which was also unsuccessful. Dr. Olufehinti did not let these setbacks define her and she used this as an opportunity to consult with resources such as the IMG Roadmap Course and to seek feedback from her interviewers in order to highlight areas needing improvement. With this in mind, she applied for the 2021 match period and received 20 interviews this time around! In December of 2020, however, she received an offer from one of the programs she had applied to prior to the 2021 cycle and decided to accept it. As a result of her very unique journey to the match, Dr. Olufehinti is a wealth of insight and advice. Here are a few of the topics she touches on in during this interview: The match: After not having matched the first two times, Dr. Olufehinti attributes her success thereafter to an increase in confidence and to the understanding that while she was being interviewed, she was also interviewing the program coordinators. The moment she saw herself as a potential asset to the program, the coordinators began to share the same view. Preparing for the USMLE: Dr. Olufehinti advises IMGs to study in groups if this style works for you, and to use plenty of practice questions from reputable sources. While your grades do not define you, program coordinators just want to see that you are diligent and capable of improvement. Persistence is key: Though there were times where it seemed like all the odds were stacked against her, Dr. Olufehinti was able to stop, take stock, and improve until she was able to achieve her goals. You can reach out to Dr. Olufehinti via her Instagram @fomoshgreen Watch the full episode using the links below: Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-img-roadmap/id1490731292 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/45NNJ7ewtqynqyssbwm1xz Google Podcasts:https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy9mOGMzY2EwL3BvZGNhc3QvcnNz Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1490731292/the-img-roadmap-podcast RadioPublic: https://radiopublic.com/the-img-roadmap-GE0MMg --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/ninalum/support

What if you had dreamt of being a surgeon, but somewhere along your medical journey your passions and interests changed? Dr. Morakinyo represents a very important part of many of our lives - the reality that things may not always go according to plan and the fact that we always have the power to make the best of every situation. Keep listening to find out how this IMG navigated SOAP and landed his current residency match! Nigerian-born, Canadian citizen Emmanuel Morakinyo is the picture of a non-traditional IMG. His medical journey began at the St. Georges University after which he landed a residency in internal medicine at the Orange Park Medical Center, just outside of Jacksonville, Florida. While he had every intention of pursuing a career in surgery, after four months of surgery-based rotations, he decided that such a specialty did not align with the life that he had come to envision for himself. Upon this realization, he re-evaluated his interests and their compatibility with his life-plan and proceeded to begin the match process. He eventually ended up enlisting in the Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program (SOAP) and took the gamble of not submitting a rank list! When asked how he was able to navigate SOAP, especially with such a risky start, and how he would advise others to approach the process, he outlined the following: If you have even the slightest inkling that you will need to go through SOAP, get all of your documents in order as soon as possible. Upgrade, tailor and personalize your personal statements to their intended recipients. Use any advantage or leverage that you may have to increase your chances of landing a match. Ensure that you have a good internet connection and that you prioritize so that you can dedicate enough time to monitoring the various online portals. Have a solid support system - this process is indeed anxiety-inducing, but having people around to help you makes all the difference. Stay away from irrelevant online forums that may bring unnecessary negativity and stress. Exhaust the number of applications that SOAP allows you. Even after such a seemingly daunting process, Dr. Morakinyo is currently transitioning into his second year of residency and maintains a positive attitude. Here are some inspirational tidbits that he hopes will inspire us to do the same: Speak your goals into existence Do not be discouraged if you do not match and have to go through SOAP - it's not the end of the world. Put in your best and leave the rest to God. You can reach out to Dr. Morakinyo on his instagram @iyanulive.md and through his email iyanulivecontact@gmail.com Listen to the full episode here: Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-img-roadmap/id1490731292 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/45NNJ7ewtqynqyssbwm1xz Google Podcasts:https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy9mOGMzY2EwL3BvZGNhc3QvcnNz Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1490731292/the-img-roadmap-podcast RadioPublic: https://radiopublic.com/the-img-roadmap-GE0MMg --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/ninalum/support

**PODCAST VIDEO OF THIS EPISODE AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE.COM/ACMEDICALORG: Listen here, then watch on YouTube** The third week of every March signifies Match Week and its Supplemental Offer & Acceptance Program (SOAP): on that Monday, NRMP registrants and residency programs learn if they 'Matched'; if a candidate or program 'Did not Match', then the following 4 days present an additional opportunity for programs to make offers to SOAP eligible unmatched candidates. The SOAP process is quite fast, and the interview questions asked by programs during SOAP will be unique. In this 9th FutureDocs Podcast episode, ACMedical's Dr. Pedram Mizani and Cody Phan discuss what you need to know coming into SOAP and how to best prepare for SOAP interviews when a program contacts you. Have questions? Contact us at podcast@acmedical.org

**PODCAST VIDEO OF THIS EPISODE AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE.COM/ACMEDICALORG: Listen here, then watch on Youtube** In an unprecedented 2021 Match cycle, there have been numerous changes as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. With all of these variables, the Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program (SOAP) is worth considering now more than ever as detailed in our previous episodes. Understanding the steps that are necessary to be SOAP eligible and the SOAP process may seem daunting at first, but we make it easy. For Episode 7, ACMedical's Dr. Pedram Mizani and Cody Phan detail the key changes in the 2021 SOAP as well as why it is so important to take advantage of the trend of unfilled positions and the additional Round 4, unique to this year only. Listen in as we detail the checklist our FutureDocs need to be verify their SOAP Eligibility. Have questions? Contact us at podcast@acmedical.org

When it comes to the U.S. Residency Application whether it is for NRMP's Main Match or applying to the Supplemental Offer & Acceptance Program (SOAP) your Letters of Recommendation (LORs) matter. LORs are used as a supplemental document that helps Program Directors and Admission Committees to predict your ability to execute the 6 ACGME Core Competencies, and reach PGY1 milestones at the same rate as your co-residents. Securing 4 LORs of this personalized magnitude is expected and doable by US medical seniors, but much more challenging for international medical graduates and other independent applicants. In today's episode ACMedical's Dr. Pedram Mizani and Cody Phan discuss the necessary tools and steps to securing ACGME Core Competencies based Letters of Recommendation. Have questions? Contact us at podcast@acmedical.org.

In today's episode, ACMedical's Dr. Pedram Mizani and Cody Phan highlight the ideal timeline to begin preparing for an upcoming Main Match Cycle, and 13 steps to stay on track and minimize your chances of being left unmatched. Preparation for the annual Main Match for medical residency should ideally begin 24 months before your planned residency start date, and anyone participating in the Match should be prepared for being 'Partially' or 'Fully Unmatched'. Additionally, it is important to train yourself to adhere to very challenging deadlines, such as those needed to gain residency-relevant U.S. clinical experience, pass US medical licensing exams, have supporting documents such as Letters of Recommendations (LOR) & Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE) finalized and reviewed, all prior to certifying and submitting your residency application. And if you do not match during the regular Match cycle (like Dr. Mizani), this episode will guide you on how to use the final opportunity to Match this year through Match Week's Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program (SOAP), as you prepare for the possibility of participating in next Match cycle. Have questions? Contact us at podcast@acmedical.org.

The annual U.S. medical residency 'Main Match' begins each September (October for 2021 Match, due to COVID), and ends the following March. By January, ~80% of interviews have already been offered, which can be anxiety provoking for those with insufficient number of interviews. Today our cohosts Dr. Pedram Mizani and Cody Phan discuss what to do with 6 or more residency interviews, fewer than 6, or no residency interviews at all. We discuss talking points of Rank Order List (ROL), Match Week's Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program (SOAP), the general trends of the interview season and why 6 residency interviews is our average magic number. Have questions? Contact us at podcast@acmedical.org.

Dr. David Flick hosts this episode to talk about preparing for residency applications. He’ll go over the ERAS timeline, the NRMP timeline, why the match process exists, and how to do well in these areas. [0:45] Timelines. ERAS opens around the beginning of June, and the beginning of September is when you can begin to apply. About halfway through September is when those programs receive your application. At the beginning of October, the MSPE is released from your school and goes out to all residency programs. March is when you actually match. The NRMP system opens near the end of September, and you have from then through November to register. Once you start interviewing, you’ll be able to build a rank-order list. In February, you’ll have to certify your list and it can’t be touched afterwards. [4:45] The match process. The NRMP supplies a great video that shows how this process works. The algorithm goes down your rank-order list and tries to pair you with a hospital until it finds a match. If you don’t match in that algorithm, NRMP has a separate program called the Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program (SOAP). There a video for this process, too. [9:29] Match week. It typically occurs in the second or third week of March. The match itself occurs on the Friday of that week. On the Monday after, you’ll find out if you didn’t match and can then access the SOAP process. You will have access to look at and research the programs, but you cannot contact them directly. You can apply to as many as forty-five and then wait to see if they reach out to you. If you didn’t match in any of the three rounds of SOAP, you’ll then have access to all the unfilled programs that are left. Here, you are allowed to contact programs directly. [15:00] How to do well in match and SOAP. The best way to do well in match is to study the statistics. Your rank-order list must have enough programs on it. For SOAP, timing is everything. You’ll need to be very proactive, and you’ll want to use all forty-five of those slots. Be available to field phone calls, and make sure to brush up on your interview skills.

If you got only rejection letters this application season, you might be thinking your dreams of attending med school are dead. Well, pick yourself up off the ground, soldier, it's not over yet because you can apply again. But don't go throwing good money and time away by reapplying without taking a close, honest look at what your application was missing. Amy A'Hearn, our admissions assistant director, visited to discuss what you should think about when re-evaluating your competitiveness, with the help of Aline Sandouk and Irisa Mahapan. Don't give up...find out what Amy's top recommendations are, and get your dream back on track! Match Week was great for us here at UI as our students did better than the national average for finding a job after med school. But all was not perfect this year, as during the Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program (SOAP), the servers crashed denying unmatched residency programs and applicants critical time to do the same. In the end, it all worked out...but it was a stressful time for all--but from our viewpoint, especially for SOAPing students! And it isn't the first time, either. Share your stories--anonymously, if you like--of your rejections and how you fixed it! Call us at 347-SHORTCT anytime, visit our Facebook group, or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

See below for time stamps. Confused about 4th year? This episode is for you! Newly matched 4th year med students Roy Swanson (ophthalmology), Marco Swanson (plastic surgery), and Dana Canfield (obstetrics and gynecology) school Ian on the ins and outs of 4th year of medical school. Show notes can be found here. This is a wide ranging conversation that starts at the end of 3rd year and takes the listener through the completion of 4th year. A complete list of discussion topics for this episode can be found here, but includes: Introductions [2:44] Start 4th year discussion [15:32] Acting internships (+ away rotations) [26:01] Away rotations [1:04:25] Visiting Student Application Service (VSAS) --> now the Visiting Student Learning Opportunities (VSLO) [1:12:47] Letters of recommendation [1:15:05] Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) and personal statements [1:38:00] The Step 2s (Clinical Knowledge and Clinical Skills) [2:02:24] Residency interviews [2:34:20] The rank list and the Matching algorithm [3:07:35] The Match and Match week [3:24:49] Supplemental Offer of Acceptance Program (SOAP) aka "the scramble" [3:26:40] Life post-Match [3:33:49] Final comments from the gang [3:43:37] Special thank you to Katie Bedard, MD; Alice Yu, MD; Gary Parizher, MD; Kelly Manger, MD; and Karishma Habbu, MD for their help in formulating the discussion topics. And an extra special thank you to Kristol Das, MD for sitting patiently through a dry run of the interview to identify missing topics and to make sure the 4th Year Episode would flow properly :) Please enjoy with Roy, Marco, and Dana!   This episode is sponsored by OnlineMedEd! Use this link to sign up for a free account. Then come back and use this link to get $80 off their annual premium subscription! Check out the TUMS Resources page, which includes a complete list of book recommendations made by guests on this show!

Session 23 Our episode with Dr. Chris Sahler was one of our most popular episodes. I decided to bring you the PM&R residency match data since many of you seem interested! [02:33] NRMP Main Match Data for 2017 - PGY-1 & PGY-2 Positions Table 1 shows the match summary for all the different specialties and Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation only has 32 programs under PGY-1 positions. This is also one of those specialties where you can match into a PGY-2 spot and you have to separately apply for your internship. This table shows there are 62 programs for PGY-2 positions and that gives you a total of 94 programs. Just be careful when looking at data since some specialties may have they PGY-1 built-in while some do not. Looking at PGY-1 spots, there are 119 positions. This is a relatively smaller program with almost 3 and 3/4 per program. And out of those spots, only one program went unfilled. There are 294 U.S. Seniors applying out of 595 in total who applied. (Remember for the purposes of this podcast when talking about match data, U.S. Seniors refer to U.S. allopathic students so these are students who are still in medical school going through the normal timeline so they're not taking any gap years after medical school.) This implies that more than half them applying for these spots are U.S. Seniors. Interestingly, only 74 U.S. Seniors matched for Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation out of 118 that matched. Only 62.2% of the students that matched were U.S. Seniors. Comparing this to other specialties, 78.2% of those that matched in Emergency Medicine were U.S. Seniors, Neurosurgery at 83.9%, Neurology at 50.6%, and OB-GYNE at 81.4%. There is a very wide spectrum of what percentages of students matching are U.S. Seniors. For PGY-2 Positions, students also need to rank and match into a PGY-1 spot, whether it's a surgery year, a transitional year, or an internal medicine year. So these are three different prelim years you can choose from. Out of those 62 programs, there were 294 spots available so it's almost 4 and 3/4 per program. This is a little bit bigger compared to PGY-1 position programs. And out of those 294 programs, none of them went unfilled. Out of 633 total applicants, 306 were U.S. Seniors and only 61.16% of those that matched were U.S. Seniors. [07:28] Matches by Specialty and Applicant Type Table 2 of the 2017 NRMP Main Match Data shows us where the other people are coming from. For PGY-1 positions, 33 were osteopathic students out of 118 physicians that matched in PM&R. This is 27.97% Compared to other specialties. Emergency Medicine had 283 matches for osteopathic students (a pretty big number for non-primary care) out of 2,041 total students. That's 13.9%. So PM&R is 14% higher than that which is very interesting. Looking at this data, you can't say osteopaths are at a disadvantage because less osteopaths are matching into some of these surgical positions. But if a student goes to an osteopathic medical school because they believe in their philosophy and manipulation, then going into surgery maybe doesn't make sense and so is going into pathology. So you can't just look at the numbers. You have to look at what's the reasoning behind the numbers. It's easy to hypothesize that osteopathic medicine fits very well with PM&R, which is basically, non-surgical orthopedics. You're dealing with people who have aches and pains and joint issues as well as other things and osteopathic medicine works with that. So these PM&R programs seem to be very open to osteopathic students. In fact, Dr. Sahler talked about this in Episode 13 that PM&Rs are very open to osteopathic physicians. For PGY-2 spots, all 294 positions went filled. 181 were U.S. Allopathic Seniors, 5 were U.S. Grads (these are students outside of the normal timeline), and 83 were osteopathic students, which means 28.2% of osteopathic students actually matched. So if you're an osteopath and are interested in this stuff, you have a good shot to get a spot here. Moving on, 17 were U.S. International medical graduates, 8 were non-U.S. citizen international medical grads. [11:40] Positions Offered, U.S. Seniors, All Applicants, Osteopaths (2013-2017) Table 3 tells us how the the number of spots is growing and looking at PM&R, it's growing slowly over the last four year at 0.4% every year for PGY-1 while for PGY-2, it's been growing much faster at 11% in 2017 from 10.9% in 2016. If you're interested in it, it's obviously a growing field for you. Table 8 shows the percentages filled by U.S. Seniors versus all applicants from 2013-2017. It basically shows us a trend of what programs are doing, whether they prefer U.S. Seniors or U.S. Graduates or other students. Looking at PM&R for PGY-1, 62.2% in 2017 were U.S. Seniors, 61.16% in 2016, 60.7% in 2015, 56.3% in 2014, and 59.8% in 2013. So it has gone up pretty steadily over the last couple of years with more preference towards U.S. Seniors. For PGY-2, 61.6% U.S. Seniors matched, 52.8% in 2016, 45% in 2015, 53.7% in 2014, and 51.7% in 2013. There was a huge dip in 2015 which is really interesting. Table 9 shows all applicants that matched by specialty. 0.4% of all students matched for PGY-1 spots matched into PM&R. Compared to other specialties, Surgery is 4.6%, Internal Medicine is 25.6%, Family Medicine is 11.6%, Anesthesiology is 4.1%. Table 11 shows us osteopathic students matching into PGY-1 spots with 1.1% of all osteopathic medical students are matching into PM&R. Comparing that with the previous table of 0.4% by percentage, more osteopathics actually match into PM&R than allopathic students. This is very interesting yet it still goes with the fact that it does fit with osteopathic medicine. [15:12] Unmatched and SOAP Figure 6 of the 2017 NRMP Main Match Data shows the Percentages of Unmatched U.S. Seniors and Independent Applicants Who Ranked Each Specialty as Their Only Choice. PM&R is near the top of the list for total unmatched students at 27.5%. Internal Medicine (Prelim) is the highest followed by Dermatology, Psychiatry, and then PM&R. Majority of these students are independent applicants which means they are not U.S. Allopathic Seniors. You have osteopathic students, U.S grads who are already out of school and international medical graduates making up this number. This is a little scary since PM&R is higher on the list. Remember there was only one unfilled position so it's highly sought after for a specialty. Table 18 is all about the SOAP (Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program). Again, there was only one unfilled spot in all of PM&R. So for the SOAP, there was also only one spot available and as expected, it was filled through the SOAP. [16:48] Charting the Outcomes 2016 Based on Charting the Outcomes 2016, Table PM-1 (Page 168 of 211) shows the number of contiguous ranks, Step scores, research, work experience, AOA, etc., to give you a picture of what these students look like for those who matched and did not match. For U.S. allopathic Seniors, the mean number of contiguous ranks that matched are 14.2 programs while those that did not match were only 5.6. I can't stress enough the need for you to rank enough programs in order to match. When you submit your rank list, you actually don't have to apply to only one specific residency program. You can apply to General Surgery and Orthopedic Surgery programs. For Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, the mean number of distinct specialties ranked is 1.6 for those that matched and those that did not match were 2.2. Those ranking more programs are not going to be able to verbalize and communicate to these programs why they specifically want to go into PM&R because maybe they're out there ranking other programs. Back on the data, the mean Step 1 score is 226, mean Step 2 score is 238. These are not terribly high Step scores. Those that did not match are 210 and 221 for Steps 1 and 2 respectively. They have data for osteopathic students as well. Looking at Level 1 score for those that took the COMLEX, they have a 551 for those that matched and 492 for those that did not match, 563 for Level 2 that matched and 491 for Level 2 that did not match. Charting the Outcomes 2016 Table PM-1 also looks at work experiences and volunteer experiences. AOA members comprised 6.2% of those that matched while 0% for those that were unmatched. (AOA in the allopathic world is for Allopathic medical students) [21:10] Medscape Physician Lifestyle and Compensation Reports Normally, I would also check on the Medscape Physician Lifestyle and Compensation Reports but PM&R is not included in the data probably because it's a smaller field so they didn't have enough respondents for it. So we do not have enough feedback to have the data here. Links: Specialty Stories Episode 13: What is Physiatry? (Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation) MedEd Media Network 2017 NRMP Main Match Data Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program (SOAP) 2016 Charting the Outcomes - NRMP Medscape Lifestyle Report 2017 Medscape Physician Compensation Report 2017 AOA

Session 21 General Surgery is gaining in popularity, which shows in its competitiveness for residency. You need to be on the top of your game to match. And similar to Internal Medicine, it is the gateway to a lot of subspecialties. As we're presenting the data here, remember that this is not just for those looking to be general surgeons their whole life but those who are looking into other subspecialties which we will be featuring here on the podcast in the future such as Surgical Oncology, Colorectal Surgery, Surgical Critical Care, Minimally Invasive Surgery, etc. There are certainly a lot of things you can go on and do after your general surgery residency. The 2017 NRMP Main Match Data is now available since the match happens in March of every year. [01:45] Total Number of Programs and Applicants For General Surgery, there are a lot of physicians available with 267 programs around. There are 236 Psychiatry residencies and 204 Pediatric residencies so that gives you an idea that there are more general surgeons than pediatrics. There are 241 OB/GYN residencies so there are a lot of surgical residencies. General Surgery has two categorical residency programs. A categorical program is one where you apply to the program from medical school and that's where you're going to do your five years of General Surgery residency. Then there are prelim surgery positions and there are more prelim surgery positions than there are categorical. Somebody doing a surgical prelim can do it because they're going into a surgical subspecialty straight out of medical school and they're required to do their PGY-1 year separate from their categorical residency.  In this episode, I will only tackle the full five-year categorical surgery programs consisting with 267 programs for categorical surgery. Out of 267 programs, there are 1,281 spots. There are almost 5 spots at each program. Interestingly, there are not a ton of U.S. Seniors applying for these categorical programs. And out of these spots, there were only 1,383 that applied and 2,388 total applicants. For the purposes of this data, U.S. Seniors equals Seniors at an allopathic (MD) medical school. Hence, this does not include graduates of an MD medical school. These are only students who are still in school. Those who took some time off to do some research or didn't match the first time are not included in the U.S. Seniors data. There were 3 unfilled programs which means a lot of of people are matching with 99.6% of the spots filled. I want to briefly mention that if you don't match in a categorical spot, it's typically pretty easy to do a Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program (SOAP), which used to be called Scramble. There are only 61.7% of those spots were filled. So it's very easy to do a SOAP into a program if you don't match in a surgical program. But assuming your stats are decent and you're a good person, you're probably going to match because it's not overly competitive for U.S. Seniors which is interesting. [06:55] Types of Applicants Table 2 of the 2017 NRMP Match Data breaks down the types of applicants for each specialty. For categorical surgery, there were 1,281 positions and there were 1,276 were filled. So there were 5 empty spots and 3 programs that went unfilled. Out of the 1,276 filled positions, 1,005 were U.S. Seniors while 74 were U.S. Grads (students that either didn't match the first time or didn't apply because they were doing research or something else. Total number of U.S. Seniors (allopathic MD students) was 1,079 out of the 1,276 positions. The rest of it was filled by 64 osteopathic students and 62 U.S. International medical graduates. Something that is highly debated in the premed world is whether to go to a U.S. DO school or an international MD school, specifically Caribbean schools. If General Surgery is something you're interested in, there were 64 students that matched from U.S. osteopathic schools and 62 from international medical schools. Moving along, there were 71 Non-U.S. International medical graduates that matched into General Surgery. For me, this is a peculiar number and is not something I would have thought to see. It just goes to show that there is still a high demand for General Surgery spots so they're taking as many possible and the most qualified and a lot of those happen to be non-U.S. citizen international medical graduates. [09:47] Trends in Positions Offered and U.S Seniors (2013-2017) Table 3 of the 2017 NRMP Match Data illustrates the total number of physicians offered from 2013 to 2017. This is the fourth time I've looked at the Match Data and the numbers always seem to very consistent. Surgery is no different at 4.4 to 4.5 every year, going at a a good, steady pace and hopefully it continues that way. Table 7 shows the number of U.S. Seniors being accepted compared to all applicants over the course of the last five years. As the number of seats in each program has increased all the way up to 1,281 for 2017, the U.S. Seniors are increasing as well. This is a good thing in that more U.S. allopathic students are going into General Surgery to fill this increasing need for spots. It's not necessarily a good thing for DO students or U.S. International medical grads because the demand is rising among U.S. Seniors as there are more spots. Table 8 shows the actual percentage of U.S. Seniors for each of the programs. There were 80.8% of U.S. Seniors in 2013 and it dropped down to 76.5% in 2014, back up to 80% in 2015, back down to 76.4% in 2016, and then up again at 78.5% in 2017. This suggests that maybe the demand is not as high also looking at the data in table 7. Table 9 shows the percentage of applicants that matched into a given field compared to the rest as a whole. 4.6% of all applicants that matched in all fields matched into Surgery (categorical). So it's up there. Internal Medicine is huge at 25.6%, Family Medicine at 11.6%, Emergency Medicine at 7.4%. This gives you an idea of where Surgery lies. Interestingly, Psychiatry (categorical) is at 5.4% which is more than Surgery and Pediatrics at 9.7%. [13:25] Osteopathic Students, Unmatched U.S. Seniors, Independent Applicants, and SOAP Table 11 looks specifically at Osteopathic students who have matched into PGY-1 spots as a whole. This is similar to the last table but this one looks specifically at osteopathic students. As expected, General Surgery has a lot less total number of osteopathic students percentage-wise. Looking at all specialties adding up to 100%, Surgery only made up 2.2% of all osteopathic students that matched into an allopathic General Surgery (categorical) program. Students may think it's harder to go to an MD General Surgery residency as a DO student and if this is what they want to do, then they should probably only apply to MD programs. My different perspective on this is that if osteopathic schools are doing a good job at recruiting students that meet this "osteopathic" philosophy and are looking at recruiting and attracting more students that are interested in Primary Care, then there should obviously be a lot less that are matching into a surgical program. Figure 6 of the 2017 NRMP Match Data shows the percentages of Unmatched U.S. Seniors and Independent Applicants (outside of the U.S. Seniors which, for these purposes, are considered U.S. allopathic students who are still in school). General Surgery had one of the higher unmatched rate at 20.7%, which is 9th on the list. Majority of those are unmatched, independent applicants (non allopathic students, non MD Seniors). The unmatched U.S. Seniors was only 9.6%. This is still high compared to a lot of the other specialties. It seems it's getting more and more competitive and this is a trend that I've heard from speaking to others that General Surgery is becoming more and more competitive as there are more options available for these subspecialties and fellowships afterwards. Table 18 breaks down the SOAP process and looking into Surgery (categorical), there were 3 programs that needed to fill 5 spots and all 3 programs filled those 5 spots through the SOAP process. Looking at the National Matching Service Data for 2016 for the different program types, there were 49 programs for General Surgery for osteopathic students and 155 positions. 149 positions were filled and 6 went unfilled. The data given is not as robust at the NRMP so I'm uncertain if there were a lot more applicants than these 155 spots and a lot went unmatched or if there weren't just that many applicants. [17:43] 2016 Charting the Outcomes - NRMP Based on the 2016 Charting the Outcomes for the NRMP, Chart 3 shows the match rates and there was an 83% match rate for U.S. Allopathic Seniors for General Surgery. Looking at other specialties, Dermatology at 77%, Neurosurgery at 76%, Orthopedics at 75%, Plastic Surgery at 77%, and Vascular Surgery at 71%. So General Surgery is right there with all of the other surgery subspecialties. Chart 4 shows the Median Number of Contiguous Ranks of U.S. Allopathic Seniors. For students that matched and those who didn't, the chart shows you how many programs they ranked on their rank list when they submitted. Those that matched ranked 13 as a median number while those that did not match ranked 5. If you are picky about where you go or if you didn't get an opportunity to apply or to interview at a lot of spots, then you have a lot less chance of matching. Chart 12 shows the percentage of U.S. Allopathic Seniors who are members of AOA (the Honor Society for medical students showing good academic success in medical school). For those that matched only 17% of the U.S. allopathic Seniors were AOA whereas 52% for Plastic Surgery and 53% for Dermatology. So General Surgery is in the lower end for a surgical specialty. Looking at the Summary Statistics (Table GS-1) for General Surgery, those that matched have a decent Step-1 Score at 235 and those that did not match at 218, which shows a big difference in Step scores. This is one of those things where you need to be very realistic with your chances of matching. If you don't match, why? Could it be that because your Step score is not high enough? The mean Step 2 score is 247 for those that matched and 231 for those that did not. [21:20] Burnout, Happiness, and Compensation The Medscape Lifestyle Report 2017 and Medscape Physician Compensation Report 2017 are two separate reports that Medscape releases every year. For the Lifestyle Report, more than 14,000 physicians over 30 specialties have responded in the survey. The numbers are not necessarily the best data-wise because it's a survey so just take this with a grain of salt. Who is the most burned out? General Surgery is lower on the list at 49% which is more than halfway down the list. This is good. But looking at how severe is the burnout, surgery is higher up on the list at 4.3 from a scale of 0-4.5. Which physicians are happiest at work and outside of work? General Surgery is higher up on the list with 35% happiness at work and 69% happiness outside of work. So it's on the higher end of the scale. Moving on to the Medscape Physician Compensation Report 2017, General Surgery is higher up on the list with an average annual salary of $352,000. Above it is Anesthesiology and below it is Ophthalmology. So it's a decent living as a general surgeon. Although if you think about the lifestyle and everything else, it's harder. So you're compensated for that harder lifestyle. Looking at the rate of increase year over year,General Surgery had a 9% increase which is pretty decent. The number of physicians who feel fairly compensated for General Surgery is lower at only 48%. Whether a specialist would choose medicine again, General Surgery is right in the middle at 77%. While only 82% said they would choose the same specialty, which is a little in the lower half of all the specialties there. [24:50] Final Thoughts If you're not sure what you're interested in yet, go through these numbers. It's eye-opening to see what is going on in the world when it comes to matching and physicians that are happy and making money and those that aren't. Links: MedEd Media Network 2016 Match Data NRMP Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program (SOAP) National Matching Service Data for 2016 Charting the Outcomes - NRMP Medscape Lifestyle Report 2017 Medscape Physician Compensation Report 2017 AOA

Session 59 In this episode, Ryan takes a question directly from the OldPreMeds.org forums and delivers the answer right here to you. This week’s question is an interesting one:choosing which schools to apply to. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: “I was looking into residency match rates of DO versus MD programs using the school website and comparing them to an NRMP. I noticed that the 2016 data for DO match rate was 80.3% versus 93.8% for MD. When I look at the data from DO schools like Western and Touro I find reports of 90% to 100% match rates. Is the difference because of the schools and the 80.3% looks at all DO programs? Should one look at the individual school match rate instead of the overall match rate when choosing a program? If anyone has information about the discrepancies please let me know”. (2:00) Questioning the data I dug into this a little bit to figure out where this person was getting their data. I pulled up the information from the American Osteopathic Association Intern and Residency Registration Program match data; this is the matching system for DO students. I also looked at the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) that matches for MD residencies. So just to backtrack and give you a little information: two different tracks, DO and MD. A DO is doctor of osteopathic medicine, MD is a medical doctor, just two different types of medical school. You both end up being physicians at the end of the day; there's really no difference and actually, their residency programs are merging. Not a lot of information has come out on how that's going to happen, but I believe the year is 2020 when that happens. Therefore, much of this information, by the time you start medical school and as you're listening to this, perhaps won’t matter because much of it will have changed. However, I still wanted to reply to this question because I thought it was a good one. Here’s my take on this question:  (3:20) Match Rates This student is claiming the 2016 data for DO match rate was 80.3%. However, when I bring up the 2016 match data, I see an unmatch rate of 13% - which is a match rate of 87%. So I'm not sure where this student was coming up with 80.3%. If you just look up DO match rates for 2016, the website comes up and it's the match data for the DO applications and has a list of every school. The highest school on here, the highest non-match school is at 28.6%, so that's a match rate of 71.4% which isn't very good at all. That school is Touro University in Nevada (TUNCOM) There are several different Touro schools and that is the worst one by far. The next closest one on here isn't far behind at 26.9% non-match, and that one is William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Mississippi. (5:15) Matching vs. Unmatched Percentage matched vs. Percentage Unmatched. The way that the AOA lists this, is they have percentage matched, percentage non-matched, and then percentage of non-participants. When you look at percentage matched, it's only 40.9% and you might think, 'Wow that's crazy, how come nobody's matching?' But then when you combine that with non-participants, DO students that are matching outside of the DO residency matching program (as a DO student you can match through the MD matching program and you're counted as a non-participant). When you look at the percentage matched at 40.9% and the percentage non-matched at 46.1%, the result is 87%, which is obviously the leftover from the non-match of 13%. So 87% of DO students are matching. (6:35) Is every spot getting filled? Not every prelim spot is getting filled. Now here's something to think about when it comes to residency matching. When I looked at the NRMP match data, they have the total match of 96.3% of all US spots filled. So not every residency spot is getting filled, which is not good. And when you look at it, you have several different types of programs that are more than likely not getting close to getting filled, and those are prelim spots. If I look at surgery prelim- and a prelim is a PGY1 year only. It's basically saying, 'Hey come to our prelim spot, and try out for our residency.' It is basically if you didn't match anywhere else, then a prelim spot you can hopefully come into our program after you do well your prelim year. If you look at surgery prelim according to NRMP, it only filled 64.4%. There were a lot of spots available. (8:00) Know yourself, and your competition If you’re not matching, you are probably trying to match into a very competitive program that you aren't qualified to match in. What does this all mean? It means that a lot of people that aren't matching are probably trying to match into a very competitive program that they aren't qualified to match in. It's very similar to trying to get accepted to Harvard, Yale, and Wash U medical schools when you have a 3.0 GPA and a 500 on the MCAT. You're dreaming a little bit too big, but it also could be that that year that you're applying for something is a very competitive year and a lot of people are trying to match into it and you just didn't make the cut. Typically, the students that go through the Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program (SOAP, formerly called Scramble) get notified during the time period before the match and are notified that you did not match. You then enter this SOAP program and you find residencies that didn't fill, and a lot of them are going to be PGY1 only spots. Some of them may be internal medicine spots and you wanted to do something else besides internal medicine. However, there are these other spots, and if you want to match into one of those programs you can go do that. There's a whole separate system outside of the normal match program to allow students that didn't match to get into a program so that they can continue their post-graduate training, which is necessary if you want to be a doctor here in the US. (9:38) Know when to ask questions, and which ones to ask My personal belief? You shouldn't look at residency matching rates for choosing which schools to apply to, with one exception. Look at those huge outliers like Touro Nevada, like William Carey University, and ask yourself: Why is their match rate so low? Are they a brand new school and they're just getting ramped up Perhaps their first round of students that they let in weren't the best students? Are they just getting their curriculum under control? Are they under some sort of probation because their curriculum isn't training students well enough? Then call the school and say, 'Hey I noticed your residency match rates are pretty terrible,' and find out from them what they have to say. If it's a school that you're interested in going to because the location is perfect for you, consider it. (10:45) Past performance does not predict future performance. It's like the stock market: it doesn't matter what the stock market did yesterday, it's not going to determine what it does tomorrow. It's a good predictor, it's a good kind of rule of thumb to think about it, but things change, people change, professors change, and you - the person that is actually learning and studying and figuring this all out, is one of the biggest variables to all of this. So if you are motivated, if you are driven, if you are determined to get whatever residency spot you want, then you will probably do well. You cannot rely on the school to help you match somewhere. The school is there to help support you, but you need the drive and motivation to do it yourself. (11:32) My Bottom line When it comes to residency matching and picking schools, look at those huge outliers, but outside of that I wouldn't look at residency programs to determine where you want to go to school. Locations, curriculum and many other factors come into play. Resources Mentioned on this Episode: http://www.oldpremeds.org American Osteopathic Association Intern and Residency Registration Program https://medicalschoolhq.net/pmy-215-why-do-you-want-to-be-a-doctor-you-need-to-know-this/ Touro University Nevada Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine