What is the Orthopaedic Surgery Residency Match?
The National Residency Matching Program was established in 1952. Prior to this time, fourth year medical students considered offers from residency programs on an individual basis. After a series of flawed attempts at uniformity, a centralized match process with an updated and stable algorithm was created. This is what became known as the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP).
The applicant first registers for the match through the NRMP website, and then uses the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) to electronically submit all pertinent application materials to residency programs. These materials include transcripts, USMLE scores, letters of recommendation, and the applicant’s personal statement.
Medical schools begin distributing MyERAS tokens to fourth year students in June. The MyERAS website opens to applicants on July 1, 2009, and they can begin working on their applications at this point. On September 1, applicants can begin applying to ACGME accredited residency programs. The medical student performance evaluation (MSPE) is released from medical schools to residency programs on November 1. Most residency programs wait until this point to begin seriously evaluating applicants and sending out interview invites. Although most interview invites for orthopaedic surgery residency programs are sent out in November and December, some programs begin sending them out in October. Most interviews for Orthopaedic Surgery residency programs are conducted in December and January. The interview will typically last one day or one half-day, with a social event the night before.
Between interviews and the actual match process, applicants and residency programs begin constructing their “rank order lists.” This is a list of each applicants preferred programs, and each programs preferred applicants, listed in order of the most highly desired. The rank order list opens on the NRMP on January 15, and the rank order list closes on February 24. Match Day occurs this year on March 18, 2010.
An applicant can only rank programs that he or she interviewed at. It is in the applicant’s best interest to rank his most preferred program first, regardless of whether he thinks he is most competitive at that program. The current algorithm used by the NRMP during the match process was developed in 1998 and favors the preference of the applicant. The Monday before match day is known as “Black Monday.” On this day, if an applicant was not successfully matched with a residency program, they will receive notification. They then have the next couple of days to “scramble” into another program, either in the same or a different specialty.
In 2009, 157 residency programs offered a total of 641 positions in orthopaedic surgery. 757 U.S. medical school seniors and 957 total applicants, including foreign medical graduates (FMG’s) and international medical graduates (IMG’s), received at least one interview. 91.6% of open spots were filled by U.S. medical graduates, and 99.8% of open spots in orthopaedic surgery residencies were ultimately filled in the match. Only one position in orthopaedic surgery was not filled. The average USMLE Step 1 score for applicants that matched into orthopaedic surgery in 2009 was a 238, the highest in the history of the match.
By (author) Rajani, M.D. Katta, Samir P. Desai
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By (author) Laith M. Jazrawi MD, Kenneth A. Egol MD, Joseph D. Zuckerman MD
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Charting Outcomes in Orthopaedic Surgery
