Navigating the New World of Applying to Emergency Medicine

 If you have spent any time looking around the pages of this site you already know that a lot of the advice is quite outdated. We used to have some hard data on the Emergency Medicine Match, and where we lacked that there was expert consensus opinion from groups like the CORD-EM Advising Students Committee and the Emergency Medicine Residency Associate (EMRA). They even published a book together. There is still a lot of useful advice to found on topics like choosing EM and preparing for rotations. But the actual Match process has been turned upside down in the last few years.  In this post I am going to try to connect you with the best resources we have to help you navigate this new world.  

The CORD ASC-EM MyERAS Guide

This exceptional document takes you through all the changes to the ERAS application and includes balanced recommendations with transparency on where there is controversy or data is lacking. A must read for anyone applying to EM.  

The CORD ASC-EM Resources page

A compilation of various special population advising guides, virtual interview advice, student planners and much more. These guides do get updated annually, though the pace of change in the match has been hard to keep up with. 

EMRA Hangouts

This series of recorded discussions covers the changes to the EM application process for this application cycle. 

EMRA Match

The premiere residency (and clerkship) navigator program. The information is not perfect but the data provided is what previous applicants have asked for.  

ALiEM Match Advice Series

This podcast series is a great place to understand how the match has changed, how program directors look at these events, and to get additional insights on the updated ERAS process. 

Understanding the SLOE

EM has unique Standardized Letters of Evaluation (SLOE) that will be one of the most important parts of your application. This information page from CORD should help you better understand them. 

I hope you find these resources helpful.  

- Adam

Preference Signaling for Emergency Medicine - How to Use Your Program Signal Tokens well

Preference Signaling is Here

One of the biggest challenges for applying to Emergency Medicine residencies is conveying genuine interest. Just applying to a program is not sufficient as many students apply to programs they have no desire to train at. Over-application is a completely rational response to a system where it is difficult to assess personal competitiveness and where the consequences of not getting enough interviews can be not matching in your desired specialty. This still leaves programs attempting to sift the “serious” applicants out of the pool of those who apply. We use surrogate markers like geographic ties, applicant interests and experiences that align with program strengths, or recent experience with applicants from that school.  

In response a common practice developed of applicants also sending an emailed “letter of interest” outside ERAS. This is more work for the students and disliked by many Program Directors, especially when the letter did not add anything not already in the application they just received. If Program Director’s assume that applicants send these letters to all of the programs they applied to, they have no meaning.  

Enter the idea of “preference signaling” by applicants to programs. The applicant does not have to write an additional letter and the program knows this signal has value as each applicant is limited to 5. How this came to be is covered really well in the Council of Residency Directors in Emergency Medicine (CORD-EM) Preference/Program Signaling Supplemental Guide. What I want to discuss here is how to approach using your 5 precious signals. 

The goal is to positively influence Program Directors at places you have genuine interest and  who would not have offered you an interview if there was no signal. Right now we don’t know for sure how programs will respond to a signal, but we can make some educated assumptions. Based on surveys, discussion forums, and data from other specialties, it is likely that a signal will make most programs more likely to interview you. However, the big exception will be among programs who receive an overwhelming number of signals. They will either make a signal a requirement for them to consider an application or ignore the signals entirely. This choice will depend on their assumptions around how applicants will use the signals. 

Let's Talk Strategy

So how should you strategize using your signals? Here are a few general “rules” that apply to most applicants:

1. Use your signals on program you are genuinely interested in 

2. Don’t signal programs you are rotating at unless they explicitly tell you that you need to

3. Signals are best used on programs where you might get an interview, but are not definitely getting one

1. Don’t waste them on programs where the signal is unlikely to convince them to interview you

2. Don’t waste them on programs that are highly likely to interview you anyway

4. Use your signals on program you are genuinely interested in 

1. This is in here twice because there is real potential to over-game this system - don’t lose sight of the goal is to go somewhere you want

Even following those rules you can still come up with very different strategies for how to use your signals. Your training and career goals, self-assessment of your competitiveness as an applicant (aided by an experienced advisor) and your risk tolerance should all factor into your personal strategy.

Here are some examples that are a little more concrete: 

Maximum Value - For the applicant worried about their competitiveness for interviews. Use your signals on programs you are interested in BUT that you expect to NOT get a lot of signals (less popular locations, less well-known, newer, or other evidence of being a less competitive program). The less signals a program gets the greater value each signal has. 

Shooting for the Stars - For the applicant who is above average on paper and in the eyes of an experienced EM advisor. Use your signals on programs that are likely to get lots of signals. You will get many other interviews regardless and it may be necessary to signal the more “popular” programs to have a chance at an interview. 

Balanced - For most applicants who don’t want to overthink this. Use three signals on programs that you are genuinely interested in and that are realistic for you (nothing about the program is telling you that this should be a hard interview to get). Use one signal on a program you are really interested in but where you suspect you don’t have a realistic chance at an interview. Use one on an acceptable program you expect to not get a lot of signals. 

There is no evidence on what a “winning” strategy is for using Preference Signaling this year. If you have other ideas on how to approach this, put them in the comments below and we can talk them out.  

Most important take home:  Use your signals, and use them at places you are interested in. 

Adam Kellogg has not done a very good job keeping this site updated during the pandemic. That has been fixed now with most of the Advising “pages” updated for 2022. 

Consensus Statement on 2021-22 EM Match - Implications for Applicants

 The COVID-19 pandemic is anticipated to impact the 2021-22 Residency Application cycle, though in different ways than this past year.  The Coalition for Physician Accountability (CoPA) released guidelines for Away rotations in general and all of the Emergency Medicine stakeholder organizations put together a detailed Consensus Statement that you can read here.  

Despite this attempt to provide clarity, there are still a lot of questions as to what this really means for students, especially those without a traditional "home" rotation available.  

Below is some Q&A on common questions that have come up in response to these guidelines.

When can students complete "away" rotations?  These are not supposed to be available before August 1, 2021.  However, this restriction does not apply to students without a "home" rotation.  Those students can take the first available opportunity at an institution that is open to "away" rotators.  

How many rotations can students complete?  The recommendation is one or two rotations at Residency Programs (usually called something like "Sub-Internship" or "Advanced Elective").  If two rotations, then either one "home" and one "away" or two "away" rotations.  Other EM rotations do not count towards this total, including sub-specialty rotations (like Ultrasound or Pedi-EM) that take place at a Residency Program.  

What if I have two separate "home" sites available to me?  While this is not available for many students, you can do both, but you should then NOT do an away rotation.  If you are looking to be considered outside of the region where your medical school is you are likely to be better off doing only one of the "home" sites and doing an "away" rotation somewhere else you are interested in going to.  

How many SLOE's should I have this year?  The recommendation is two SLOE's from Residency Program Leadership (Residency SLOE).  The other letters in your application can be from the other types of SLOE's, but two Residency SLOE's should always take precedence in planning your application.  However, having just one of these letters is NOT going to be disqualifying.  Having three or four Residency SLOE's is strongly discouraged and will likely result in some application reviewers down-rating your application.  

Do I need to do an "away"?  Only having one Residency SLOE will not hurt your application.  However, there is added value in having two separate residencies evaluate your performance and candidacy for EM.  If one letter is not particularly strong the other letter can compensate for that, especially if growth is shown from one rotation to the next.  This is why EM has always preferred that students do two rotations.  The lack of a second SLOE may have hurt some applicants in the 2021 Match who would not have faced similar challenges getting interviews in a previous year when a second letter would have been available to provide reassurance.  

There is still a lot we don't know about what the 2021-22 Application cycle will look like, including whether interviews will be in-person, virtual, or a hybrid of the two.  

If you have other questions, or want some additional clarification, please submit those in the comments section below.

New Program outside Philadelphia and in the 2021 Match!

There is another new Emergency Medicine residency program that has been approved to recruit for this 2021 match.  The Pottstown/Phoenixville EM Residency in suburban Philadelphia will be in ERAS soon.  The Program Director, Ernest Leber, would like to hear from interested students through the email at the end of the message below:

I have been approved for a new EM program with Tower Health at Pottstown and Phoenixville Hospitals. Our program will  be a 3-year community EM program here in suburban Philly. We will have rotations at Pottstown, Phoenixville and Reading Hospitals. We have an excellent and enthusiastic group of physicians ready to train residents/learners.

We are recruiting for a July 2021 start. The process of getting listed in ERAS takes time but should be completed within the next couple of days which does not leave us much time for students to forward us their app and for us to interview. Please pass my email address on to any students you think may be interested in my program. They can email me directly to set up an interview before we get listed on ERAS.

Ernest.Leber@towerhealth.org

Thanks everyone
~Ernie

EM Application Uncertainty - What do we know?

There is a lot of concern on both sides of the Emergency Medicine residency application process.  Some programs have reported dramatic increases in the number of applications they have received.  Many students are worried by how few interviews they have been offered.  Has something fundamentally changed in the application process that can explain what is going on?  The answer is that yes, there has been a change, but there is not more competition for residency spots than in previous years.  

Below is a dive into the preliminary ERAS data for 2021 taken from the ERAS Statistics page at AAMC.org.  The data shows that applicants have not (or at least not yet) applied to substantially more programs than in previous years.

The answer to what is going on, unfortunately, does not have data to back it up.  Anecdotally, many EM residency programs are reporting that their interview acceptance rates are way up this year.  Applicants who get offered interviews are reportedly saying “yes” to almost all of them and are rarely cancelling.  This is different from previous years and is depriving other applicants of the chance to interview.  

Every year we see the applicants with the best on paper applications get the majority of the interview offers in the early stages.  As their schedule fills up they decline interviews which are then offered to other applicants.  So far this year, that is not happening.  With travel not being a barrier the “haves” are able to hoard interviews without repercussions. 

A US MD Senior guarding their collection of Emergency Medicine interview offers.

If you have more than 12-15 interviews:  it’s time to let some go.  Making decisions is a core skill in EM.  Each program offering you an interview already wants to match you.  You can narrow your list and cancel or decline the ones that are not in your top 15.

If you don’t have very many interviews: hang in there.  More are coming.  Either when your peers start to drop them or when programs add interview slots as they recognize that many of the applicants interviewing with them early in the process are not genuinely interested in their program. 

And now the data deep dive...

Looking at this data can help answer some questions about this unprecedented match year for Emergency Medicine.  First is the data followed by some analysis.

The total number of applicants to EM has been trending up steadily.  Folks do not appear to have been scared away by the front-line nature of EM. Instead, the steady growth in applicants has continued.  It is important to note that this increase has been accompanied by a steady increase in the number of residency spots available, both from new EM Residencies opening and existing residencies increasing their class sizes.

In addition, the data in this table make it look like DO applicants have just discovered the wonders of EM, but that is not what is really going on.  Instead this data just reflects the move to a single-accreditation system under the ACGME.  All DO applicants to EM are now shown here, not just those who applied to ACGME residencies (by 2021 all residencies are under the ACGME).  

The Bottom Line: The number of applicants to EM has NOT gone up in a way that will affect your chances of matching.   

According to this data, which is preliminary, the number of applications per applicant has actually leveled off for the last few years for both US MD and DO applicants.  That big climb in DO applications is deceptive as it did not include the applications to osteopath-only programs before the merger.  IMG applicants have steadily increased their numbers of applications.  

What we don’t see here is the expected increase in applications due to uncertainty.  If this holds it may reflect improved dissemination and uptake of application advice.  Or there could be another wave of applications coming as applicants panic over not getting sufficient interviews.  We shall see. 

Bottom Line:  So far, there has not been an increase in the number of applications per applicant, despite anecdotal reports by residency programs of significantly increased application numbers.  

This table argues against a generalized increase in the number of applications programs are receiving. Some programs may be seeing a significant surge in applications, but there does not appear to be a dramatic increase for most programs.  One possibility is that there has been a real increase in the number of applicants at programs that were prohibitively expensive for applicants to apply to.  This could be programs in areas that required most applicants to fly to.  For example, a student on the east coast (where there is a heavy concentration of medical schools) faced a significant cost to interview on the west coast.  That financial barrier is gone. 

Conversely, if some programs have seen a significant increase in the number of applications they have received, but the overall average number has barely changed (+33 from 2019), then there would have to be a group of programs that have seen their number of applications decrease.  

The Bottom Line:  There will be more competition for interviews at some programs, but not at all.   

If you have questions, comments, or other interpretations of this data, please share them in the comments and we will try to figure this out together.

Where are the Emergency Medicine interviews? Asking for a friend...

On October 21 at 8 am EST your meticulously crafted ERAS applications were sent to your chosen EM Residency Programs.  Now you are waiting to hear who wants to meet you in a virtual interview.  And waiting.  It's been 5 days?!?  Where are the interviews?!?!

(I know you don't really feel this way.  You get that to do proper application review takes time. But it is human nature to worry and to self-doubt, so I wanted to share some concrete information that may help in a year when there is a pronounced lack of solid information to go on.)

This year the County Program Unified Release Date is November 2* at 12 pm EST.  

This means that any program that is part of this agreement will not offer their interview spots until then.  Most of the self-identified "county" EM residencies participate, as do many other EM programs for whom this date makes sense.  This year it is reasonable to expect that the majority of the first wave of interview offers will go out around November 2.  

Therefore, there is no reason to panic right now.  Even if you don't have 12 interviews by November 4, it is still NOT time to panic.  After this first wave of offers there will be more.  Many programs do not release all their interview spots right away and all programs will have openings as applicants rearrange their schedules as higher priority interviews become available.  Every year this process takes a while to sort itself out.  

Have a look at this reference page on on the mechanics of interview season and submit your questions in the comments below.  

*A previous version of this post listed the Unified Release Date as November 3rd.  

Last Minute Questions for the Emergency Medicine Match

On Wednesday October 21 your applications will go to the EM Residency Programs you applied to.  So we are going to try to answer some common last minute questions that a lot of folks are asking.  These are questions where there is no evidence base for answers/recommendations, so what you are getting is one advisors opinion, informed by conversations with other advisors and PD's.

Question 1:  How should I describe work, research and volunteer experiences in ERAS - bullets or paragraph?  

Either is fine.  Applicants are paying more attention than usual to how they complete the ERAS application, probably because they have more time on their hands to craft and perfect these entries.  Just make sure you concisely explain what you did and what your role was.  This won't affect how programs rate your application.

Question 2:  Should I customize my Personal Statement to different regions or even to different programs?  

Maybe.  In previous years (and posts) I have pretty strongly said "no" - because this is a poor use of time and Program Directors generally felt this comes across as "too desperate" and unnecessarily raises concerns: "what is wrong with this persons application that they think they need to do this".  HOWEVER, this year is probably different.  You do not have the ability to do Away Rotations to demonstrate interest in a specific region or type of program.  You can and should use the "hometown" section of the application to clarify regions you have a connection to.  It is also common to include in your Personal Statement a section (usually closing paragraph) that describes what you are looking for in a Residency Program: academically and geographically.  And it would also be reasonable to have different versions of this closing paragraph for different geographies or types of programs.  This is OPTIONAL.  It may not help.  It may even hurt you if interpreted as desperation.  BUT, if you are concerned that there is no other way to make clear your interest in a region or in a type of program, then this MAY be helpful.  

Question 3:  Should I hold a spot for a late arriving letter or just fill all four spots with what I have now?

Hold a spot if it is an eSLOE from a residency program.  This application season is starting later than in years past but the date of the Match has not changed.  Programs are on a compressed timeline to review applications, and offer and complete interviews and rank lists.  And we all expect to interview more applicants than we normally do.  Programs will look at whatever you have on October 21 as they make INITIAL interview offers.  A late arriving letter can still impact your chances of getting a "wait list" interview when someone cancels later in the season.  Only an eSLOE from a residency program is a valuable enough addition to your application to move a program from "maybe" to "interview".  Other letters, even O-SLOE's, are unlikely to make a difference late in the process.

Question 4:  Should I be doing more than 10-12 interviews this year because programs are interviewing more people?    

Yes, but not many more.  The number of interviews (and ranks on your rank list) needed to reliably match in EM has been steady for many years at 10-12.  Even with the number of applications submitted per applicant steadily increasing over the last decade this number has not changed (because the number of residency spots has grown at the same pace as the number of people who are applying).  Ranking 10-12 programs gives a 95%+ chance of matching in EM.  BUT, that is based on non-pandemic application cycles.  This year we anticipate applicants are going to apply to more programs (because they have more available funds with interviews being virtual and less ability to audition) and programs will interview more applicants because they are worried that many of their applicants are not really interested but are just panic-applying.  HOWEVER, residency programs are limited in how much they can increase the number of interviews they do.  On the program end the virtual interview process takes just as much faculty and coordinator time, AND possibly more time, if you account for the challenges of trouble-shooting virtual interviews.  So while an applicant can pretty easily (though not wisely) double the number of applications they send out, the programs will need to make a huge investment of resources just to increase their number of interviews by 20-30%.  If you are an applicant without extenuating circumstances, like being in a complicated couples match, you can do 12-15 interviews and be confident in matching.  AND for most of you 12-15 is overkill, just like 10-12 was overkill for most applicants over the last decade (1/3 of applicants match to their #1 and more than half match in their top 3).  

Question 5:  Wait a minute!  I should be doubling the number of programs I apply to?!?

NO!  That is totally unnecessary.  But fear and uncertainty have steadily driven up the number of applications per applicant for the last decade.  And this year has produced an abundance of fear and uncertainty.  As an applicant your chances of matching are exactly the same as they have been in the past.  The proportion of available EM residency spots to applicants who want them (spots/applicants) has not changed.  Because you can't go to most of the programs you will eventually rank the most important thing to do this year is research programs throughout the process.  Hopefully you have been doing this already.  You want to make good use of your interview time so choose places to apply that you are actually interested in and have already vetted for matching what you are looking for.  A plan of "apply to a ton, see where you get interviews, and then learn about the programs on interview day" is going to work even more poorly than usual this year.  Programs are going to be looking to interview applicants who are obvious fits for their program: geographically and academically.  A smart application is one where most of the programs on your "core list" (the 20-30 realistic programs, NOT the longshots) make sense for you. Your geographic ties are clear: connection from med school, college, work/life spent there, or explained in PS.  AND your academic profile (degree, scores, specialty interests like US, wild med, research, etc.) match what they advertise they are looking for.  

I bet these questions generate even MORE questions.  We will try to respond quickly to anything you put in the comments section, so fire away!

Alternative SLOE's for Emergency Medicine in the 2021 COVID Match

EM Residency Programs will start seeing applications on October 21st.  The goal is to have all of your Letters of Recommendation uploaded to your application by that date, which has been pushed back compared to previous years.  Despite more time to complete rotations most applicants in the 2021 match have not had access to as many EM rotations as in a "normal year". 

To address this the Council of Residency Directors for Emergency Medicine (CORD-EM)  created several additional SLOE templates for use by letter writers who are NOT faculty at an EM Residency Program.  

1. The SLOE Sub-Specialty Rotation - for use by EM Sub-specialty Clerkship Directors (Pedi EM, Ultrasound, Toxicology, etc.)
2. The SLOE Non-EM RESIDENCY Faculty - for Emergency Physicians not affiliated with a residency program (community hospital or academic center without a residency).  
3. The O-SLOE - The "O" stands for "other rotation" or "Off service".  This is for non-EM letter writers like Trauma, Family Med, Critical Care, IM, etc.  

Ask all your letter writers to use these letter templates.  They guide the writer to give the EM Program Directors the information they want to know.  This is not always intuitive to writers from other disciplines.  

While these alternative SLOE's should be a significant improvement from traditional narrative letters the expected hierarchy of letters remains: 

SLOE from EM Program Leadership >> EM Sub-specialty SLOE or SLOE from EM Faculty at a Residency Program > SLOE from EM Faculty NOT at a Program > O-SLOE >>>>>Narrative letter

 Program Directors expect that letters of recommendation will remain the most important part of your application to Emergency Medicine, so make sure you get the right ones.   

Changes to ERAS Application Timeline and Virtual Interviews

The advising information on this blog has been updated to reflect what we knew about the process before the COVID-19 pandemic turned everything upside down.  As the changes to the process for the 2021 Emergency Medicine Match start to become clear we are going to start sharing that information.  

There are major updates on the timing of the application cycle and how interviews are likely to be conducted.

First, ERAS is making this announcement:
"ERAS has determined that on Wednesday, October 21, 2020, residency programs will gain access to applications and MSPEs will be released to residency programs. These date changes are reflected on the ERAS 2021 Residency Application Timeline."

This is a significant delay from previous years when ERAS opened to programs on September 15 and the MSPE arrived on October 1.  The clear benefit of this change is that there will be another full month of rotations that can generate letters of recommendation (SLOE's) that will arrive in time for the initial application review by programs.  That review will start in earnest that last week of October.  The beginning of interviews will likely be pushed back several weeks as well, though this will vary by program.

On the subject of interviews, the AAMC just released a recommendation that all interviewing should be conducted virtually.  This is NOT a binding directive, at least not yet.  It would be reasonable to expect that at least some interviews in this upcoming application season will be done over video chat.

While the rationale for this recommendation is clearly to reduce the health risks associated with travel, there is the additional benefit of eliminating travel costs for the applicant. Given how much money is spent on the application and interview process, it is quite possible that the adoption of video-interviewing will be a lasting change in the interview process.

What we do not yet know is the impact these changes, and those that follow, will have on applicant and program behavior.  As more information becomes available we will provide further updates.  For now, applicants should continue to work on getting 2 EM rotations, knowing that clerkships ending in mid-October will now yield SLOE's that programs will be able to review.

COVID-19 and the 2021 EM Match: Everything on this site is wrong!

We have endeavored to keep the advice on this site based on the best evidence and consensus recommendations, AND thoroughly up to date with changes in the EM Match.  That has all gone out the window with the COVID-19 Pandemic (plus Step 1 going to Pass/Fail and the SVI getting cancelled).  As anyone reading this probably knows, most medical schools are banning travel by students and limiting the clinical contact they are allowed to have at home.  Most hospitals are also not accepting visiting students.  And we don't know when this will end or what "normal" will look like when things get back to "normal".

The Advising Students Committee (ASC-EM) of the Council of Residency Directors in EM (CORD-EM) authored this Consensus Statement to start to address the impact COVID-19 is going to have students in the 2021 EM Match.  We urge you to read this through as it will hopefully offer some reassurance that the students are not being forgotten, and give you an idea of what is planned to support you. 

As for the problem of everything on this site being wrong, that is going to take a while.  When one of our authors gets COVID and is sent home to self-quarantine all the updates will happen quickly. Until then, like the folks delivering all my Amazon packages, cleaning the empty shelves at the grocery store, and working around the clock making more PPE (thank you!), we are a little short on time.

We will get the Applying Pages updated for this scary new world. In the meantime, stay safe and start studying for Step 2.

Adam Kellogg is an Associate Residency Director, past Chair of the ASC-EM, a contributor to the Consensus Statement, and a master of social distancing.  

Another New Program: Nazareth in Philadelphia

There is another new EM Residency Program already accredited for the 2020 Match.  In most cases, now is too late in the cycle to apply to more EM programs and expect them to take your application seriously, but a new program is going to be different.

From their Program Director, Kanika Gupta:

Nazareth Hospital is a new ACGME accredited program located in northeast Philadelphia. We are a three year program looking for both PGY 1 and 2 residents to start July 2020.  Please spread the word! Thanks!

Kanika Gupta, M.D.
Residency Program Director
Department of Emergency Medicine
Nazareth Hospital

https://www.trinityhealthma.org/healthcare-professionals/gme/nazareth/emergency-medicine/

The Unified Program Release Date

In an effort to add some additional standardization to the interview scheduling process a group of EM Residency Programs has agreed to use a common interview release date.  Only a subset of programs are able to wait until this date to offer interviews.  Hopefully this can give some reassurance to anyone who is already worried they have not received enough interview offers. 

Here are the details sent out by Dr. Jennie Buchanon, APD at Denver Health:

The County Program of Community Practice is proceeding with the unified interview release date again this year.

• Unified Release Date October 15th invites out at 12pm Eastern Standard Time
• October 16th 12pm Eastern Standard Time Interview Broker Opens for scheduling

***************

The following institutions are participating:

UCSF Fresno

Boston Medical Center

Kingman Regional Medical Center

Mount Sinai Medical Center Miami Beach

UT Health San Antonio

SUNY Upstate

Cook County

LAC+USC

Denver Health

UT Southwestern

Emory

UF Jacksonville

UMKC University of Missouri-Kansas City

Metro - Cleveland

SUNY Downstate

Jacobi/Montefiore

JPS (John Peter Smith)

Arrowhead Regional Medical Center

Hennepin

Highland

UC Irvine

McGovern Med at UTHealth (formerly UT Houston)

Loyola University Medical Center

UCSF-SFGH

University of New Mexico (UNM)

Virginia Tech Carilion

Newark Beth Israel Medical Center

LSU New Orleans

Henry Ford Hospital

Mount Sinai in NYC (for clarification The Mount Sinai Hospital program not Mount Sinai- St Lukes/West)

University at Buffalo

New Program: Ochsner in New Orleans!

We are in new program announcement season!  Another new program has announced that they are recruiting for the 2020 match:

"The Emergency Medicine Residency Program at Ochsner Clinic Foundation in New Orleans, Louisiana has received its initial accreditation and that we will be accepting applications through ERAS for our first class of 6 residents to begin July 1, 2020.

The Emergency Department at Ochsner is a busy tertiary medical center in New Orleans. We are a multi-specialty tertiary care receiving facility and the hub of the Ochsner Healthcare System. We currently have residency programs in Anesthesiology, Internal Medicine, Neurology, OB-GYN, Orthopedics Surgery, Pediatrics, Podiatry, Psychiatry, Radiology, Surgery and Urology, and will be looking to add additional programs in future years.

For residents looking to get in on the ground floor of a program with a tremendous educational opportunity, this is an ideal fit!  Ochsner has made a commitment to the growth of Graduate Medical Education and I am very excited about the future of medical education at Ochsner.

Please let your students know to look for us in ERAS (1102100171) and to contact me with any questions about the program. Our website is:

 

education.ochsner.org/gme/training-programs/...
Regards from NOLA,

_______________________________________________________________________

https://www.ochsner.org

------------------------------
Sal J. Suau, MD
Program Director
Ochsner Health System
New Orleans, LA

New Programs: Summa Health in Ohio and HealthQuest in New York

A couple more programs have announced that they will be interviewing for the match this year.  Summa Health is re-establishing an EM residency and HealthQuest will be based in a new hospital in Poughkeepsie, NY.  Please read the messages below from their Program Directors to learn more about these  atypical programs.  Many reading this will say, "I don't want any part of a new program".  That means that these are exactly what some other folks are looking for (places that may not get inundated with applications). 

Summa Health - Akron, Ohio

"I am excited to announce that the ACGME has granted Summa Health initial accreditation for emergency medicine. As some of you know, I began my career at Summa and came back to facilitate the accreditation. We have wonderful facilities, 85,000 patient volume in our main ED, great metrics, great faculty, and a dedicated system-wide GME apparatus. I am excited to begin interviewing for our first class!"

Michael S. Beeson, M.D., MBA, FACEP
Program Director, Department of Emergency Medicine

President-elect, American Board of Emergency Medicine

Professor of Emergency Medicine, Northeast Ohio Medical University
Summa Health
525 E. Market St.

PO Box 2090 | Akron, OH 44309-2090

p 330.375.6876 f 330.375.3008beesonm@summahealth.org

HealthQuest Vassar Brothers in Poughkeepsie, NY

The HealthQuest EM Residency Program with a primary clinical training site at Vassar Brothers Medical Center, Poughkeepsie, NY will be reviewed for accreditation by the ACGME RRC-EM in January, 2020. We are optimistic that we will be successful in receiving initial accreditation at that time and in anticipation of that we will begin interviews for an inaugural class to start July, 2020. We are not able to participate in ERAS yet but we are accepting applications via e-mail that must include your recommendation letters, CV, personal statement, Dean's letter, and USMLE scores. Sending a copy of your common ERAS applications is encouraged. Please send all application materials and further inquiries to Julia Demboski, Program Manager, jdembos1@health-quest.org or Marc Borenstein, MD, Program Director, mborenst@health-quest.org. Please visit the HealthQuest/Nuvance website www.healthquest.org for further information about the HealthQuest/Nuvance organization as well as the opening of a new Vassar Brothers Medical Center Hospital and Emergency Department in early 2020 as well as plans that are underway for the opening of a medical school in partnership with Marist College in 2022-2023.

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Marc Borenstein
Program Director
Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center
Poughkeepsie NY

New Program: Valley Health System in Las Vegas!

For those looking to expand their search or escape to warm weather, there is a new program in Las Vegas:

 "I am pleased to announce that our new EM program at Valley Health System in Las Vegas, NV has just received initial accreditation.  We will be using ERAS and NRMP to obtain our initial class of 8 residents for July, 2020. Our program utilizes a diverse group of four teaching ED's and a rural EM curriculum.  Although we welcome applicants of diverse backgrounds, we are not able to sponsor any visas.

 Please feel free to forward this notice to any EM residency applicant that you feel would benefit from the opportunities presented by our new program. Our program should be listed in ERAS starting today.  Qualified applicants will be scheduled for in-person interviews.

• ERAS/NRMP #:2201110C0
• ACGME #: 1103100191
• Program email: VHSEmergencyMedicine@uhsinc.com

 Anyone with specific questions, please feel free to contact me."

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Thomas Swoboda, MD, MS, CPE
Residency Program Director
The Valley Health System
Las Vegas NV

EMATCH - the tool to develop your EM application strategy

Wondering if you will be competitive in EM? Worried you might have trouble with your match in EM? Wish you knew what program directors are looking for? - Then EMATCH is the tool for you

The Emergency Medicine Applicant Tool of Common Hangups(EMATCH) is a tool developed by the Council of Residency Directors in Emergency Medicine(CORD EM) Application Process Improvement Committee to help EM applicants identify at risk characteristics within their application and help all applicants strategize to maximize their EM application. This tool uses NRMP data, AAMC data, best practice advising from CORD's Advising Student Committee(ASC EM) with links to their numerous resources, and AAMC's Apply Smart. It also links to Emergency Medicine Residents' Association Match tool, your best resource as you develop your individualized application plan. 

If you are interested in using the tool please read the consent below and click this EMATCH link.

Dear Emergency Medicine Applicant:

You are being invited to take part in a research study seeking to understand perceptions of competitiveness in Emergency Medicine.  As part of this study, we invite you to complete the online Emergency Medicine Application Tool for Common Hang-ups (EMATCH) questionnaire. 

Your responses will help inform and improve our understanding of current applicant perceptions of competitiveness. Your responses are anonymous. The demographic data we are collecting includes your Medical School year, gender, ethnicity, and race. These will be used to ensure we have a representative sample. No identifying information is included in the survey. 

Taking part in this research study is totally your choice. You can decide not to participate or to stop taking part in this research study at any time for any reason by stopping the survey. Doing so will not affect how you are treated at Baystate Medical Center and will not affect your educational standing or applicant status.

We hope to recruit at least 250 subjects to complete the questionnaire.

Risks and Costs: There are no risks or costs associated with this study. Though unlikely, you may feel uncomfortable answering some questions on the survey, so you may choose to skip questions. However, your participation in this study benefits your education and the education of future applicants by contributing to a better understanding of perceptions of competitiveness and giving you direct access to evidence based advising. 

If you agree to take part in this research study, your personal information will not be linked back to you. Data will be kept in a password-protected database, accessible only by the PI, Dr. Lucienne Lutfy-Clayton.

Who to Contact:For questions about the study or if you believe you have experienced a complication or injury as a result of participating in this study, please contact the PI, Lucienne Lutfy-Clayton, by phone or email (see below). If you have question about your rights as a research study subject, call the Baystate Medical Center Institutional Review Board (IRB) at (413) 794-4356.  

Next Steps:  If you choose to participate, please complete the EMATCH Questionnaire. Your completed survey will serve as your consent to participate in the study. 

If you choose not to participate in the study, you may keep this consent sheet for your future information. 

This research study has been reviewed and approved by the IRB of Baystate Medical Center. 

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (PI) CONTACT INFORMATION:

Lucienne Lutfy-Clayton MD, Assistant Professor UMMS Baystate

Email: lucienne.lutfy-clayton@baystatehealth.org; Phone number 413-794-5999

Department of Emergency Medicine, 759 Chestnut St, Springfield MA 01199

Lucienne Lutfy-Clayton is an APD at UMMS Baystate and the immediate past chair of CORD's API committee. This tool has been her white whale over the past few years and is finally ready for prime time. Let us know what you think and how we can help.