82. CORRELATIONS BETWEEN PEDIATRIC RESIDENCY PROGRAM INTERVIEW & RANKING PRACTICES AND MATCH OUTCOMES

Abstract

Background Applications to pediatric residency programs have increased in the last decade, creating pressure for applicants & programs. It is unclear how programs’ interviewing & ranking practices relate to match outcomes. Objective: Describe pediatric residency program interview & ranking strategies. Determine if these strategies would change if USMLE becomes pass/fail. Design We created a survey regarding current invitation & ranking practices, and if these practices would change if USMLE becomes pass/fail. We distributed the APPD approved survey to residency coordinators & associate program directors (APDs) in Spring 2019. We analyzed the data using nonparametric correlation & multivariate regression analysis. Results Of 153 programs surveyed, 60 coordinators and 32 APDs completed the survey, with 21% of programs completing the study. Interviewing (A=-0.38) & ranking (A=-0.36) more applicants correlated significantly with the rank list percentile of the lowest-matched applicant, but did not correlate with the top-matched applicant's rank. There were no significant correlations between number of interviews offered & average USMLE scores or type of matched applicant (US MD vs. non-US IMG). However, more invitations (A=0.46, 0.58), interviews (A=0.42, 0.54), & ranks (A=0.53, 0.60) were associated with higher average COMLEX (1, 2) scores. Having more available PGY1 positions was associated with higher incoming USMLE step (1, 2) scores (A=0.27, 0.61), & a greater proportion of US MD residents (A=0.29). On average, programs ranked USMLE/COMLEX (Fig. 1) scores as the primary criteria for offering interviews, therefore if the USMLE becomes pass/fail, many programs would need to change their selection strategy. Conclusion When controlling for the number of PGY1 positions, offering more interviews did not correlate with most characteristics of matched applicants, suggesting that pediatric residency programs could interview fewer applicants without meaningfully affecting match outcomes. Next steps include studying the correlation between application strategies & outcomes for applicants.