Abstract 10670: Impact of Virtual Interviewing on Geographic Placement in the Cardiology Fellowship Match

Abstract

Introduction: Virtual interviewing for cardiology fellowship was instituted in the 2021 fellowship application cycle due to the COVID-19 pandemic and restricted travel. It is unknown what impact this has had on geographic patterns of fellow-training program matching. Our aim was to determine if there was a significant difference in the geographic placement in the cardiology fellowship match based on virtual interviews compared to prior years with in-person interviewing. Methods: All U.S. based accredited cardiovascular disease fellowship programs that participated in the 2019-2021 fellowship match cycles were identified. Those that had publicly available data regarding fellow residency training and training year were included. Each fellow was categorized based on their fellowship program and residency training as from the same program, from the same state, from the same region or from a different region. These were mutually exclusive categories. Results: Of the 236 eligible programs, 118 programs (50%) had available data for the 2019-2021 application cycles. Cumulatively n=1787 total fellows were identified. Compared to the pre-virtual cohort (n=1178 matched fellows) there was no difference in the geographic placement during the 2021 virtual cycle (n=609 matched fellows) including the proportion that matched at the same program (30.6% vs 31.5%, p=0.738), in the same state (13% vs 13.8%, p=0.719), same region (24.2% vs 19.7%, p=0.164), or different region (35% vs 33.1%, p=0.274). There was also no difference when stratified by small, medium, or large program size or geographic region. Conclusions: The use of virtual interviewing in the 2021 cardiology fellowship application cycle did not result in a significant difference in the geographic placement of fellows. Further study is needed to evaluate the impact of virtual interviewing and optimize its use in fellowship recruitment.