Introduction: Although studies have evaluated the economic burden to medical students desiring an orthopaedic residency broadly, no study has evaluated in detail the application costs, away rotation costs, interview costs, and total costs. Given that the Association of American Medical Colleges and the American Orthopaedic Association's Council of Orthopaedic Residency Directors have recommended orthopaedic surgery residency programs for the 2021 residency application cycle cancel away rotations and in-person interviews, our objective was to evaluate the cost savings to medical students applying during this time and the potential implications. Methods: Using the 2019 to 2020 Texas STAR Dashboard database, we queried responses from applicants applying to orthopaedic surgery residency. The dashboard was queried to record the application costs, away rotation costs, interview costs, and total costs for medical school seniors applying to orthopaedic surgery residency. Demographic information for applicants was also recorded. Mean and median costs were reported with percentile distributions and geographic comparisons. A Kruskal-Wallis H test was used to determine whether there were statistically significant differences in mean costs by medical school region. Results: The 2019 to 2020 Texas STAR Dashboard database had 473 responses from applicants to orthopaedic surgery residency. The mean application costs were $1,990, away rotation costs were $3,182, interview costs were $3,129, and total costs were $8,205. The mean total costs for applicants from Midwest schools were significantly less than Western schools ($7,410/applicant vs. $9,909/applicant) (p = 0.008). There was no significant difference between the mean application fees between regions. Away rotation costs for applicants from schools in the Midwest ($2,413/applicant) were significantly less compared with Northeast ($3,279/applicant), South ($3,343/applicant), and West ($3,913/applicant) (all p < 0.002). Interview costs for applicants from schools in the Northeast ($2,891/applicant) were less than applicants from Western US schools ($3,831/applicant) (p = 0.038). Conclusion: In the COVID-19 era, orthopaedic residency applicants could save on average $6,311 through the use of virtual interviews and lack of away rotations. There are geographic implications, with applicants from Western US medical schools potentially saving most.
Background: In 2020, the American Council of Academic Plastic Surgeons and the Association of American Medical Colleges recommended residency programs suspend away rotations and in-person interviews. This study quantifies applicant costs and potential savings in the residency application process resulting from that change, while also evaluating differences in cost with respect to geographic region of the applicant. Methods: A retrospective evaluation of the 2019–2020 Texas STAR (Seeking Transparency in Application to Residency) database was conducted. We queried responses from plastic surgery residency applicants, including expenses associated with the application, away rotations, interviews, and total costs for medical school seniors. Applicant characteristics were recorded. A Kruskal-Wallis H-test was used to evaluate differences in mean costs by medical school region. Results: In total, 117 US allopathic applicants to plastic surgery residency were included. Total expenses for the application cycle were $10,845. This was made up of $1638 in application costs, $4074 in away rotation costs, and $5486 in interview costs. No significant differences were observed for mean total costs for applicants from schools in the Central ($11,045/applicant), Northeast ($9696/applicant), South ($11,332/applicant), and West ($11,205/applicant) ( P = 0.209). Conclusion: Assuming relatively minimal expenditures related to a virtual interview cycle and lack of away rotations in 2021, the average cost savings for plastic surgery residency applicants during the COVID-19 pandemic was estimated to be over $9000.
Background Orthopaedic surgery is one of the most competitive specialties for residency applicants. For the 2021 residency match, the coronavirus-19 pandemic introduced complexity for programs and applicants because away rotations were limited and in-person interviews were cancelled. This may have changed the landscape in terms of expenses for candidates in important ways, but this topic has been insufficiently studied. Questions/purposes Given that in 2021, students did not attend away rotations and all interviews were held virtually, we asked (1) What were the financial savings associated with this change? (2) Was medical school geographic region associated with differences in expenses when applying to residency? Methods A retrospective, cross-sectional analysis of the 2020 and 2021 Texas Seeking Transparency in Application to Residency Dashboard database was performed. The data were derived from an online survey of a nationwide pool of applicants from 87% (123 of 141) of US allopathic medical schools upon conclusion of the match. The response percentage was 29% (521 of 1794). We believe this nationwide dataset represents the largest and most current data for this applicant group. Responses from applicants applying to orthopaedic surgery residency in the year before the COVID-19 pandemic application changes (2020) and during COVID-19 (2021) were queried and compared. After the orthopaedic surgery match, the database was evaluated for individual (application costs, away rotation expenses, and interview expenses) and total expenses for medical school seniors applying to orthopaedic surgery residency. Applicant characteristics were compared between application cycles. The 2020 to 2021 Texas Seeking Transparency in Application to Residency Dashboard database had 521 responses (n = 263 in 2020 and n = 258 in 2021) from applicants applying to orthopaedic surgery residency. Demographic and applicant characteristics were comparable between application cycles. Median expenses are reported with percentile distributions and geographic comparisons. A Mann-Whitney U test or Kruskal-Wallis H test was used to determine whether there were statistically significant differences in expenses between years and between medical school regions at a p value threshold of < 0.05.Each author certifies that there are no funding or commercial associations (consultancies, stock ownership, equity interest, patent/licensing arrangements, etc.) that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article related to the author or any immediate family members. All ICMJE Conflict of Interest Forms for authors and Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research® editors and board members are on file with the publication and can be viewed on request. Ethical approval for this study was waived by the institutional review board from Maimonides Medical Center,
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