EM Match Advice: Program Directors Reflect on the 2021 Residency Match

Posted by Michael Gisondi, MD on

Dr. Mike Gisondi and Dr. Michelle Lin return for their annual review of the most recent Match in emergency medicine (EM) in latest episode of EM Match Advice. They were joined by a panel of 3 outstanding program directors, Dr. Jacob Ufberg (Temple), Dr. Amita Sudhir (University of Virgina), and Dr. William Caputo (Staten Island Medical Center). Was the EM Match more competitive this year? That’s a complicated question and you need to listen to the podcast discussion for the nuanced answer.

The Slide: The Nitty Gritty Annual Numbers of the EM Match

“The Slide” above is a summary of EM Match statistics taken from the annual National Residency Matching Program (NRMP) Data and Results publication over the last 10 years. Trends suggest that EM is becoming less competitive year over year; however, 2021 saw the greatest number of unmatched medical students who were EM bound. What are the most competitive specialties and how does EM compare? Generally, we use the % fill rate with LCME students to determine the competitiveness of a specialty. That is the % of entry-level positions filled by allopathic senior medical students from the US, Puerto Rico, and Canada. Who’s on top this year? Four combined programs that each have very few PGY-1 positions in the match all filled with 100% LCME students: EM-anesthesiology, medicine-anesthesiology, pediatrics-anesthesiology, and pediatrics-PMR. Here’s how a few of the other specialties fared:

  • Thoracic surgery 93.5%
  • Plastic surgery 89.3%
  • Vascular surgery 82.3%
  • Orthopedic surgery 80.5%
  • Obstetrics-gynecology 66.7%
  • Surgery 65.6%
  • Emergency medicine 62.1%
  • Pediatrics 60.3%
  • Radiology 58.2%
  • Internal medicine 39%

Podcast: Program Directors Reflecting on the 2021 EM Residency Match

Read and Listen to the other EM Match Advice Episodes

Blog posts: https://www.aliem.com/em-match-advice-series/

Author information

Michael Gisondi, MD

Associate Professor and Vice Chair of Education

Department of Emergency Medicine

Stanford University
Editor, ALiEM EM Match Advice series

The post EM Match Advice: Program Directors Reflect on the 2021 Residency Match appeared first on ALiEM.


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