No Geographic Distribution Change Among Residency Applicants in the Neurology Match During COVID-19

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic posed a novel challenge for the 2020-2021 Match cycle resulting in a virtual interview season. The advent of virtual interviews raised concerns for both programs and medical students. The possibility of an impact on the application strategies for medical students resulting in students being more likely to remain in the region or state of their medical school was considered. We investigated whether there was a change in the geographic distribution of residency applicants for the class of 2025 (matched in 2021) as compared to the previous three application cycles (classes of 2022-2024) across all 168 neurology residency programs within the United States. MethodsPublicly available data from neurology program websites were compiled to record the location of resident medical schools and matched programs for the residency classes of 2022-2025. Missing or ambiguous information was cross-referenced to social media, (e.g. LinkedIn and Twitter). Statistical analyses were conducted utilizing SPSS 26 (IBM SPSS 26 Statistics for Windows, Armonk, NY). ResultsAcross all four classes, regional retention (students matching in the same region) was 70.2% for the Northeast, 59.6% for the Midwest, 52.9% for the South, and 59.4% for the West. No significant change between the residency class of 2025 and the previous three classes was present. DiscussionNo significant change to the geographic trends for candidates was seen with the virtual interview process for the 2020-2021 neurology Match. As has been seen in other fields, a strong regional preference, with the majority of residents matching to programs in the same regions as their medical school, was seen for neurology.

Relationship Between Residency Match Distance From Medical School and Virtual Application, School Characteristics, and Specialty Competitiveness

“…found supporting evidence that the virtual match process would result in students staying closer to their home institutions, but their analysis was limited to the same state versus different states [12]. We and others have found varying results for different specialties: no difference in matched distance for plastic surgery [13], neurology [14], or cardiology fellowship [15]; for otolaryngology [16], dermatology [17], and orthopedic surgery [18], students matched closer to their home institution.…”