Recommendations from the Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors: Osteopathic Applicants

Abstract

The Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors (CORD) Advising Students Committee (ASC-EM) has previously published student advising recommendations for general emergency medicine (EM) applicants in an effort to disseminate standardized information to students and potential advisors. As the shift to a single graduate medical education system occurs by 2020, osteopathic students will continue to represent a larger portion of matched EM applicants, but data shows that their match rate lags that of their allopathic peers, with many citing a lack of access to knowledge EM advisors as a major barrier. Based on available data and experiential information, a sub-group of ASC-EM committee sought to provide quality, evidence-based advising resources for students, their advisors, and medical leadership. The recommendations advise osteopathic students to seek early mentorship and get involved in EM-specific organizations. Students should take Step 1 of the United States Medical Licensing Exam and complete two EM rotations at academic institutions to secure two Standardized Letters of Evaluation and consider regional and program-specific data on percentage of active osteopathic residents.

The Prevalence of Disability Health Training and Residents With Disabilities in Emergency Medicine Residency Programs

“…A cross‐sectional study design was used to survey EM residency program directors (PDs) in the United States from September to October 2019. Participants met inclusion criteria if they were a PD in one of the 237 ACGME‐accredited EM programs at the time of data collection 19 . Other program leadership such as associate/assistant directors were excluded to limit responses to one per residency program.…”

“…Participants met inclusion criteria if they were a PD in one of the 237 ACGME-accredited EM programs at the time of data collection. 19 Other program leadership such as associate/assistant directors were excluded to limit responses to one per residency program. The study was approved by the institutional review board (IRB) of Stanford University (IRB-51240).…”

Predicting Osteopathic Medical Students' Performance on the United States Medical Licensing Examination From Results of the Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing Examination

“…Although allopathic medical students are required to take the USMLE to pursue licensure, osteopathic students take the USMLE in the hopes of improving their standing in residency selection. Despite statements from professional organizations urging program directors to consider the USMLE and Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing Examination (COMLEX-USA) to be equivalent [2], many residency program directors continue to encourage osteopathic applicants to take the USMLE [3]. The reliance on USMLE Step 1 scores in residency selection can present a dilemma for osteopathic students and their advisors.…”

Predicting Osteopathic Medical Student Performance on the United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 2 Clinical Knowledge From Results of the Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing Examination Level 2-Cognitive Evaluation

“…USMLE scores are the most frequently cited factor among residency program directors in identifying applicants to interview [4]. This generates substantial pressure for osteopathic medical students to take the USMLE to increase their chances of matching in a competitive program or discipline [5,6]. This comes at a high cost to the student and hundreds of added hours studying for two Numerous studies have demonstrated a linear association between osteopathic medical student performance on the COMLEX-USA Level 1 and the USMLE Step 1 examinations [7][8][9][10][11][12][13].…”