Residency Program Directors’ Views on Research Conducted During Medical School: A National Survey

Abstract

Purpose With the United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 transition to pass/fail in 2022, uncertainty exists regarding how other residency application components, including research conducted during medical school, will inform interview and ranking decisions. The authors explore program director (PD) views on medical student research, the importance of disseminating that work, and the translatable skill set of research participation. Method Surveys were distributed to all U.S. residency PDs and remained open from August to November 2021 to query the importance of research participation in assessing applicants, whether certain types of research were more valued, productivity measures that reflect meaningful research participation, and traits for which research serves as a proxy. The survey also queried whether research would be more important without a numeric Step 1 score and the importance of research vs other application components.

Perceptions and Expectations Regarding the Step 1 Score Change Among Surgical and Non-Surgical Program Directors: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…As part of our systematic review, we also examined a variety of other residency application factors that did not qualify for meta-analysis due to the lack of uniformity in data presentation among studies. These factors include core clerkship grades, 4,14,22,25-27,30,34,35,39,40,43,49 class rank, 4,14,25,34,40,43,49 MSPE/Dean’s Letter, 4,14,18,22,26,27,34,35,40,43,49 letters of recommendation, 4,14,22,26,27,30,31,34,35,39,40,43,49 research, 4,12,14,22,25-27,30,34,35,37,39,40,43,45,49,50 personal statement, 4...…”

“…After the initial search, 351 duplicates were removed and 44 were excluded after title and abstract review, 4,[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] Full-text review was performed on 98 articles, [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] of which 45 studies were included [36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50] (see Figure, Supplemental Digital Content 5, which illustrates a flow-chart of our literature search, as well as our full search strategies).…”

SMERT: Fostering multi‐institutional collaboration in medical education research

“…Since the US Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1 transitioned to pass/fail in 2022, there is an even greater pressure on medical students to differentiate themselves on their residency applications. A recent survey of US residency programme directors found that they value meaningful engagement and completion of research as it demonstrates desirable attributes such as critical thinking, time management and self‐directed learning 1 . The study also found that research in medical education was in the top three categories reported as high value behind clinical research and quality improvement.…”

Perspectives from two recent medical school graduates on exposure to pathology during undergraduate medical education: A narrative inquiry

“…One such experience that is growing in importance is research. 9 Many students participate in research during their preclinical years to get a head-start on that aspect of the residency application. 8 Research in pathology is an effective way to get students into the pathology department while still being able to tie their work to different specialty interests.…”