Does the National Resident Match Program Rank List Predict Success in Emergency Medicine Residency Programs?
BACKGROUND
Emergency medicine (EM) residency programs use nonstandardized criteria to create applicant rank lists. One implicit assumption is that predictive associations exist between an applicant's rank and their future performance as a resident. To date, these associations have not been sufficiently demonstrated.


OBJECTIVE
We hypothesized that a strong positive correlation exists between the National Resident Match Program (NRMP) match-list applicant rank, the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1 and In-Training Examination (ITE) scores, and the graduating resident rank.


METHODS
A total of 286 residents from five EM programs over a 5-year period were studied. The applicant rank (AR) was derived from the applicant's relative rank list position on each programs' submitted NRMP rank list. The graduation rank (GR) was determined by a faculty consensus committee. GR was then correlated to AR using a Spearman's partial rank correlation. Additional correlations were sought with a ranking of the USMLE Step Score (UR) and the ITE Score (IR).


RESULTS
Combining data for all five programs, weak positive correlations existed between GR and AR, UR, and IR. The majority of correlations ranged between. When comparing GR and AR, there was a weak correlation of 0.13 (p = 0.03).


CONCLUSIONS
Our study found only weak correlations between GR and AR, UR, and IR, suggesting that those variables may not be strong predictors of resident performance. This has important implications for EM programs considering the resources devoted to applicant evaluation and ranking.
University of Texas Health Science Center McGovern Medical School, Houston, Texas.
Michael
M
Van Meter
University of Texas Health Science Center McGovern Medical School, Houston, Texas.
Michael
M
Williams
University of Texas Health Science Center McGovern Medical School, Houston, Texas.
Rosa
R
Banuelos
University of Texas Health Science Center McGovern Medical School, Houston, Texas.
Peter
P
Carlson
Boston Medical Center and Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts.
Jeffrey I
JI
Schneider
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York.
Bradley D
BD
Shy
University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois.
Christine
C
Babcock
University of Rochester School Medical Center, Rochester, New York.
Matthew
M
Spencer
University of Texas Health Science Center McGovern Medical School, Houston, Texas.
Yashwant
Y
Chathampally
D004503:Education, Medical, Graduate / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D004635:Emergency Medicine / Q000193:education; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D008007:Licensure, Medical / Q000639:trends*; D012570:School Admission Criteria / Q000639:trends*; D000078329:Workforce
education; emergency medicine; predicting success; ranking; residency application; resident performance