Assigning Israeli medical graduates to internships

BACKGROUND: Physicians in Israel are required to do an internship in an accredited hospital upon completion of the medical studies, and prior to receiving the medical license. For most students, the assignment is determined by a lottery, which takes into consideration the preferences of these students. OBJECTIVES: We propose a novel way to perform this lottery, in which (on average) a larger number of students gets one of their top choices. We report about implementing this method in the 2014 Internship Lottery in Israel. METHODS: The new method is based on calculating a tentative lottery, in which each student has some probability of getting to each hospital. Then a computer program “trades” between the students, where trade is performed only if it is beneficial to both sides. This trade creates surplus, which translates to more students getting one of their top choices. RESULTS: The average student improved his place by 0.91 seats. CONCLUSIONS: The new method can improve the welfare of medical graduates, by giving them more probability to get to one of their top choices. It can be applied in internship markets in other countries as well.