An Electronic Interview Tracking Tool to Guide Medical Students Through the Match: Improvements in Advising and Match Outcomes

PROBLEM: Medical students are applying to increasing numbers of residency programs to increase their likelihood of success in the Match. However, they have limited data to help them understand their level of competitiveness or identify programs to which they should apply. APPROACH: In 2014–2015 (Match year 2015), the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s (UMSOM’s) Office of Student Affairs (OSA) implemented an electronic interview tracking tool in which students update their residency application interview status on an ongoing basis. OSA deans can filter and sort data by student, specialty, program, academic metrics, and interview status. The deans use these data to advise students in real time, provide students with examples of programs to consider, and engage clinical faculty to support students at risk of not matching. OUTCOMES: In the Match years 2015, 2016, and 2017, respectively, 86% (n = 135/157), 87% (n = 138/159), and 94% (n = 151/161) of UMSOM students participated actively in this tracking tool, adding over 3,000 data points per year. Following the tool’s launch, the average number of applications per student remained stable. The UMSOM’s Match rate and percentages of students self-reporting a match in their top three choices and rating the school’s advising as “very useful” all increased, without comparable increases in national data. NEXT STEPS: This tool, which provides students with data-driven examples of programs to which they should consider applying, may be beneficial to students, faculty, and program directors at other institutions—and to the residency application process, if adopted broadly.