Osteopathic Orthopaedic Residency Selection Criteria: Program Directors’ Survey and Analysis

CONTEXT: Orthopaedic Surgery has become one of the most competitive specialties. Each year the number of applicants is far greater than the number of available Orthopaedic residency training spots [1,2,3]. With medical schools expanding their class sizes and new medical schools opening out of proportion to the number of residency spots, the competition is becoming even more fierce [12]. There are several published articles on resident selection in allopathic orthopaedic programs [5-7]. However, there are currently no such published studies on osteopathic orthopaedic programs to our knowledge. With the AOA and ACGME merger, this topic is critical to both allopathic and osteopathic applicants alike. The goal of our study was to evaluate the resident selection criteria for osteopathic orthopaedic residency programs. METHODS: A twenty-five-question survey was sent to all of the osteopathic orthopaedic programs in December of 2017. The most important selection factors were then calculated as a mean of all the responses and were ranked accordingly. RESULTS: The survey was completed by 29 out of 41 program directors (71%). The most important factors in resident selection were performance during the student’s rotation at the program, formality/politeness and performance in the interview, and medical school board exam scores. CONCLUSIONS: This study is the most comprehensive study to date on the osteopathic orthopaedic resident selection process. The results from this study will help future applicants, both MD and DO, to focus on the factors in resident selection. The results may also help programs evaluate their own selection process and make improvements.