The Standardized Video Interview: How Does It Affect the Likelihood to Invite for a Residency Interview?

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Applicant Screening
• Emergency Medicine

Background:

• The Association of American Medical Colleges implemented a standardized video interview (SVI) for emergency medicine (EM) applicants.
• The impact of the SVI on faculty reviewers' likelihood to invite (LTI) decisions remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine if the SVI influences the LTI for EM residency applicants.
• To analyze how SVI scores and video viewing affect applicant invitation decisions.

Main Methods:

• Prospective, observational study involving nine ACGME-accredited EM residency programs.
• Likelihood to Invite (LTI) assessed on a 5-point Likert scale at three review stages: pre-SVI, post-SVI score, and post-SVI video.
• 2,219 applications from 1,424 unique applicants were analyzed.

Main Results:

• SVI score unblinding changed LTI in 6.9% of applications (p=0.22), with equal likelihood of increase or decrease.
• Lower SVI scores were more likely to decrease LTI than higher scores were to increase it (p<0.0001).
• Viewing the SVI video changed LTI in 22.7% of cases (p=0.04), with a greater likelihood of increasing LTI.

Conclusions:

• The SVI score moderately impacts EM applicant LTI decisions, particularly at score extremes.
• Lower SVI scores may negatively influence invitation likelihood, while video viewing shows potential to positively influence it.
• Further research is needed to understand the nuanced effects of SVI on residency selection processes.