Residency and Fellowship Program Leaders' Perceptions of Virtual Recruitment and Interviewing

Virtual recruitment is a new and more cost-effective alternative to traditional in-person recruitment in academic medicine. However, little is known about the perceived repercussions of the switch across a variety of training settings.

To describe the perceptions of graduate medical education program leaders about virtual matching and preferred format for future recruitment within an integrated health care delivery system sponsoring residency and fellowship programs at both university- and community-based primary teaching sites.

We surveyed program leadership of 136 Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education programs at a single sponsoring institution in April 2021, following residency match results but before matched applicants began programs. The 40-item survey pertained to various aspects of recruitment. Select questions were assessed using a 5-point Likert scale. Descriptive statistics, Student's t test, and ordinal linear regression models were used for analysis.

Out of 136 programs, 129 (94.8%) responded. Overall, preferred format for recruitment was neutral, although there was wide heterogeneity of responses. Programs felt that virtual recruitment marginally decreased their ability to describe strengths but did not affect the strength or diversity of their matched class. Community sites preferred in-person recruitment.

Programs did not perceive that virtual recruitment affected the strength or diversity of their 2021 matched class, although community programs were more likely to prefer in-person formats.