Website Transparency and Information Dissemination Among Urology Residency Programs

To evaluate the transparency and quality of information dissemination among urology residency program websites and provide a checklist. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, urology residency programs have had to adjust their typical practices, including the adoption of virtual recruiting. Such efforts have included improving program websites, which are often the starting point for potential applicants to obtain information about programs.

The websites of 136 nonmilitary, accredited US urology residency programs were evaluated for presence of various measures grouped into distinct categories including program priorities, program curriculum, program profiles, program quality of life, medical student opportunities, interview process, selection/exclusion criteria, and social media.

The most frequently reported category was program profiles with 81% of websites providing details about residents, faculty, and alumni. The least frequently reported category was selection/exclusion criteria (26%). Program mission/objective statements, training site locations, and current resident and faculty profiles were subcategories reported on greater than 90% of websites. Regarding virtual opportunities, 21% of websites provided online open house information, and 32% provided direct links to social media, even though 88% of programs had an active X/Twitter account. On average, program websites provided information on 52% of reportable subcategories.

The importance of transparency and quality of information dissemination is greater than ever with the increasing utilization of virtual formats in the residency application process. Our results indicate several areas of improvement that urology residency programs can address to provide improved transparency for applicants.