Evaluation of Online Content and Websites of Interventional Cardiology Fellowship Programs

We sought to assess the availability and comprehensiveness of interventional cardiology (IC) fellowship program websites.

IC joined the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) starting in the 2024-2025 fellowship application cycle to enhance fairness and standardization in the application process. It is known that applicants rely on online information and program websites during fellowship recruitment, but no study has evaluated IC program websites.

The online content of all IC fellowship programs listed in the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) was evaluated. Websites were identified through ERAS, the American Medical Association Residency & Fellowship Database (FREIDA), and Google. Each website was assessed for the presence of 25 variables encapsulating information felt to be valuable to applicants.

One hundred ninety-three IC fellowship programs were listed in ERAS, of which four programs were duplicates and excluded. 32/189 (16.9%) of programs in ERAS and 66/189 (34.9%) of programs in FREIDA provided weblinks that directly linked to the fellowship program website, whereas the remainder had inaccurate or broken links, or no weblink at all. After searching ERAS, FREIDA, and Google, 171/189 (90.5%) of programs had an identifiable website. Among 171 program websites, the mean percentage of variables present was 56.7%, and the occurrence of each variable across 171 websites is shown in Figure 1. Programs listed as participating in ERAS were significantly more likely to have a program website (93.8% vs. 72.4%, p < 0.0001).

Information gaps and areas for improvement are present in the online content provided to prospective applicants of IC fellowship programs.