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Due to conflicting reports, additional studies are needed to determine if a mismatch in workforce supply and demand warrants prompt and thoughtful intervention. To improve recruitment, the pathology community should carefully review and address concerns about employment opportunities. As of 2019, there are 12 job-related threads among the 50 all-time most-viewed, including threads created in 20. In conclusion, job-market concerns over the past decade are so prominent in the SDN pathology forum that they likely contributed to fewer seniors from US allopathic medical schools pursuing pathology residency. Because more than 85% of SDN users are from the US, the threads likely had a greater impact on American medical students compared to foreign students. Most thread reviewers agreed that commenters, which included medical students, were concerned about the pathology job-market and that medical students who viewed the threads would be less likely to pursue pathology residency. To test this hypothesis, 5 pathology residents were asked to read all 11 threads and then complete a survey. It was reasoned that job-market concerns within SDN threads may have discouraged students from pursuing pathology. Seven of the 11 (63.6%) job-related threads were created from 2009 to 2011, corresponding with the start of the decline in medical students pursuing pathology residency. However, the term “job(s)” was rarely used by 14 other major medical specialties. The words “job” and “jobs” were used in the title of 11 of the 50 (22%) threads, which altogether received more than 400,000 views. So, the 50 all-time most-viewed SDN pathology threads (as of February 2018) were analyzed. Because the Student Doctor Network (SDN) website is widely used by students at American medical schools during the residency application process, SDN has been shown to influence career decisions. To possibly explain this trend, we sought to identify major concerns about pathology which were made during this time. However, if self-reporting increases, SDN may serve as a reasonably accurate source of information for future applicants.įrom 2010 to 2019, 40.5% fewer senior students from United States (US) allopathic medical schools pursued pathology in the Main Residency Match. Self-reporting on SDN does have a bias toward more successful radiation oncology applicants compared with the objective NRMP data.
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Common themes associated with advice given to future applicants were the importance of research, personality, and away rotations. Common themes associated with reasons for their successful match included research experience, letters of recommendation, and away rotations. Of the applicants, 81% matched within their top three ranked residencies on their match list. Those reporting on SDN were more likely to be members of Alpha Omega Alpha (39.7% on SDN versus 27.5% in 2016 NRMP, 23.6% in 2014 NRMP, and 31.2% in 2011 NRMP) and had higher mean United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) step 1 and step 2 scores. The majority of applicants (58.2%) self-reported in the later years between 20. US allopathic seniors comprised a majority of those reporting on SDN (95.2%). Applicants were compared with the NRMP charting outcomes of 2011, 2014, and 2016. A total of four applicants (2.1%) did not match and were excluded from the analysis. A total of 193 radiation oncology applicants had reported data during the period. To compare matching outcomes between self-reporting on Student Doctor Network (SDN) and objective data from the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP).ĭata were collected from SDN starting in the 2010 to 2011 academic year and extending to the 2015 to 2016 academic year.