Skip to main content
Advanced searchCitation search
Skip main navigation
 
Ideas and Opinions
27 June 2023

Achieving Equity in Residency and Fellowship Applications With a Partial Blindfold: A Call for Measuring the Distance Traveled

Authors: Tara Vijayan, MD, MPH https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1141-8261, Christopher J. Graber, MD, MPH, Christina E. Harris, MD https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7112-0945, and Daniel Kozman, MD, MPHAuthor, Article, & Disclosure Information
Publication: Annals of Internal Medicine
Volume 176, Number 7
https://doi.org/10.7326/M23-0334
Get Access

Submit a Comment

Contributors must reveal any conflict of interest. Comments are moderated. Please see our information for authorsregarding comments on an Annals publication.
Cancel
“Tell me more about yourself.”
For many applicants to residency and fellowship, this prompt can be a pivot point during an interview. As the holistic review process outlined by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) has emphasized experiences and attributes over metrics, understanding an applicant’s distance traveled, based on their early life experiences, can inform a committee about several important attributes, including resilience and resourcefulness. While the American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS) includes several details that can highlight these early life experiences (1), the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) includes limited details beyond what applicants may choose …

Get full access to this article

View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.

Get Access

References

1.
2023 AMCAS Application Workbook. Association of American Medical Colleges. Accessed at https://students-residents.aamc.org/media/11736/download on 21 June 2022.
Google Scholar
2.
What’s New in the 2024 MyERAS Application. Association of American Medical Colleges. Accessed at https://students-residents.aamc.org/applying-residencies-eras/what-s-new-2024-myeras-application on 6 May 2023.
Google Scholar
3.
Grbic D, Jones DJ, Case ST. The role of socioeconomic status in medical school admissions: validation of a socioeconomic indicator for use in medical school admissions. Acad Med. 2015;90:953-960. [PMID: 25629949] doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000000653
Crossref
PubMed
Google Scholar
4.
Fadem B, Schuchman M, Simring SS. The relationship between parental income and academic performance of medical students. Acad Med. 1995;70:1142-1144. [PMID: 7495461]
Crossref
PubMed
Google Scholar
5.
Hartman ND, Lefebvre CW, Manthey DE. A narrative review of the evidence supporting factors used by residency program directors to select applicants for interviews. J Grad Med Educ. 2019;11:268-273. [PMID: 31210855] doi: 10.4300/JGME-D-18-00979.3
Crossref
PubMed
Google Scholar
6.
Barceló NE, Shadravan S, Wells CR, et al. Reimagining merit and representation: promoting equity and reducing bias in GME through holistic review. Acad Psychiatry. 2021;45:34-42. [PMID: 33111187] doi: 10.1007/s40596-020-01327-5
Crossref
PubMed
Google Scholar
7.
Makhoul AT, Pontell ME, Ganesh Kumar N, et al. Objective measures needed - program directors' perspectives on a pass/fail USMLE Step 1. N Engl J Med. 2020;382:2389-2392. [PMID: 32558467] doi: 10.1056/NEJMp2006148
Crossref
PubMed
Google Scholar
8.
Faiz J, Essien UR, Washington DL, et al. Racial and ethnic differences in barriers faced by medical college admission test examinees and their association with medical school application and matriculation. JAMA Health Forum. 2023;4:e230498.[ doi: 10.1001/jamahealthforum.2023.0498] [PMID: 37058292]
Crossref
PubMed
Google Scholar
9.
Saul S. 9 states have banned affirmative action. Here’s what that looks like. New York Times. 31 October 2022. Accessed at www.nytimes.com/2022/10/31/us/politics/affirmative-action-ban-states.html on 6 May 2023.
Google Scholar

Comments

0 Comments
Sign In to Submit A Comment

Information & Authors

Information

Published In

cover image Annals of Internal Medicine
Annals of Internal Medicine
Volume 176 • Number 7 • July 2023
Pages: 985 - 986

History

Published online: 27 June 2023
Published in issue: July 2023

Keywords

  1. Fellowships
  2. Graduate medical education
  3. Health care
  4. Physician bias
  5. Racial and ethnic issues
  6. Residency
  7. Scientists
  8. Socioeconomic status
  9. Standardized tests
  10. Structural racism

Copyright

© 2023 American College of Physicians.

Authors

Affiliations

Tara Vijayan, MD, MPH https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1141-8261
Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California (T.V.)
View all articles by this author
Christopher J. Graber, MD, MPH
Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Infectious Diseases Section, Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Los Angeles, California (C.J.G.)
View all articles by this author
Christina E. Harris, MD https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7112-0945
Cedars Sinai Medical Center, David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California (C.E.H.)
View all articles by this author
Daniel Kozman, MD, MPH
Division of Internal Medicine-Pediatrics, Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California (D.K.).
View all articles by this author
Disclosures: Authors have reported no disclosures of interest. Forms can be viewed at www.acponline.org/authors/icmje/ConflictOfInterestForms.do?msNum=M23-0334.
Corresponding Author: Tara Vijayan, MD, MPH, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, 52-215 CHS, 10833 LeConte Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90095; e-mail: [email protected].
Author Contributions: Conception and design: C.J. Graber, C.E. Harris, D. Kozman, T. Vijayan.
Drafting of the article: C.J. Graber, C.E. Harris, D. Kozman, T. Vijayan.
Critical revision for important intellectual content: C.J. Graber, C.E. Harris, D. Kozman, T. Vijayan.
Final approval of the article: C.J. Graber, C.E. Harris, D. Kozman, T. Vijayan.
Collection and assembly of data: T. Vijayan.
This article was published at Annals.org on 27 June 2023.

Metrics & Citations

Metrics

Citations

If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. For an editable text file, please select Medlars format which will download as a .txt file. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.

For more information or tips please see 'Downloading to a citation manager' in the Help menu.

Format




Tips for downloading citations

Download article citation data for:
Tara Vijayan, Christopher J. Graber, Christina E. Harris, et al. Achieving Equity in Residency and Fellowship Applications With a Partial Blindfold: A Call for Measuring the Distance Traveled. Ann Intern Med.2023;176:985-986. [Epub 27 June 2023]. doi:10.7326/M23-0334

View More

Login Options:
Purchase

You will be redirected to acponline.org to sign-in to Annals to complete your purchase.

buy this article subscribe

Access to EPUBs and PDFs for FREE Annals content requires users to be registered and logged in. A subscription is not required. You can create a free account below or from the following link. You will be redirected to acponline.org to create an account that will provide access to Annals. If you are accessing the Free Annals content via your institution's access, registration is not required.

Create your Free Account

You will be redirected to acponline.org to create an account that will provide access to Annals.

create account learn more

Related in ACP Journals

View options

PDF/EPUB

View PDF/EPUB

Related in ACP Journals

Full Text

View Full Text

Figures

Tables

Media

Share

Share

Copy the content Link

Share on social media

View full text|Download PDF