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Current Editors: Fareen Momin and Jane Onyemachi

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Past Editors: Andrea Francis, Renat Ahatov, Michael Phan, Elise Weisert, Michael Ryan, Keith Wagner, Tim Allen, Kristyna Gleghorn, Dung Mac, Alex Acosta, William Tausend, Sheila Jalalat, Rebecca Philips, Chelsea Altinger, Lindsey Hunter, Alison Wiesenthal, Leslie Scroggins, Mara Dacso, Ashley Group, Fadi Constantine, Emily Fridlington, Joslyn Witherspoon, Tasneem Poonawalla.

Monday, December 23, 2019

Thoughts on Reducing the Cost for Dermatology Residency Applications

The December 2019 issue of Cutis (104;6:352-353) has an interesting Commentary about of some aspects of the dermatology application process from Dr. Aamir Hussain titled, “Reducing the Cost of Dermatology Residency Applications: An Applicant’s Perspective.” Some ideas for reducing the costs of dermatology residency applicants include the establishment of regional interviews (dermatology residency programs in the same geographic region would agree to interview in a timeframe that would allow applicants with multiple interviews in the same region to travel to that region only once and avoid the costs of multiple flights and other travel related inconveniences), and different regions would coordinate so that there were no competing regions interviewing at the same time). Capping the number of applications was also discussed, either by a “hard cap” (limiting the number of programs an applicant may apply to) or through imposition of an economic disincentive by charging higher application fees for applying to more programs than diminishing returns would suggest.

However, no mechanism for establishing a “hard cap” on the number of applications is suggested, and this strategy seems a bit unusual (most job openings do not place a limit on the number of applications they will review before selecting several candidates for interviews). The author does concede that placing a financial disincentive on additional applications above a certain number could favor more affluent applicants. However, several other approaches have the potential to decrease costs in the dermatology application process. Programs could opt to use Skype or telephone interviews instead of on-site visits, saving applicants travel costs. Rotators and home students could be interviewed during their dermatology rotations, a step that would eliminate a return visit for interview. Policy change at the NRMP that allowed programs to offer dermatology residency positions outside of the match would also decrease program need to interview additional applicants since the position would already be filled. Applicants may be able to limit applications if they had greater information about specific programs (how many residency positions are filled with internal applicants and rotators, how many of the current residents went to medical school outside of the region, how many of the current residents were AOA, what are the mean and range of the current resident Step scores, how many of the residents have additional degrees (MA, MS, MBA, MPH, PhD), etc.