ABSTRACT
Objective: To investigate the influence of social media interactions with medical students applying to Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation residency programs. Design(s): A cross-sectional online survey of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation applicants recruited to a single university applicant pool that was generally representative of the nationwide applicant pool. Setting(s): Anonymous, voluntary, electronic questionnaire. Participant(s): United States medical students (31.2% female 67.5% male 1.3% prefer not to disclose) who applied to a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation residency program. Intervention(s): None. Main Outcome Measure(s): Participant-reported measures by an electronic questionnaire. Result(s): Of the 77 applicants that responded to the survey, 53 (68.8%) followed residency program accounts on social media platforms. Of the social media platforms, Instagram was the most used at 86.8%, followed by Twitter at 56.6%. 86.8% of social media users (SMUs) interacted with residencies on social media platforms (e.g., commenting, liking, direct messaging), which 67.9% reported very positively or positively impacted their perception of residency programs. Overall, 81.1% of SMUs felt more connected to programs that they followed on social media platforms. Around half of SMUs rated that interactions were extremely helpful or very helpful in understanding local culture as well as residency program culture. In fact, 75.5% SMUs agreed that social media is either very important or important in the era of remote/zoom interviews. Interestingly, only a minority of SMUs (24.5%) agreed that interaction with residency programs on social media platforms was extremely or very influential in their ERAS rankings. Conclusion(s): As virtual interviews in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation residency programs continue in the COVID era, this research indicates that social media plays a large role in program-to-applicant relations during recruitment season and should prompt more programs to foster a stronger connection with applicants through social media.