Does social media play a role in the urology match?

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: The COVID-19 pandemic forced many changes to the urology residency match process, including limits on in-person sub-internships and interviews. As a result, social media (SoMe) was poised to play an increased role as a mechanism for virtual interaction and information sharing. In this study we sought to better understand how SoMe was utilized by both urology residency applicants (RA) and program directors (PD), attitudes toward SoMe use, and whether SoMe use had actual benefits or harms in the match process. METHODS: Following IRB approval, surveys were sent to RA and PD via email and posted on the Google Spreadsheet “Urology Match 2021”. The survey collected demographic information as well as SoMe activity, attitudes regarding the utility of SoMe in the match, and match outcomes including interview offer rate (IOR, number of interview offers received / number of programs applied) and rank list position of the matched program. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 27. RESULTS: Of 528 registered RAs for the 2021 match and 142 PDs, 108 (21%) and 64 (45%) completed the survey, respectively. SoMe was used by 99% of RAs, but only 75% used it in the match. 78% of PDs use SoMe regularly. Both RAs and PDs indicated they feel pressure to use SoMe for professional purposes, 70% vs 50% respectively. Twitter was the most popular platform, used by 93% of RAs and 74% of PDs using SoMe. 37% of RAs and 58% of PDs felt that SoMe activity provided benefit to the applicant or program in the match process, respectively. Most RAs (59%) felt that SoMe helped them gain better insight into urology programs while only 27% of PDs believed SoMe provided them better insight into RAs. A significant correlation was found between RA perceived insight into programs and their frequency of both viewing and posting on SoMe (p = 0.00012, p = 0.004). Neither relationship was observed for PD. No significant relationship was found between SoMe viewing frequency, posting frequency or tweetorial use and the match outcomes of IOR and rank list position of matched program. Although only 5% of PD reported incorporating SoMe as part of their assessment of RA, 14% said an applicant's activity on SoMe helped their chances of matching to their program while 11% said an applicant's activity hurt their chances. CONCLUSIONS: SoMe, particularly Twitter, was widely used in the 2021 match by both RAs and PDs. A majority of RAs and PDs believed that SoMe use aided them in some way in the match process. Although PDs reported that RA activity influenced match outcomes in some cases, in the overall sample we did not find a relationship between the volume or type of RA SoMe activity with match outcomes.