The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on urology match by location

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: The COVID-19 pandemic altered the landscape of the 2020-2021 urology residency application cycle in a myriad of ways. The need for social distancing and travel limitations shifted in-person away rotations to virtual rotations and the in-person interview to a new virtual format. Previous surveys had suggested that aspects of this might be favorable for students, as 20% of applicants in previous years had limited the number of interviews they attended for financial reasons. At the same time, concerns were raised about how these changes would affect the overall match rate and the geographic diversity of applicants. Our study aimed to assess the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic by looking at Match outcomes by student location. METHODS: Using residency websites, Twitter, and publicly available documents, we gathered the previous five years of match data (2015-2020) from all urology residency programs across the United States and documented the number of residents each program kept from its affiliated medical school. We also documented the number of residents each program took from within its associated AUA section compared to the students it took from other AUA sections for the past five years. We then compared the 2015-2020 match data to the 2020- 2021 match data. RESULTS: There were 357 residency positions offered in the 2020-2021 match year and a total of 1,632 residency spots offered from 2015-2020. For the 2020-2021 match year, residency programs matched 19.7% of students from their home institution;significantly more compared to programs from 2015-2020 only keeping 15.6% (p=0.046). Significantly more programs kept students from within their AUA section in 2020-2021 at 48.6% compared to 41.61% from 2015- 2020 (p=0.018). Despite the largest number of applicants in 7 years, the 2021 urology match had a 74% match rate, no unfilled residency spots, and 85% match rate for female applicants. CONCLUSIONS: We found that programs kept significantly more students from their home medical school this year than the past five years and programs also accepted significantly more students from within their AUA section. It is possible that protective and long-term relationships within home institutions and AUA sections may have had a larger impact without the usual away rotations or in-person interviews. It is also relevant to reflect on the mammoth adjustments made to the process this year, especially considering some of them may be popular among applicants seeking to maximize applications submitted and minimize money spent.