Changes in United States Residency Program Online Presence Following COVID-19

Abstract

Phenomenon

The 2020–2021 residency application cycle was subject to major alterations following the COVID-19 global pandemic. This study determined the online presence of US-based residency training programs during this time period.

Approach

An official list of accredited US residency programs for 24 medical specialties was obtained through the Electronic Residency Application Service Programs’ online presence and was evaluated for website ownership in addition to Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook account ownership. Date of social media account foundation and virtual opportunities offered were recorded. Doximity Residency Navigator for 2020–2021 was used to determine program rank, and programs were stratified by location using Association of American Medical Colleges regions. Program rank and geographic location were used to determine potential trends in online presence. This study was performed during the residency application cycle from September 2, 2020, to November 29, 2020, during which applications were submitted and the interview cycle began.

Findings

Fifty-seven percent of the 4,562 programs had a presence on social media. One-third of all accounts were created after March 1, 2020, and most (58%) were residency program–associated. A total of 1,315 programs offered virtual open houses through Twitter (829), Instagram (792), and Facebook (295). First-quartile programs had significantly more social media accounts per program on average (1.8) than those in subsequent quartiles, and Western region programs had significantly more accounts per program on average (1.3) than the Central (1.0), Northeastern (1.0), and Southern (1.1) regions.

Insights

US residency programs created social media accounts and online opportunities for applicants following March 1, 2020. Online interactions may serve as substitutes at a time when in-person interaction is not possible. Future studies may examine the influence and impact of virtual interactions.

Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10401334.2022.2047050.

Keywords:

• COVID-19
• residency application
• social media

Declaration of interest statement

Collectively, this group of authors has no conflicts of interest to disclose. Funding was not received for this work. This piece is of our own fruition and merit, and we consider it to be our intellectual property. Additionally, we conformed to standardized research ethics guidelines while performing this investigation, although institutional review board approval was not necessary. All authors contributed significantly to this piece, aiding in drafting and advancement of written ideas, and approved the final version for submission. Subsets of the data presented within this paper have been published.^35–43 However, no composite data or figures presented here have been published or submitted elsewhere.

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.