Below is a reprint of "Fellowship Recruitment & the NRMP Match" from page 6 of APM's Summer 2014 Newsletter.
NOTE: For the July 2018 start date for fellowship programs, rank order lists for applicants and programs must be submitted by Wednesday, December 13, 2017, and Match results will be released on Wednesday, January 3, 2018.
Fellowship Recruitment & the NRMP Match
Philip Bialer, MD, FAPM and David Gitlin, MD, FAPM
Reprinted from the Academy's Summer 2014 Newsletter
After many years of working through the development of a more efficient and equitable fellowship recruitment process, Psychosomatic Medicine participated in the 2014 NRMP Specialties Services Match. The APM has once again signed a formal agreement with the NRMP and we are now on board to use the Specialties Match for the 2015 recruitment season. Now that program directors have experience with the Specialties Match, we are confident that things will go smoothly this year. Candidates should be quite comfortable with the process, as they all will have used the Match four years ago for their own residencies. While this still may feel like a major culture change, we feel strongly that the benefits greatly outweigh the risks for large and small programs alike and will eventually lead to the growth of our field.
Following are some key informational points about the Match:
- To join the NRMP Match, at least 75% of ACGME-accredited programs (nationally) must agree to participate. In addition, at least 75% of the total available positions (nationally) must be offered
through the Match. Last year, more than 90% of our programs participated. We are aiming for 100% participation this year. In addition, the Fellowship Education Subcommittee has strongly endorsed
an “all-in” policy in which programs commit all of their available positions to the Match. - “Available positions” means those positions which have usually been filled, typically those for which a program has funding. This is not necessarily the same as the number of ACGME-accredited positions
unless a program typically fills all of those slots. - NRMP rules require that subspecialty programs in the same discipline participate in a single fellowship match. For example, all Internal Medicine subspecialty programs (Cardiology, Nephrology, Endocrinology, etc.) are run together. For Psychosomatic Medicine, this means we will be coupled with Child/Adolescent Psychiatry, currently the only other Psychiatry fellowship in the Match. This is primarily for organizational purposes and will not complicate our matching process.
- Programs may continue to use the same application process currently in place, either the APM common application or individual institutional application. ERAS are not required.
- Although NRMP registration opens September 10, programs may begin the recruitment process, i.e., responding to requests for applications and setting up interviews, prior to that date.
For the July 2015 start date for fellowship programs, the following dates and additional information apply:
- September 10, 2014: Opening date for NRMP registration of programs and candidates.
- November 5, 2014: Rank-order list entry opens.
- December 3, 2014: Final date for submission of position quotas, i.e., number of positions each program will make available.
- December 17, 2014: Rank-order list certifi cation deadline
- January 7, 2015: Match Day
Programs which do not fill will be provided a list of candidates who did not match to any program, and these candidates will be informed by NRMP which programs continue to have openings.
Individual program costs:
- Institutions: $200 per institution (paid once for any participation with NRMP)
- Programs: $35 per program track
- Matched Applicant: $35 per applicant matched to the program