Back to 2015 Annual Symposium Program

INTRODUCTION: In 2007 the ACGME granted accreditation to three vascular surgery integrated residencies. This number grew to 44 programs offering 51 positions by the 2014 Match. In this study, we sought to identify the top U.S. domestic medical schools guiding seniors into 0+5 vascular surgery programs and ascertain which characteristics of their faculty and curriculum might be responsible for fostering this interest.
METHODS: Every U.S. medical school and its associated surgery department was queried between January 2 and February 26, 2014. Twenty-one data points were collected including specialty of the surgery department chair, number of vascular surgeons on staff, and option for a third year vascular surgery (VS) clerkship. Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) and National Residency Matching Program (NRMP) databases were accessed and queried. Data regarding number of integrated vascular applicants from each medical school was obtained by special request directly from ERAS.
RESULTS: Between 2007 and 2014, 505 students applied to an integrated vascular residency via the NRMP (Table 1) while ERAS reports 1476 applicants during the same time period. Out of the 138 U.S. medical schools, 119 (86%) had at least one graduating senior apply through ERAS to a vascular 0+5 program. U.S. graduating seniors from the top ten schools provided 21% (107/512) of the total applicants during these years. The presence of an integrated training program (P=.005) and a VS clerkship (P<.05) correlated with a higher number of applicants to 0+5 programs. Conversely, having a vascular surgeon as the department head for general surgery was a negative predictor of student applications to 0+5 vascular programs (P=.005, OR=0.15, 95% CI .04-.56).
CONCLUSIONS: This study emphasizes the need to foster medical student interest in vascular surgery through formal VS clerkships, mentorship, and targeting information about the 0+5 pathway to schools producing a lower number of applicants.The negative correlation between integrated vascular applicants and vascular surgeons serving as general surgery department chairs may be related to the latter’s preference for the traditional 5+2 pathway.

Number of Applicants from 2007-2014 Participating in 0+5 NRMP Match
	# of Programs	# of Positions	Positions Filled	Total App.	US Grad. App.	IM Grad. App.	App. per Position	US Grad App. per Position
Year
2007	3	4	4	N/a	N/a	N/a	N/a	N/a
2008	7	9	9	31	21	10	3.4	2.3
2009	17	19	19	66	32	34	3.5	1.7
2010	20	22	21	72	39	33	3.3	1.8
2011	27	30	29	80	47	33	2.7	1.6
2012	35	41	41	82	55	27	2.0	1.3
2013	39	46	45	84	49	35	1.8	1.1
2014	44	51	46	90	48	42	1.8	0.9