2016 APDS SPRING MEETING Surgical Residency Recruitment— Opportunities for Improvement Amit R.T. Joshi, MD,* Daniel Vargo, MD, † Amy Mathis, MBA, ‡ Jeffrey N. Love, MD, § Teena Dhir, MD,* and Paula M. Termuhlen, MD ║ * Department of Surgery, Einstein Healthcare Network, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; † Department of Surgery, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, Utah; ‡ Electronic Residency Application Service, Association of American Medical Colleges, Washington, DC; § Department of Emergency Medicine, Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, DC; and ║ Department of Surgery, University of Minnesota Medical School, Duluth, Minnesota INTRODUCTION: The Association of Program Directors in Surgery convened a panel during Surgical Education Week 2016 to discuss the current state of the general surgery residency application process and to review alter- native ways to evaluate the suitability of each applicant to a residency program. METHODS/RESULTS: Over 40,000 applicants registered for the National Resident Matching Program’s 2016 Main Residency Match. General Surgery had 2345 applicants for 1241 categorical postgraduate year (PGY)-1 positions, and 1239 of those positions were filled when the matching algorithm was processed. Program Directors reported that only 33% of applications received an in-depth review, and 62% were rejected with minimal review. Eventually (after all applications had been reviewed), only 13% of applicants were invited to interview. CONCLUSIONS: There are several opportunities for improvement within the current application process. These included standardized letter of recommendation and per- sonal statements, refinement of the interview process, and recalibration of the Medical Student Performance Evalua- tion. ( J Surg Ed 73:e104-e110. J C 2016 Association of Program Directors in Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.) KEY WORDS: ERAS, surgery, standardized letter of recommendation, MSPE COMPETENCIES: Professionalism, Interpersonal and Communication Skills INTRODUCTION The Association of Program Directors in Surgery (APDS) convened a panel during Surgical Education Week 2016 to discuss the current state of the general surgery residency application process and to review alternative ways to evaluate the suitability of each applicant to a residency program. The panel explored possible implementation of a secondary or supplemental surgical application within the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS), stand- ardized letters of recommendation (SLOR), revision of the personal statement and Medical School Performance Eval- uation (MSPE), and alternative methods of residency inter- views. This article summarizes the panel discussion and highlights options for improving the application process. CURRENT STATE OF THE RESIDENCY APPLICATION PROCESS Launched in 1996 to streamline the residency application process for all participants, ERAS currently supports approximately 33,000 program users, 56,000 applicants, 250,000 authors of letters of recommendation (LOR), and 600 medical school users. ERAS does not provide document verification services and all matching activities are entirely separate. More than 40,000 applicants registered for the National Resident Matching Program’s (NRMP) 2016 Main Residency Match. General surgery had 2345 appli- cants for 1241 categorical postgraduate year 1 positions, and 1239 of those positions were filled when the matching algorithm was processed. Surgical residency programs almost universally use the ERAS and the NRMP as the means of identifying appli- cants for categorical postgraduate year 1 training positions. Using ERAS, applicants apply to residency training pro- grams providing personal information. Medical schools, Correspondence: Inquiries to Amit R.T. Joshi, MD, Department of Surgery, Einstein Healthcare Network, 5401 Old York Road, Suite 510, Philadelphia, PA 19141; fax: (215) 722-3893; e-mail: joshiam@einstein.edu e104 Journal of Surgical Education  & 2016 Association of Program Directors in Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1931-7204/$30.00 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsurg.2016.09.005