How Did Coronavirus-19 Impact the Expenses for Medical Students Applying to an Orthopaedic Surgery Residency in 2020 to 2021?

• Published in: Clinical orthopaedics and related research 2022-03, Vol.480 (3), p.443-451
• Main Authors: Gordon, Adam M., Conway, Charles A., Sheth, Bhavya K., Magruder, Matthew L., Vakharia, Rushabh M., Levine, William N., Razi, Afshin E.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Coronaviruses; Cost control; Costs and Cost Analysis - statistics & numerical data; COVID-19; COVID-19 - economics; Cross-Sectional Studies; Economic analysis; Female; Humans; Internship and Residency - economics; Interviews; Male; Orthopedic Procedures - education; Orthopedics; Pandemics; Retrospective Studies; SARS-CoV-2; Schools; Statistical analysis; Students, Medical - statistics & numerical data; Surgery; Surveys and Questionnaires; United States; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0009-921X; 1528-1132
• DOI: 10.1097/CORR.0000000000002042

Orthopaedic surgery is one of the most competitive specialties for residency applicants. For the 2021 residency match, the coronavirus-19 pandemic introduced complexity for programs and applicants because away rotations were limited and in-person interviews were cancelled. This may have changed the landscape in terms of expenses for candidates in important ways, but this topic has been insufficiently studied. Given that in 2021, students did not attend away rotations and all interviews were held virtually, we asked (1) What were the financial savings associated with this change? (2) Was medical school geographic region associated with differences in expenses when applying to residency? A retrospective, cross-sectional analysis of the 2020 and 2021 Texas Seeking Transparency in Application to Residency Dashboard database was performed. The data were derived from an online survey of a nationwide pool of applicants from 87% (123 of 141) of US allopathic medical schools upon conclusion of the match. The response percentage was 29% (521 of 1794). We believe this nationwide dataset represents the largest and most current data for this applicant group. Responses from applicants applying to orthopaedic surgery residency in the year before the COVID-19 pandemic application changes (2020) and during COVID-19 (2021) were queried and compared. After the orthopaedic surgery match, the database was evaluated for individual (application costs, away rotation expenses, and interview expenses) and total expenses for medical school seniors applying to orthopaedic surgery residency. Applicant characteristics were compared between application cycles. The 2020 to 2021 Texas Seeking Transparency in Application to Residency Dashboard database had 521 responses (n = 263 in 2020 and n = 258 in 2021) from applicants applying to orthopaedic surgery residency. Demographic and applicant characteristics were comparable between application cycles. Median expenses are reported with percentile distributions and geographic comparisons. A Mann-Whitney U test or Kruskal-Wallis H test was used to determine whether there were statistically significant differences in expenses between years and between medical school regions at a p value threshold of < 0.05. For all applicants, the median total expenses (USD 7250 versus USD 2250), application costs (USD 2250 versus USD 1750), away rotation expenses (USD 2750 versus USD 250), and interview expenses (USD 2250 versus USD 75) declined in 2021 compare