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Todd T. Kingdom, MD
Chairman, ARS Education Committee
Eighteen months ago the ARS Education Committee formed the Fellowship Committee in an effort to develop a matching process for rhinology fellowship positions. The Fellowship Committee consists of one individual from each current rhinology fellowship program and three members appointed by the Executive Committee: Brent Senior, MD (ARS Secretary), Paul Toffel (ARS Past President), and myself (current Chairman of the Education Committee). The committee has met three times since its inception and has made great strides in tackling the many complex issues.
Following discussions at the 2005 Winter Board Meeting, in January 2006 the ARS entered into an agreement with the SF Match Organization to conduct the 2006 Rhinology Fellowship Match for positions starting in July 2007. Programs conducted interviews between the months of February and May, and submitted ranks lists to the SF Match on June 5, 2006. Likewise applicants registered with the SF Match Organization and submitted their lists by June 5. On June 9th, 2006 programs and applicants were notified of the match results.
Twenty-two applicants and 16 programs registered for the match; 17 applicants and 16 programs ultimately participated in the match process by submitting rank lists to the SF Match Organization. The actual matching process appeared to proceed without a glitch with seamless filing and notification. The results found all but 2 applicants matched to a program while 15 of the 16 programs filled their spot. For applicants, 4 received their 1st choice, 2 their 2nd choice, and 3 their 3rd choice. For the participating programs, 7 received their 1st choice, 5 received their 2nd choice, and 1 received their 3rd choice.
Despite a few breakdowns in communication early in the process, the initial feedback from program directors has been extremely positive and supportive of continuing our relationship with the SF Match. With the assistance of the SF Match Organization, a survey for the participating applicants is being developed to gather additional information regarding their opinions about the match process. I sincerely believe that this recent effort accomplished our initial goal, namely, to develop a fair and equitable matching program for fellowship applicants and fellowship training programs. I thank the program directors for their willingness to support this initial process and I congratulate the applicants who hopefully found this to be a fair approach. Please fee free to contact me if you have questions regarding the rhinology match process (todd.kingdom@uchsc.edu).
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