My opinion

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2019 College Admissions Story is pertaining to Honest Services Fraud statute [1-2]. This federal statute safeguards the third party from the harms caused by transactions between two parties whereby the transactions have caused the recipient party to be non-compliant in its duty to provide honest services to the collaterally damaged party. It is our understanding that while corruption is when actual breaches in the statute have occurred, conflicts of interest are the avenues which can potentially evolve as future breaches in the statute [3]. Therefore [4], the questions arise if and how 2019 College Admissions Story affects ERAS®/NRMP/GME when programs are shortlisting and selecting their future residents.

 

1. USMLE in Pass/Fail format [5]: Will the proposed change in USMLE format make screening of ERAS® applications unpredictable and liable when resident selection process becomes dependent on everything else except USMLE scores which have been the lone objective grading tool available to GME recruiters [6]?  
2. Demand-supply mismatch: Will solicitations for Visiting Student Learning Opportunities (VSLO) warrant enhanced scrutiny for conflicts of interest because VSLO externships/observerships can act as stepping-stone to GME admissions [7]?
3. Future of one-on-one interview model [8]: Will group-cum-panel interviews replace one-on-one interviews to avoid undisclosed conflicts of interest being misconstrued as improprieties?
4. Diversity in GME [9]: Will increased caution and conscious efforts therein by GME recruiters improve diversity and inclusion for underrepresented communities in GME programs?
5. “A” vs. “B” vs. “C” students [10]: Will the heightened awareness among GME recruiters ensure selection opportunities for all grades of applicants?
6. Future of “legacy” admissions [11]: Just like “sportsperson” admissions serving needs of colleges to excel in competitive college sports, will the “legacy” admissions evolve to be rechristened as “fundraiser” admissions serving the cash/in-kind needs of admitting institutions [12]?
7. High NRMP Match Rates [13]: While >50% applicants don’t get selected to medical schools, only < 10% matriculants fail to graduate medical school [14]. Thereafter, only < 10% medical graduates fail to match into GME residencies [13]. Moreover, GME residents’ attrition rates remain very low in stark comparison to alarmingly high college dropout rates [15-16]. Even practicing physicians are unable to retire early or quit practicing medicine by choice [17]. Therefore, is 2019 College Admissions Story more burdensome to medical school recruiters rather than ERAS®/NRMP/GME recruiters when ~90% admitted to medical schools are anyway going to practice medicine in their chosen specialty?

 

During ERAS®/NRMP/GME season, one of the efforts for “well-rounded” classes can be development and disclosure of objective parameters utilized to quantify emotional quotient (EQ), social quotient (SQ) and collective quotient (CQ) beside intelligence quotient (IQ) of GME applicants [18-21]. GME programs should always seek happy applicants having big potential to satisfy the reality-bending needs of world whereby collegial collaborative service providers adapt, survive and excel better than eccentric disruptive academic geniuses [22-24]. To accomplish the above-mentioned:

(a)   IQ/EQ/SQ/CQ Portals: ERAS® may have to develop standardized-personalized-centralized online IQ/EQ/SQ/CQ assessment via video-recording-portals to serve as applicant-screening tools for programs

(b)   Group Interviews: Programs may have to arrange interviews as visits by small groups of one-day hands-on observers followed by end-of-the-day group-cum-panel discussions

(c)   CQ Weightage: Programs may have to give more weightage to CQ of one-day observers-cum-interviewees when submitting their rank order lists to NRMP.

(d)   Mandatory VSLO [25]: Futuristically, ERAS® may have to consider mandating its VSLO program to match all third year medical students for at least three cost-effective externships in fourth year of medical school wherein GME programs as well as their matched externs will have ample opportunities to evaluate each other before ranking and eventually matching to GME residencies through NRMP.

 

Summarily, ERAS®/NRMP/GME may preemptively overcome 2019 College Admissions Story effect by continuing constant and conscious efforts to honestly and transparently select future physician leaders of the world.

References

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1. Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman are two contrasting faces in the college admissions scam https://w ww.cnn.com/2019/10/22/us/lori-loughlin-felicity-huffman-fallout/index.html Accessed on February 11, 2020
2. Honest Services Fraud https://criminal.fin dlaw.com/criminal-charges/honest-services-fraud.html Accessed on February 11, 2020
3. Why Corruption Always Requires a Conflict of Interest https://www.forensicstrategic.com/blog/why-corruption-always-requires-a-conflict-of-interest Accessed on February 11, 2020
4. Lentz, B., & Laband, D. (1989). Why So Many Children of Doctors Become Doctors: Nepotism vs. Human Capital Transfers. The Journal of Human Resources, 24(3), 396-413. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/145820 Accessed on February 11, 2020
5. Exploring Possible Changes to USMLE Score Reporting https://www.usmle.org/usmlescoring/ Accessed on February 11, 2020
6. Can the letter of recommendation become an electronic standardized letter of reference? https://www.hcpro.com/RES-329315-2699/Can-the-letter-of-recomme ndation-become-an-electronic-standardized-letter-of-reference.html Accessed on February 11, 2020
7. Attending Medical School: For Students. https://studen ts-residents.aamc.org/attending-medical-school/article/students/ Accessed on February 11, 2020
8. Group Interviews vs 1-on-1 Interviews https://ww w.prevuehr.com/resources/insights/group-interviews-vs-1-on-1-interviews/ Accessed on February 11, 2020
9. ACGME Names First Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer https://www.acgme.org/Newsroom/Newsroom-Details/ArticleID/8038/ACGME-Names -First-Chief-Diversity-and-Inclusion-Officer Accessed on February 11, 2020
10. Why "A" Students Work for "C" Students and Why "B" Students Work for the Government: Rich Dad's Guide to Financial Education for Parents https://www.amazon .in/Why-Students-Work-Government-Financial/dp/1612680763 Accessed on February 11, 2020
11. Notre Dame and Baylor Admit More Legacies Than Harvard and Yale https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-21/notre-dame-baylor-top-harvard -yale-for-most-legacies-admitted Accessed on February 11, 2020
12. Why do colleges still give preference to children of alumni? https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/04/07/why-do-c olleges-still-give-preference-to-children-of-alumni/ Accessed on February 11, 2020
13. Inside the numbers behind the record-setting 2019 Match https://www.ama-assn.org/residents-students/match/inside-numbers-behind-record-setting-2019-mat ch Accessed on February 11, 2020
14. 2019 FACTS: Applicants and Matriculants Data https://www.aamc.org/data-reports/students-residents/interactive-data/2019-fact s-applicants-and-matriculants-data Accessed on February 11, 2020
15. Lu, D. W., Hartman, N. D., Druck, J., Mitzman, J., & Strout, T. D. (2019). Why Residents Quit: National Rates of and Reasons for Attrition Among Emergency Medicine Physicians in Training. The western journal of emergency medicine, 20(2), 351–356. doi: https://doi.org/10.5811/westjem.2018.11.40449 Accessed on February 11, 2020
16. How to Avoid Dropping Out of College https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/2019-03 -20/dropping-out-of-college-why-students-do-so-and-how-to-avoid-it Accessed on February 11, 2020
17. Physician retirement: Why it's hard for doctors to retire. htt p://www.medicaleconomics.com/business/physician-retirement-why-its-hard-doctors-retire Accessed on February 11, 2020
18. The Secret Quotas In College Admissions. h ttps://www.forbes.com/sites/stevecohen/2015/07/06/the-secret-quotas-in-college-admissions/ Accessed on February 11, 2020
19. Book Summary – Emotional Intelligence 2.0 https://readingraphics.co m/book-summary-emotional-intelligence-2-0/ Accessed on February 11, 2020
20. Social quotient https://dictionary.apa.org/social-quotient Accessed on February 11, 2020
21. Woolley AW, Chabris CF, Pentland A, Hashmi N, Malone TW. Evidence for a collective intelligence factor in the performance of human groups. Science. 2010 Oct 29;330(6004):686-8. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1193147 Accessed on February 11, 2020
22. The Happiness Advantage: THE SEVEN PRINCIPLES OF POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY THAT FUEL SUCCESS AND PERFORMANCE AT WORK https://www.shawnachor.com/the- books/the-happiness-advantage/ Accessed on February 11, 2020
23. Big Potential: HOW TRANSFORMING THE PURSUIT OF SUCCESS RAISES OUR ACHIEVEMENT, HAPPINESS AND WELL-BEING https://www.shawnachor.com/the-books/big- potential/ Accessed on February 11, 2020
24. Before Happiness: THE 5 HIDDEN KEYS TO ACHIEVING SUCCESS, SPREADING HAPPINESS, AND SUSTAINING POSITIVE CHANGE https://www.shawnachor.com/the-books/b efore-happiness/ Accessed on February 11, 2020
25. Attending Medical School: Visiting Student Learning Opportunities https://students-residents.aamc.org/attending-medical-school/article/visiting-stude nt-learning-opportunities/ Accessed on February 11, 2020

Source(s) of Funding

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NOT APPLICABLE

Competing Interests

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NOT APPLICABLE