RS26 - Characteristics of the Integrated Vascular Surgery Residency Match: US Match Results from 2017-2022

Objectives: In the United States, medical student exposure to vascular surgery is highly variable. Many schools do not have full-time academic vascular surgeons. The inception of the 0+5 residency paradigm has created the need to recruit students into this field, but little is known regarding the best methods. We sought to characterize whether the presence of a vascular surgery training program or a vascular surgery interest group (VSIG) at a medical school is associated with an increase in the number of matched vascular surgery applicants from that institution.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed publicly available data from all vascular surgery residency programs who participated in the Match from 2017 through 2022. VSIG status at each training program was obtained from the Society for Vascular Surgery database.

Results: Between 2017 and 2022, 458 individuals matched into vascular surgery integrated residencies. International medical graduates constituted 9% (n= 41) of the matched applicants. There were 406 matched applicants from 127 US medical schools. Of this cohort, 17% of applicants were from medical schools with a vascular surgery training program, 7% were from a medical school with 0+5 program only, 23% were from a medical school with a 5+2 training program, and 53% were from medical schools with both training paradigms (Figure 1). Of the 70 matched applicants from programs without a vascular surgery training program, only 14 were at institutions with a VSIG. Of the 127 medical schools that matched applicants, 32% (n = 41) of schools had no vascular surgery training program while 38% (n = 48) had both training paradigms (Figure 2).

Conclusions: The majority of US medical school applicants who match into vascular surgery are from medical schools associated with either a 0+5 or 5+2 vascular surgery training program. However, a significant proportion of matched applicants are from medical schools without a vascular surgery training program suggesting that there are other factors that influence their successful pursuit of this specialty. Further work is needed to identify the ideal methods for generating and fostering medical student interest in vascular surgery, especially in schools without an existing training program.