An Objective Scoring System and Simple Mathematical Algorithm for the Plastic Surgery Applicant to Rank Residency Programs Based on Personalized Preferences
Ziyad S. Hammoudeh · Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery · 2013
Sir:FigureOrganizations exist that rank the entire spectrum of academic institutions ranging from universities to hospitals. They now even evaluate individual medical specialties within hospitals; this includes surgical fields such as orthopedics, ophthalmology, urology, and otolaryngology.1 However, to date, there is no ranking system of plastic surgery divisions. Perhaps this will come to fruition in the upcoming years, but until then, applicants to plastic surgery have only the word-of-mouth reputation of various programs and their own opinions on the interview day on which to base their decisions. It is difficult, and some may say impossible, to truly get a complete understanding of each residency program by visiting for just 1 day. In addition, national ranking systems have their own flaws; for instance, they do not break down the individual characteristics of each department, which is essential for selection of one's ideal program. By the end of the application process, each applicant has to select the program that best matches what he or she is looking for. But where does one even begin? After flying in and out of numerous cities, it can be quite daunting to try to remember the details of each program. Having recently completed the independent match myself, I realized the difficulty of assigning an order of preference to each program when putting together a rank list. Many individual residency programs have developed their own scoring systems to more objectively evaluate applicants interviewing with them.2 Consequently, I designed a weighted scoring system for applicants to objectively evaluate plastic surgery programs based on each applicant's unique personal preferences. To my knowledge, this is the first such scoring system in the literature, not only for plastic surgery but for all medical specialties. Figure 1 is a blank template applicants may take with them to each interview. In the first column, there are 10 categories for evaluating a plastic surgery program. In the second column, the applicant must assign a weighted percentage to these categories based on how important each one is to the applicant; the sum of all of the percentages should equal 100 percent. These values will remain the same for all interviews. In the third column, the applicant enters a rating from 1 to 10 for each category based on his or her impression immediately after each interview, with 10 being the best possible rating. For each category, the percentages (column 2) and the ratings (column 3) are multiplied and entered in column 4 as a weighted score.Fig. 1: Blank template for completion by the applicant.The values in column 4 are then added together to produce a final score below. Each program will then have a score out of 10, and the programs can be placed in order from greatest to least score to objectively produce a rank list. Table 1 is an example of what a completed table may look like; the weights and ratings were chosen arbitrarily for demonstration.Table 1: Example of a Completed Table*For the applicants with family considerations, geographic location may be the most important quality in a program. For the applicant who aspires to a career in academia, academic reputation or research opportunities may be given the greatest consideration. Using this algorithm, applicants may objectively evaluate plastic surgery programs and create their rank list based on the qualities they deem to be most and least important. Ziyad S. Hammoudeh, M.D. Division of Plastic Surgery, Mayo Clinic, 200 First Street SW, Rochester, Minn. 55905, [email protected] DISCLOSURE The author has no financial interest to declare in relation to the content of this article.