Underrepresented Applicants Post-USMLE Pass/Fail: A National Survey of Competitive Residency Directors.

Objective: To report the selection criteria important to residency program directors (PDs) and whether they believe pass/fail scoring will impact underrepresented in medicine (URM), International Medical Graduate (IMG), or osteopathic (DO) residency applicants after the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) changed Step 1 score reporting to pass/fail in January 2022.

Methods: A Qualtrics survey was sent between August 2022 and January 2023 to 1141 US PDs from specialties with traditionally low residency selection rates: dermatology, ophthalmology, otolaryngology, orthopedic surgery, neurosurgery, interventional radiology, diagnostic radiology, radiation oncology, thoracic surgery, vascular surgery, plastic surgery, and urology. Contact information was obtained from AMA, FRIEDA, or program websites.