Evaluating applicants to a new emergency medicine residency program: subjective assessment of applicant characteristics.

Background: Because of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and the Residency Review Committee (RRC) approval timelines, new residency programs cannot use Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) during their first year of applicants.

Aim: We sought to identify differences between program directors' subjective ratings of applicants from an emergency medicine (EM) residency program's first year (in which ERAS was not used) to their ratings of applicants the following year in which ERAS was used.

Method: The University of Utah Emergency Medicine Residency Program received approval from the ACGME in 2004.