An evaluation of physical medicine and rehabilitation accredited sports medicine fellowship websites.

Background: Due to the virtual format of fellowship applications, prospective physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) sports medicine fellowship applicants commonly rely upon fellowship website content to make decisions about applications. Studies have shown that information available to fellowship applicants on program websites is inadequate, and there is no standard for important components of sports medicine fellowship websites.

Objective: To determine what sports medicine fellowship program features PM&R residents, fellows, and attending physicians consider the most important to be listed on fellowship websites, as well as to assess the scope of information available on fellowship websites.

Design: We developed a 30-item list of criteria that fell into categories of general information, fellowship education, recruitment, experience, and academic research. Survey participants were asked to rank the importance of those various items. We then assessed the 21 PM&R accredited sports medicine fellowship websites for the presence of these criteria.

Participants: Ninety-six survey respondents composed of PM&R residents, current sports medicine fellows, and attendings.

Interventions: Not applicable.

Main Outcome Measure(s): Not applicable.

Results: Items ranked as most important were those in the categories of general information, fellowship experience, and fellowship recruitment. The most valued items were program location, program coordinator contact information, program length, specific requirements for applying, number of positions, types of procedures taught, and specific sites covered. Academic research items were ranked as least important.

Conclusions: Survey respondents identified many fellowship website items as important factors when applying to programs. Many of these items were not listed on fellowship websites, suggesting that adding these criteria to fellowship sites might benefit applicants. Our findings can be used to develop standardized criteria for important components of sports medicine fellowship websites to improve the application and recruitment process.