Get rid of the match.

[wolfiemd]

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http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapot...ncy-matching-system-for-newly-minted-m-d-s/2/

 

[deleted171991]

I agree. Big waste of time and money. And now they are doing the same with fellowships.

All we need is an ERAS-like electronic application system.

 

[Laryngophed]

The Match offers some control over the process to applicants. While it has downfalls and could certainly be made a more efficient process, the alternative could be much worse.

 

[madmonkey28]

I do agree there are problems with The Match. However in the alternative, I see the problem where a select number of stellar candidates hang on to residency positions as long as possible while everyone else is stuck waiting for them to accept/decline a given spot. Thoughts?

 

[Ronin786]

Most of the points brought up in that article seem to deal with competitiveness of the match rather than anything inherently flawed with the algorithm itself.

 

[Laryngophed]

I also lol'd that the article implies that we'd somehow be able to negotiate our pay. The article neglects the fact that our pay comes from Medicare and is based upon, at least in part, a formula determining the average cost of living in that area. And that we somehow would magically have bargaining power. We have to pursue graduate medical education to practice. They have the residency spots in hand. And with more applicants than spots, there is very little leverage for the applicant. Maybe the top 5% of applicants being drooled over by programs, but I suspect if that 5% over-valued their services, those programs would move on to the 6-10% of applicants.

 

[buccsmf1]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapot...ncy-matching-system-for-newly-minted-m-d-s/2/

The only part of the match process that I had issue with was the ridiculous wait between when we/programs submit rank lists, and the actual match. Other than that, I think it gives a ton of power to the applicant. Yeah, sure, its definitely expensive, but the article places a huge amount of that expense on the interview process. That isnt going away regardless of how the match works.... There's no way I'm matching to a program that I didn't personally visit. And either way, the 5k that the article cites is a drop in the bucket compared to the overall expense of medical school.

 

[Dwindlin]

As an applicant you would be crazy to want the match done away with. You have such an upper hand the way it is currently setup.


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[Random Anesthesiologist]

I feel a big part of the article's complaint is the "success" of the match, or lack thereof with a 25% fail rate with MD and DO combined. I see the ever increasing med school class size vs limited residency spots as a huge contributor to this.

 

[MaximusD]

I think Dr. Ho fails to realize that the monetary investment in attending many interviews is worth it. I am confident many applicant discover institutions were different than they'd expected on the interview trail. How is that wasted money? And honestly, 5k is not much money in the grand scheme of undergrad, med school, MCAT, licensure exams, and board certification. I have to disagree with this article after sleeping on it. Certainly Dr. Ho was successful with the match (she matched at U of Chicago in EMED) so she does have the standing to make this argument, however I think that she lacks perspective.

I would definitely agree that the ridiculous wait between the match algorithm being "run" and match day is exorbitant and ridiculous, but that is not a fault of the algorithm itself...

 

[Dwindlin]

I would definitely agree that the ridiculous wait between the match algorithm being "run" and match day is exorbitant and ridiculous, but that is not a fault of the algorithm itself...

This cracks me up. It takes weeks because they don't just run the algorithm and be done with it. They run it hundreds of times, and spot check portions by hand as another level of confirmation. Despite our seemingly belief they don't care, they realize how big of a deal this is and take extraordinary steps to ensure they get the "right" answer from the algorithm.


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[Dwindlin]

Also, this isn't some spread sheet parsing some names and programs. This is an incredibly complicated algorithm parsing a HUGE amount of data. The results aren't instantaneous, there is a real lag between hitting the button and getting output.


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[MaximusD]

Also, this isn't some spread sheet parsing some names and programs. This is an incredibly complicated algorithm parsing a HUGE amount of data. The results aren't instantaneous, there is a real lag between hitting the button and getting output.


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Source?

 

[Stellar Clouds]

I also lol'd that the article implies that we'd somehow be able to negotiate our pay. The article neglects the fact that our pay comes from Medicare and is based upon, at least in part, a formula determining the average cost of living in that area. And that we somehow would magically have bargaining power. We have to pursue graduate medical education to practice. They have the residency spots in hand. And with more applicants than spots, there is very little leverage for the applicant. Maybe the top 5% of applicants being drooled over by programs, but I suspect if that 5% over-valued their services, those programs would move on to the 6-10% of applicants.

Don't forget about the bottom 5% (or more) who would offer themselves with super low salaries just to ensure matching.

 

[Arch Guillotti]

Also, this isn't some spread sheet parsing some names and programs. This is an incredibly complicated algorithm parsing a HUGE amount of data. The results aren't instantaneous, there is a real lag between hitting the button and getting output.k

What, like 2 seconds instead of one?😉

Google crawls the entire internet in a split second when I do a search.

The urology matched got screwed up a few years ago because of a software glitch.

 

[Dwindlin]

Source?

Admittedly some of it is speculation as the NRMP uses a very well protected proprietary algorithm for this. However, their algorithm is based on the Gale-Shapely algorithm that was designed to solve the "Stable Marriage Problem" (for which they won a noble prize, separate from Alvin and Roth who won it specifically for applying it to the match).

This is a well described algorithm that you can look up easily. For every single run of the algorithm, it will parses all the match pairs multiple times. This isn't trivial for even a fast computer, your looking at likely a 10-20 minute run (again depending on their particular code). Repeated ad nauseum, with multiple error checks. People should take comfort in the fact they really want to get it right, the time delay isn't arbitrary.


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[Dwindlin]

What, like 2 seconds instead of one?😉

Google crawls the entire internet in a split second when I do a search.

The urology matched got screwed up a few years ago because of a software glitch.

A search algorithm is a few lines of code that even on a slow computer is read and processed quickly (microseconds). These algorithms are much, much more complicated with many more checks to go through.


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