In reply to Mudit's thread about no free market correction due to SOAP:
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I take it KO is referencing Cornell RadOnc closing? If he is, I find his "sacred cow" comment interesting, as I had heard rumors of malignancy in that training program when I first became involved in the field in the late 2000s. Those rumors had to come from somewhere. I have been operating under the assumption that there were basically no consequences for any RadOnc program, anywhere, and this is the first I've seen it happen. I don't recall any other instances in the last 20 years (things like CPMC were internal issues). Does anyone know any other instances where the ACGME shut down a RadOnc program?
I'm very interested to see what happens with boards this year and next year (and probably the year after that). The people currently in the boards cycle (from radbio/physics to orals) are still from the ultra-competitive era. Obviously, COVID has completely obliterated any sort of normalcy, rhythm, and strategy to board preparation. I would
hope the ABR grants a little leeway to pass rates in light of everything that has happened. However, given what happened in 2018, I'm not so sure.
If board passing rates start to drop due to "weakness" of the people matching, that's a phenomenon we won't observe until for at least another ~3 years. If board failure rates are higher than average this year, I would expect even more unrest from the people already in the field, which would possibly further discourage US MD applicants.