A national post-Match webinar panel improves knowledge and preparedness of medical students interested in vascular surgery training

Background: The current shortage of vascular surgeons is projected to worsen. Compared with other surgical residency programs, integrated vascular surgery residency (IVSR) offers fewer training positions and attracts fewer applicants. As a result, only a few medical students from each school match into the specialty, and conventional resources like Match panels are not available to students interested in vascular surgery. We hypothesize that a national post-Match panel webinar will improve medical students' knowledge of the IVSR application process. Methods: A panel of four recently matched medical students shared their experiences on their successful Match into an IVSR through a 65-minute-long national webinar. Data were collected from students who attended the webinar through anonymous online surveys before and after the panel discussion. The participants' self-reported understanding of the IVSR was assessed using a 5-point Likert scale for 11 questions. Objective knowledge of the IVSR Match process was assessed using five data-based questions. All prewebinar and postwebinar responses were paired and compared using bivariate analysis. Results: A total of 76 participants completed both the prewebinar and postwebinar surveys. The majority of respondents were first-year medical students (51.3%) and attended medical school in the Northeast (38.2%). Among these respondents, 57.6% indicated that their home institution had an IVSR program, 44.7% had an active vascular surgery interest group (VSIG), 14.5% had previously attended a vascular surgery conference, and 28.9% were very likely to apply into an IVSR. After the webinar, more students correctly identified the number of currently existing IVSR training positions (76.3% vs 89.5%; P = .002), duration of IVSR (56.6% vs 85.5%; P <.001), and median Step 1 score (50% vs 84.2%; P <.001) and minimum number of applications (38.2% vs 65.8%; P <.001) recommended for a successful Match into IVSR. Students who had a VSIG at their home institution were found to have a better baseline knowledge of the IVSR based on their higher aggregate scores on the data-based questions (3.4 6 1 vs 1.9 6 1.2; P <.001) compared with those without one. Conclusions: A national webinar run by recently matched students can effectively improve medical students' understanding of the IVSR application process. Students with a VSIG at their institutions have a better baseline knowledge of IVSR. In addition to expanding the VSIG, instituting an annual national postmatch webinar may help students become better prepared applicants and improve the overall application pool.