Key Themes

Since last October, the NRMP has been celebrating its 70th anniversary with a multi-media campaign highlighting how the organization is leveraging its growth, its successes, and its lessons learned to help strengthen the UME-GME pipeline for the future. But what, if over the next 70 years, the transition to residency is compromised in ways that prove detrimental to learners? What will medical education look like, and what will the learner experience be?

The theme of this year’s stakeholder conference is The Next 70 Years: Our Imperative to Build a Better Transition to Residency. The NRMP is securing speakers and developing programming that reflects on this important topic and the future of the Match. The NRMP also encourages interested parties to submit abstract proposals that highlight ways in which individual projects and regional collaboratives are working to improve the transition, ensure its survival, and establish a stronger environment in which young physicians will thrive and meet the health needs of the population.

Below are key content areas that could be addressed through breakout session proposals:

Transition from medical school to residency

• Thriving in a virtual world: Is it the future of recruitment?
• Beyond MDs: Understanding the experiences of IMGs and DOs in the Match and ways to build better equity for residency
• Lessons learned from training during a pandemic: Will resident populations be better equipped for the next one?

Social and environmental influences

• Mental illness during medical school and residency: Candid conversations about prevalence and the impact of stigmatization on learner success
• Economic inequalities among students and residents: What is the impact during recruitment and how can they be mitigated for future cohorts?
• Proliferation of medical misinformation: How prepared are residents and physicians to confront it?

Innovation in projects and research

• Best practices for building a diverse physician scientist community and engaging diverse populations in medical research
• Evolution of medical education: How are changes like USMLE pass/fail impacting the student body?
• Technology in medical education: Leaning in to all that digital platforms and learning have to offer now and in the future

In support of its 70th anniversary campaign, NRMP will host breakout sessions that will showcase how new initiatives related to the Match, research, and data security are moving The Match into the future. A special panel of learners also will be convened in honor of the 70th anniversary campaign.