An analysis of osteopathic medical students applying to surgical residencies following transition to a single graduate medical education accreditation system

Upon requests from osteopathic medical schools, the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) Charting Outcomes were redesigned to include osteopathic medical school seniors beginning in 2018 and one joint graduate medical education (GME) accreditation system, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), formed in 2020. The goal of this study is to analyze the match outcomes and characteristics of osteopathic applicants applying to surgical specialties following the ACGME transition. A retrospective analysis of osteopathic senior match outcomes in surgical specialties from the NRMP Main Residency Match data from 2020 to 2022 and the NRMP Charting Outcomes data from 2020 to 2022 was performed. For surgical specialties, results show matching increased as United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 2 CK (clinical knowledge) and Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing Examination (COMLEX) Level 2 CE (cognitive evaluation) scores increased along with the number of contiguous rankings (p