Selecting Radiology Resident Candidates

Radiology resident candidate selection has become a burdensome, subjective, and somewhat arbitrary process. Because the luxury of many well-qualified candidates exists, there is an obligation to select them as honestly, equitably, and objectively as possible. Two years were spent in revising and modifying the resident selection process to make it more uniform and more efficacious. An application scoring form was devised to extract uniform pertinent information from the original application form. Candidates could then be ranked according to a numerical score derived from the form. This allowed easy selection of top candidates to be interviewed. A new interviewing scoring form was developed to include desirable characteristics of resident candidate performance. This form was also devised in such a way as to be easily scored and to allow selection of the top 20 to 25 candidates. These candidates were then ranked by participating faculty members while reviewing their application score forms and their interview forms. Positions for the residency training program were offered according to the ranking. The usefulness of both new forms was evaluated and confirmed by correlating form scores with faculty ranking of academic performance of current residents in the training program.