Cortex Application Status Enhancements

As of October 11, 2024, Thalamus is excited to announce an update to Cortex's application status feature.

Thalamus Holistic Review was launched to all residency and fellowship Thalamus programs for the 2024-2025 recruitment season, following a successful pilot the year prior with over 50 GME programs. As part of the new feature set for this competency-based scoring system, application statuses were expanded to include a recommended status for reviewers, as well as a final overall status assigned by the Program Director or other program leadership.

Since the start of the ERAS 2025 residency recruitment season, we appreciate the helpful feedback we have received from programs. Our product and engineering teams worked diligently and expediently to provide this update for an even more streamlined and comprehensive holistic review.

What changed?

1. Updated Status Assignment and Views

For Program Directors, Administrators and Coordinators, both the a) Applications and b) View Details pages (accessible from the Applications tab) will now display both the My Recommended Status as well as the Overall Application Status.

Previously, these pages only showed the My Recommended Status, whereas the Overall Application Status was only displayed on the Assignments page.

Note: For those Program Interviewers, Residents and Fellows that have access to Cortex, they will still only see the My Recommended Status (as prior).

What is the difference between the My Recommended Status and Overall Application Status?

My Recommended Status represents a suggested action for an applicant.
This is an optional status that all Cortex users can submit. These actions are aggregated and tallied on the Cortex "Assignments" page to guide Program Directors, Administrators and/or Coordinators in assigning an overall application status. Multiple recommended statuses (i.e. one per reviewer) can be applied per applicant.

Note:  Selecting this status does not result in any additional action taken or notification to an applicant.

Overall Application Status represents the deciding action for an applicant.
Only one overall application status can be applied to an applicant, and can be changed at any time.  Those applicants with a status of "Invite" in this category can be exported to Thalamus Core for interview invitation (from the Cortex Assignments page). This status can only be viewed and/or modified by Program Directors, Administrators, and Coordinators.

Note:  Selecting this status does not result in any additional action taken or notification to an applicant.

2. Enhanced Status Filters

There are now three filters available to sort by the different statuses. Filters can be applied from the Applications or Assignments page.

• My Recommended Status - Filters applicants by your (individual) recommended status.
• Aggregate Recommended Status - Filters applicants by all recommended statuses assigned by all reviewers (e.g. Program Director wants to view all applicants that have been recommended to be invited by one or more reviewers).
• Overall Application Status - Filter applicants based on their final overall application status.

At Thalamus, we are deeply committed to innovation and continuously strive to improve our platform based on the valuable feedback of the GME community. Your input helps us stay at the forefront of residency and fellowship recruitment. Thank you for being an essential part of our journey—together, we're making Thalamus even better!

Happy Recruiting!

Team Thalamus