Data represents more than 75% of participating programs nationwide; organizations continuing to accelerate efforts toward data integration, research, and innovation
Washington, D.C., December 5, 2023—More than 6,500 residency and fellowship programs have opted to use the Thalamus platform as part of the collaboration with the AAMC Electronic Residency Application Service® (ERAS®). These programs represent more than 75% of the nation’s medical residency and fellowship training programs participating in the ERAS program during the 2023-2024 application cycle.
Adoption of the new platform has been high across all specialties, including pediatrics, anesthesiology, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, family medicine, and emergency medicine, among others in surgical specialties. Additionally, through the collaboration, more than 525,000 residency interview invitations were sent in the first 60 days of the recruitment season, accounting for nearly 90% of the number of total ranks submitted in last year’s residency match.
The latest data comes just seven months after the AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) announced a collaboration with Thalamus, the premier interview management platform designed specifically for application to graduate medical education (GME) training programs.
Since the April 2023 launch, the collaboration between the AAMC and Thalamus has focused on educating and supporting the GME community, including the launch of an updated interface for the ERAS applications, content and signaling tools, as well as an enhanced Thalamus software platform. The collaboration provides complimentary access to the industry-leading interview management platform Thalamus Core and Itinerary Wizard, as well as Cerebellum, a novel data and analytics dashboard to assess recruitment outcomes, specifically from a diversity, equity, inclusion, and geographic perspective.
During the second phase of this strategic collaboration, the AAMC and Thalamus will focus on technological innovation to advance holistic review and improve the transition to residency.
“We are thrilled by the momentum the collaboration is building in the application, selection, and interview processes in graduate medical education,” said David J. Skorton, MD, AAMC president and CEO. “What is most exciting is our ability to expand and diversify the physician workforce. We will continue to drive innovation with the medical education community for the medical education community as we work to make this future vision a reality.”
For the upcoming ERAS 2025 season, which begins in July 2024, the AAMC and Thalamus are working to create mechanisms to integrate ERAS Program Directors’ Workstation (PDWS) and Thalamus Core, Cerebellum, and Cortex, Thalamus’ technology-assisted holistic application review and screening platform. This will occur through a streamlined user experience powered by an application program interface (API).
Additionally, the ERAS Interview Scheduler within the PDWS will be replaced by Thalamus Core, and ERAS Analytics for Institutions will be incorporated into and replaced by Cerebellum. Program users will continue to have the ability to use the PDWS for pre- and post-interview activities in addition to selecting which applicants to move to Thalamus Core and/or Cortex. Applicants will receive a more integrated application and interview management experience, including enhanced data to manage their interviews more easily on a centralized calendar.
“The AAMC and Thalamus development teams have been working diligently on technological innovation,” said Jason Reminick, MD, MBA, MS, CEO and founder of Thalamus. “This includes competency-based scoring, enhanced selection tools, artificial intelligence/machine learning, and novel data science and analytics. Further, several academic collaborations between the AAMC and Thalamus research teams are already underway, which includes the most comprehensive, multi-specialty data set available to support the UME to GME transition. All of these changes will improve efficiency in the selection process and provide greater insight into applicant and workforce trends.”
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Note for editors: Leaders from the AAMC and Thalamus are available to speak with press about this new collaboration, the newest ERAS program enhancements, the latest season statistics and trends, and what they mean for residency programs, medical schools, and applicants.
The AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) is a nonprofit association dedicated to improving the health of people everywhere through medical education, health care, medical research, and community collaborations. Its members are all 158 U.S. medical schools accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education; 13 accredited Canadian medical schools; approximately 400 teaching hospitals and health systems, including Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers; and more than 70 academic societies. Through these institutions and organizations, the AAMC leads and serves America’s medical schools and teaching hospitals and the millions of individuals across academic medicine, including more than 193,000 full-time faculty members, 96,000 medical students, 153,000 resident physicians, and 60,000 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in the biomedical sciences. Following a 2022 merger, the Alliance of Academic Health Centers and the Alliance of Academic Health Centers International broadened the AAMC’s U.S. membership and expanded its reach to international academic health centers. Learn more at aamc.org.
Thalamus is the premier, cloud-based interview management platform designed specifically for application to Graduate Medical Education (GME) training programs. The software streamlines communication by eliminating unnecessary phone calls/emails allowing applicants to book interviews in real-time, while acting as a comprehensive applicant tracking system for residency and fellowship programs. Thalamus provides comprehensive online interview scheduling and travel coordination via a real-time scheduling system, video interview platform, AI application screening/review tool (Cortex) providing technology-assisted holistic review, and first-in-class DEI-focused analytics dashboard (Cerebellum). Now featured nationally at over 750+ institutions and used by nearly all applicants, Thalamus is the most comprehensive solution in GME interview management. For more information on Thalamus, please visit https://thalamusgme.com or connect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube.
Media Contacts: Brooke Bergen, AAMC (202) 828-0419 bbergen@aamc.org Sarah Nathan, Thalamus (608) 218-0070 sarah.nathan@thalamusgme.com