Ready, Set, Recruit: A Journal Club on Equitable Selection in the EM Match
Join the SAEM Education Committee for our upcoming Journal Club! Timed with the start of recruitment season, this interactive journal club will examine how bias and structural inequities may influence the assessment of emergency medicine residency applicants—from clerkship grades and standardized letters of evaluation to interview scoring. Using three recent studies as a framework, participants will explore differences in clerkship grading by URiM status, racialized patterns in the language used in standardized letters of evaluation, and the potential effects of interview timing and day on applicant scores. The discussion will focus on translating evidence into practical strategies that programs and educators can use to recognize bias, improve the consistency of applicant evaluation, and support more equitable selection processes.
Key Discussion Points
- How inequities in clerkship grading may affect residency applications
- How language in standardized letters of evaluation may differ by applicants’ racial identities
- Whether interview timing introduces unintended variation into applicant scoring
- Practical approaches to standardizing assessment and minimizing bias
- Opportunities for programs to strengthen equity across the recruitment continuum Format Brief article summaries followed by a moderated, interactive discussion and practical takeaways for the current recruitment season.
Articles Discussed
- Gonzalez F, et al. Differences in language used to describe racial groups in emergency medicine standardized letter of evaluation. AEM Educ Train. 2025;9(3):e70054.
- Walsh K, et al. Analysis of emergency medicine clerkship grades by identification as underrepresented in medicine (URiM) versus non-URiM. AEM Educ Train. 2025;9(1):e11045.
- O’Connell A, et al. Analyzing the effect of interview time and day on emergency medicine residency interview scores. BMC Med Educ. 2022;22(1):320.