Matchmaking: trends in the nrmp sleep match

Abstract Background Over the past few years there have been major changes impacting the Sleep Fellowship application process. These changes included a shift to virtual interviews for the 2020 interview season and alignment of the sleep fellowship match date with the American Medical Board Specialties match date for the 2021 interview season. Objective Our study evaluates their effects on applicant numbers and feeder specialties as well as program directors’ perspectives on outcomes of these changes. Methods A survey was sent to all program directors of ACGME-accredited Sleep Fellowship programs in April 2022. In addition, a request for aggregate deidentified sleep applicant rank list and match data was submitted for the sleep match for academic years from 2012 to 2024. Results For the 2020 and 2021 interview seasons, program directors agreed that they received more applicants than the years before though they did not feel that this affected their match results or overall recruitment. Most program directors were in favor of these changes. The NRMP data supported these trends. The ratio of applicants to position increased over 1.0 for the first time in 2021 and has remained over 1.0 since then. However, the increase in applicants in 2022 and 2023 were entirely driven by those who ranked sleep as their non-preferred specialty. Conclusion The advent of virtual interviews has allowed applicants to apply to more programs. The alignment of the sleep fellowship match further increased the number of applicants. However, the increase appears partially related to more applicants ranking sleep medicine as their non-preferred specialty.