Perspectives, Opinions and Curiosities · 15 April 2024

Standardizing Letters of Recommendation for Surgical Training Programs

Letters of recommendation are crucial for applicant selection in medical education. The shift to pass/fail USMLE scoring has increased their importance. Narratives may introduce bias and inflation. Standardized letters can address these issues. Interviews and focus groups informed the development of a new standardized letter for surgical residency applications. Researchers were also invited to revise existing standardized letters for a post-graduate training program.

Review by Zipf-Sigler C, Nguyen AL (…) Kumar AS et 4 al. in Am J Surg

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