A Residency Interview Season like No Other

Residency interviews are ordinarily a time for programs and applicants to meet with one another face to face and get a sense of what the next few years might look like working with one another.

For applicants this means travelling the country to tour various medical centers and experience new cities they might next year call home. For programs it means hosting several days of interview-related activities, including socials, tours, presentations, and, of course, interviews. 

Grappling with how to safely conduct this significant process in the midst of a global pandemic, programs throughout the country committed to holding their first-ever completely virtual interview season.

Digitizing the in-person experience

Even before beginning to overhaul interview day logistics, Program Director Dr. Roy Colven, Associate Program Directors Drs. Lisa Maier and Markus Boos, Co-Chief residents Dr. Josiah Hanson, and Dr. Max Vale along with Program Manager Stephanie Timm, took this as an opportunity to make the application process more accessible and transparent.

Over the summer, the team organized three virtual open houses before the application deadline so that all applicants, near and far, had the opportunity to learn about the program they were applying to from the resident’s point of view.

Communications specialist Mackenzie Keyse also took care to ensure that the website was up to date and outfitted with stories and videos to give an accurate representation of the program, despite the inability to host visitors.

Come fall, the faculty collectively reviewed over 600 applications.

Faculty holistically review every application and do not screen out any applications artificially using a USMLE score or any other single metric. This takes a lot of time, but our faculty are truly committed. – Stephanie Timm

After careful and comprehensive review of each application, 33 extraordinary candidates were invited to interview. The program will be matching for 3 residents who will start July 1, 2022, and 1 resident who will start July 1, 2021.

Embracing Zoom like never before

When it came time to hosting interview days, the residency program team devised a schedule of virtual events for applicants that covered each of the objectives the traditional interview days provided.

The residents hosted pre-interview virtual “dinners” during which current residents and applicants could get to know one another in a social environment.

Timm created and disseminated candidate- and reviewer-specific websites providing essential information to prepare for the interview day ahead.

Finally, each of the three interview days consisted of a revolving mix of presentations by program leadership and the chief residents, faculty interviews, casual meetings with residents, and breaks, with the admin team moving 30 people around 10 Zoom rooms every 15 minutes. The virtual platform proved especially challenging on one interview day when faculty, residents, and admins overcame power outages and flooded basements after a big northwest winter storm the night before to make interviews happen!

It took a lot of effort to learn how to effectively use the new virtual format, and a lot of courage! Timm was incredibly organized and made the interview days very smooth for both the applicants and the faculty. 

Many faculty members have said that they preferred the virtual format to in-person interviews! I think this speaks volumes about all the work that Stephanie did behind the scenes.  – Dr. Maier

Prioritizing equity

This year also raised issues of equity and diversity in dermatology. UW still has work to do, but Dr. Boos took particular care highlighting the work that the division has already done and ongoing efforts in this area.

He effectively communicated this with a warmth and sensitivity, and his message resonated with many of our applicants.  – Dr. Maier

Additionally, Dr. Boos made incredible efforts to connect with many of our applicants, and personally responded to many applicants concerns and questions.

I just wanted to give a shout out to everyone who really exemplified the qualities of inclusion—we all put on our best equity lenses and gave each application a holistic review and interviewed 33 incredibly accomplished, kind and diverse applicants, any of whom we would be proud to train and welcome into our UW Derm family. – Dr. Boos

It takes a village

Planning and facilitating the pre-application, review, and interview process is an essential function for the residency program, and one that requires incredible time and effort from so many parties. The Division and Residency Program leadership would like to thank all involved in making this a positive and memorable year:

Stephanie Timm, the heart and soul of the entire process, moved mountains to transition us to a virtual format with the help from her team including Liz Wright, Aimee Filippi and Trang Nguyen.

Thanks to chief residents, Drs. Josiah Hanson and Max Vale, for an excellent job (and a ton of time) introducing the program both at the virtual open houses and interview days, as well as organizing the pre-interview “dinners”.

The residents were super accessible and welcoming during pre-interview open houses, “dinners” and interview days.

Division leadership provided RVU support for the time-intensive efforts by faculty throughout the review, interview and post-interview process. Thanks to Drs. Roy Colven, Lisa Maier, Markus Boos, Anna Cogen, Nic Compton, Katie DeNiro, Phil Fleckman, Andrea Kalus, Paul Nghiem, April Schachtel, Meredith Sheedy, Michi Shinohara, Rob Sidbury, and Jay Vary for your dedication to this effort.