The UME-GME Transition: Optimal Clerkship Director to Program Director Communication Before and After the Match

There are many transitions throughout the continuum of medical education. The most prominent is from UME to GME. UME educators are tasked with preparing an entrusted student and ensuring that the student successfully transitions to a new physician in GME. Through the years, program directors have relied on objective metrics such as the core clerkship grade, subinternship (subi) grade, and USMLE scores for early differentiation of student applicants. These metrics, however, are becoming less useful in differentiation, with USMLE scores being reported as pass-fail and many schools reporting clerkships pass-fail. It is more important now than ever that clerkship and subinternship directors create and implement methods to effectively relay information to allow program directors to evaluate medical students more holistically with a competency-based lens . Two more recent innovations, the structured evaluative letter (SEL) and ERAS Supplemental Application, also have the potential to further shape this process. SEL provides space for clerkship directors to communicate such information to program directors. The supplemental application allows students themselves to provide information to programs that differentiates them as candidates and demonstrates experiences and skills that best align with individual program missions. However, clerkship directors and medical schools utilize many other ways to convey this information that may not be evident to program directors and may not be weighted or taken into consideration during the residency application process.