Match Point - Canadian Resident Matching Service

WINTER 2014-2015
Match Point
Message from the Executive Director & CEO
In this issue: Looking back and looking forward
Welcome to our new
Board Chair
In this edition of Match Point you will
meet our newly elected Board Chair,
Dr. Willa Henry, who shares her plans
for the organization and introduces
you to our new board members. She
also sets the stage for the release of
CaRMS’ new mission and vision in the
coming months.
p.4
Preparing for Match Day
behind the scenes
p.6
Zendesk, client services
and you
p.9
Taking the pulse of
Canadians studying
medicine abroad
Answering your questions
Last November I announced my intention to step down in December 2015,
after 29 years as CaRMS’ Executive
Director and CEO. During my time at
CaRMS, the medical education community has changed in innumerable ways and I am proud to say that
CaRMS has evolved along with it. To
keep pace with the needs of our clients and colleagues, our organization
has grown 40-fold and fully embraced
an automated, Internet-based service
delivery model. Today, we provide bilingual services to more than 7,000
applicants and 650 programs across
the country.
I am truly honoured to have been part
of such a dynamic organization for
nearly three decades. I am also excited about the opportunities that lie
ahead for CaRMS and its new Executive Director and CEO, for whom the
search is currently underway.
It is true that we answer a lot of questions at CaRMS (just ask our client
services team), but there are a few
big ones that we hear each and every
match cycle. I say “big” not because
these questions are particularly challenging or provocative, but rather
because they concern vital aspects
of our business and service strategy.
In the following pages we are going
to answer some of those questions to
give you a closer look at what we do
at CaRMS, and how we do it.
How do we ensure our thousands of
users can access match results on
Match Day? Find out on page 4, where
we share the many behind-the-scenes
steps our team takes to make sure our
system is ready.
How do we make sure our products
and services are meeting our users’
changing needs? Learn all about our
ongoing commitment to consultation
through our new stakeholder engagement initiative, the development rank
order list (D-ROL), on page 5. You will
continued on page 3
Update from the chair of the Board of Directors
Our vision for CaRMS’ future
continue to explore new ways to use
our well-developed infrastructure in
order to ensure the sustainability of
our core business—the medical student/resident match.
In the spirit of ongoing community
cooperation, we will emphasize the
importance of building and enhancing healthy and respectful relationships with our partners in medical
education. The success of the matching process relies heavily on trust and
intense collaboration, and results in a
match that all of us can not only support, but be proud of.
Dr. Willa Henry
Chair, CaRMS Board of Directors
The CaRMS Board of Directors plays a
fundamental role in guiding the organization’s growth and development,
and as newly elected chair I would
like to share our vision for CaRMS’ future with you.
The CaRMS Board believes that we
can continue to be a world leader in
the matching process, meeting the
needs of medical students, as well as
faculties of medicine and their postgraduate programs, in support of the
Canadian healthcare system. Furthermore, we strongly support CaRMS’
commitment to fairness and transparency—principles that have been, and
continue to be, keys to our success.
We are also committed to keeping
match participation costs fair and
sensitive to the financial pressures
that face everyone in medical education, students and faculties alike.
We will encourage CaRMS’ continual
efforts to increase organizational efficiency and would like to see them
broaden their scope of services as
another way of offsetting the rising
costs associated with running the
match. In addition, our initial forays
into medical school admissions documentation management have great
promise, and I think it is critical to
Match Point / Winter 2014-2015
Finally, we will encourage and enable
CaRMS to increase efforts to make
its robust and important data sets
available to health policy and physician health human resource planners.
In this way we can inform national
efforts to meet the ever-changing
needs of Canadians.
NEW CaRMS BOARD OFFICERS
AND DIRECTORS
Dr. Willa Henry, Chair
Dr. Janice Willett, Vice-Chair
Dr. Kenneth Harris, Acting Treasurer
Dr. Brendan Carr, Director
Dr. Catherine Cervin, Director
Mr. Irfan Kherani, Director
Dr. Robert Primavesi, Director
Dr. Peter Sytnik, Director
Keeping these goals in mind, I am
thrilled to welcome the officers and
directors who joined our team in November 2014. I look forward to an exciting time ahead as we work togeth-
er to refine and expand the ways in
which CaRMS continues to contribute
to the advancement of medical education in Canada.
I would also like to extend my heartfelt thanks to outgoing Chair Dr.
Thomas Marrie for his three years of
service on the Board, as well as our
other outgoing members: Dr. Jesse
Kancir, Dr. Joanna Lazier, Ms. Anne
McGuire, Dr. Ira Ripstein, and Dr. Anurag Saxena.
New mission and vision
The landscape of medical education is changing rapidly, and CaRMS
places a great deal of importance on
ensuring that our mission and vision
reflect our evolving role within the
community. As part of our pursuit of
continual improvement, we must periodically re-examine our activities
and objectives to make sure we are
directly responding to the changing
needs of our clients and stakeholders.
To guide CaRMS going forward, the
Board has established a new core
purpose, mission, vision and values.
We have also identified strategic objectives in six key areas—stakeholder relations, risk management and
financial sustainability, internal and
external organizational transparency,
research and influencing policy, governance and leadership, and organizational excellence. Now, as part of
our ongoing efforts to engage with
our partners in the medical education
community, we have reached out to
our stakeholders for their feedback.
Consultations will continue through
early 2015 and you can expect the release of CaRMS’ new mission, vision
and values later this winter.
Stay connected
2
New Board member visits CaRMS
One of CaRMS’ newest Board members, Dr. Brendan Carr, paid a visit to
CaRMS’ offices and met with senior
staff on December 2, 2014.
Dr. Carr, who is President and Chief
Executive Officer for the Vancouver
Island Health Authority, was recommended for nomination to the CaRMS
Board of Directors by HealthCareCAN,
formerly the Association of Canadian
Academic Healthcare Organizations
(ACAHO). He was subsequently elected a Director on the Board on November 6, 2014.
Dr. Brendan Carr (left), pictured with VP Irving Gold, during his visit.
Looking back and
looking forward
continued from page 1
For medical students, Match Day
is the culmination of years of hard
work. We’re inviting them to celebrate this milestone by recording
their “match moment” for a chance
to win up to $500!
The Match Moments Video Challenge is open to applicants registered in the first iteration of the
2015 R-1 Main Residency Match
who submit a rank order list (ROL)
through CaRMS Online by the deadline.
Applicants can enter the contest by
visiting CaRMS.ca/match-moments,
filling out and submitting the contest entry form, along with original video footage capturing their
match moment, any time between
March 4, 2015 at 12:00 ET and
March 11, 2015 at 23:59 ET.
Videos will be posted online for
public voting from March 12, 2015
Match Point / Winter 2014-2015
at 12:00 ET until April 2, 2015 at
23:59 ET. The three videos with the
most votes will win a prize.
Applicants can increase their
chances of winning by promoting
the contest to their friends, family and colleagues on social media
(#MMVC15).
The winner of the 2015 Match Moments Video Challenge will receive
a $500 cash prize. The second place
winner will be awarded $200; the
third prize winner will receive
$100. CaRMS will announce the
winners and screen the top three
videos at the CaRMS Forum on April
26, 2015, at the Canadian Conference on Medical Education (CCME)
in Vancouver.
To find out more, including video
tips and contest rules, visit CaRMS.
ca/match-moments or contact us
via email at LetUsKnow@carms.ca.
also get to know the face behind the
D-ROL initiative, CaRMS’ first Product
Development Analyst, Erin Whittingham, on page 8.
As the number of applicants and programs participating in matches continues to rise, how does CaRMS make
sure we’ll be able to properly serve
our growing client base? On page 6,
we introduce you to one of the new
analytical tools we use to manage
our resources.
In addition to answering questions,
this edition also includes information about how we are reducing our
environmental footprint (page 9), the
re-launch of our CSA survey (page
9), new products coming out of our
communications department (page
7), and phase two of the MCC data
transfer function (page 10).
Comments, questions
or suggestions?
Email us at
LetUsKnow@carms.ca
3
Preparing for Match Day behind the scenes
Each year, with every match cycle, the Online test environment, which is a the first iteration of the R-1 match,
entire team at CaRMS works toward one copy of our production system only when more than 5,000 applicants and
clear goal: a perfect Match Day. What accessible internally. Detailed re- 700 program users all log in to CaRMS
does a perfect Match Day mean to us? It ports are produced and methodically Online at the same time to access
means every one of our applicants
match results.
and programs being able to easily
access verified, accurate match reNot many IT departments have
sults at 12:00 ET on the dot. While
to scale their entire system for a
this may sound simple, achieving it
five-minute period that happens
Two important pieces of data determine
is anything but.
once each year, but that’s exactthe match results—rank order lists (ROLs)
ly what CaRMS does. In the lead
and program quota—and the integrity of
The few days between the R-1
up to Match Day, we run multieach is protected by CaRMS contracts.
Main Residency Match (R-1
ple performance tests to ensure
match) rank order list (ROL)
that we have several times the
Once an ROL is submitted, both programs
deadline and Match Day are an
anticipated required bandwidth
and applicants are legally bound to acintense time for our IT and operand compute power.
cept a resulting match.
ations teams. They spend countOn March 4, when you prepare
less hours working to ensure
In addition, institution contracts ensure
to log in to CaRMS Online to
the quality and integrity of the
view your 2015 R-1 match rematch results because CaRMS
that quota provided to CaRMS will not be
sults, you can rest assured that
understands the immense imporwithdrawn or changed after the rank ortance of a Match Day.
the CaRMS team has done all
der deadline has passed.
that we can to ensure a perfect
Match Day. Because it’s as imThe data
portant to us as it is to you.
As soon as the ROL deadline hits, we checked for accuracy. Every single
validate the data that is required to step of the way, each time the data
run the match—applicant and pro- is transferred or processed, our teams
The algorithm behind
gram ROLs and program quota (the do meticulous back checking to enthe match
number of spots each program has in sure the integrity of the match data
the match).
is maintained.
A foundation of trust
The first step is verifying that the final
data content we send into the matching system is correct by cross-checking it against business intelligence (BI)
reports generated from our database.
This is similar to the ongoing verification that is done throughout the
ROL cycle, with reconciliation reports
produced and monitored by our operations team and National Matching
Services (NMS), the third party source
of the matching algorithm.
Before each match is run, CaRMS
does a final check of the data that
was sent to the matching system to
make sure it correlates to the data in
CaRMS Online. Once this is verified,
the final data is encrypted (applicant
and program names are rendered as
random codes to ensure anonymity) and put through the Match Algorithm. The results are then unencrypted and transferred to the CaRMS
Match Point / Winter 2014-2015
Once we are confident that the match
results are accurate, they are loaded
into the production version of CaRMS
Online. Scripts are run to validate that
each individual applicant’s match results on CaRMS Online on Match Day
correspond to the verified results in
our database. Result displays are also
manually spot checked for accuracy.
These last steps are our way of ensuring that there are no coding or display
errors that could lead to an applicant
(or program) seeing inaccurate match
results when they log into CaRMS Online.
The system
Our IT team also spends a great deal
of time and attention making sure
that our system can handle the tremendous load it experiences on
Match Day. Our peak load is between
12:00 and 12:05 ET on Match Day for
The Match Algorithm is licensed
from the Canadian-based National
Matching Services Inc. (NMS) and
has been used to conduct medical
residency matches in North America for over 50 years. Known as the
Roth-Peranson algorithm, it was
designed by Alvin Roth and NMS
President Elliott Peranson and was
key to Roth winning the Nobel
Prize for economics in 2012. Find
out more at http://www.carms.ca/
en/residency/match-algorithm/.
4
Inside D-ROL: Our new stakeholder engagement
initiative
CaRMS Online is at the heart of what we do at CaRMS. To
us, it’s more than an online application—it is the primary
way we interact with our users. We are committed to
ensuring that everyone who accesses it enjoys the best
possible user experience.
What’s in a name?
the system’s features and functionality directly respond
to their needs.
In the first phase of the project, we’re holding focus
groups at each of Canada’s medical schools to solicit
feedback and direction from faculty members who use
our system. To encourage a productive dialogue, focus
group participants are asked a series of questions about
their use of CaRMS Online in five key areas: the landing
As anyone familiar with our residency matches knows, the Match Algorithm aligns the preferences of applicants and programs based on
their individual rank order lists (ROL). Because
this consultation process is about aligning
CaRMS’ internal product development roadmap
with our users’ requested list of enhancements,
we’ve chosen to call it the development rank
order list project, or D-ROL.
But in order to do that, we have to
go straight to the source: our users. That’s why we’ve begun rolling
out the development rank order list
(D-ROL) project, a new stakeholder
engagement initiative to assess the
needs of CaRMS Online users. By engaging our clients to understand how they use CaRMS
Online, we can get the information we need to make sure
Five areas of review for Phase 1
Landing page: What information should be displayed?
Filters: Users can sort through applications using standard or custom filters. How
are these filters being used?
View application: How should application data and documents be categorized? Is there a
better way to facilitate scoring and commenting on applications?
Print application: Are there any changes to the system that would reduce or eliminate the
need to print applications?
File review groups: Would custom groups of file reviewers be useful?
Match Point / Winter 2014-2015
5
page, filters, the view application
function, reducing the need to print,
and file review groups.
Our goal in all of this is to understand
how our clients use CaRMS Online,
and that’s something only they can
tell us. So one of the most important questions we ask in these focus
groups, and one we will continue to
ask, is “Why?” We want to understand our clients’ internal processes in
relation to CaRMS Online—what they
do and why they do it—because that
knowledge will help us determine the
most effective way to display information and organize functionality.
We will close out each focus group
session by prioritizing the issues discussed with the participants. This
step will help us ensure we are making the most effective enhancements
with the resources we have.
Future phases
Once the faculty focus groups have
concluded, we will analyze the findings
and share them with the participating
schools. We will then integrate a list
of prioritized enhancements into our
roadmap for the 2016 R-1 Main Residency Match cycle, with the first round
to be rolled out in September 2015.
This consultation process will also
set the stage for what you can expect to see from CaRMS in future
development cycles and additional
user consultation. That’s why we’re
also asking focus group participants
to evaluate the D-ROL sessions they
take part in. The comments we receive—both about CaRMS Online and
about the D-ROL initiative itself—will
help us to provide our users with the
best possible service.
If you have any questions about the
D-ROL project, please contact Erin Whittingham at ewhittingham@carms.ca.
Zendesk, client services and you
Throughout each match cycle, CaRMS
strives to provide exemplary support
to our clients. We have information
and help tools available on our website, CaRMS.ca, and our team of six
knowledgeable client service representatives assists users across the
country with the application and
matching process in both official languages.
In recent years, demands on these resources have been steadily increasing
as the number of medical students
applying for postgraduate training
programs in Canada continues to
climb. Given these growing demands,
we know it is important to ensure
we are able to meet our clients’ and
stakeholders’ information and support
needs well into the future. This means
planning strategically and making informed decisions about resource allocation.
To this end, CaRMS recently invested
in industry-leading software called
Zendesk. Zendesk enables us to acquire in-depth knowledge of our user
community through our email correspondence. Inquiries are sorted into
topic-specific categories and our most
active time periods are mapped.
Through comprehensive statistical
and trend analysis, Zendesk’s built-in
tools can be used to generate reports
that provide CaRMS with invaluable
insight into what our clients are asking and when they’re asking it. This
information will allow us to prepare in
advance for critical contact times with
proactive improvements to our client
services.
Zendesk also offers a variety of support tools CaRMS can use to enhance
how it delivers client services, including an online knowledge base
of frequently asked questions and
answers, and a built-in survey tool.
It can also be integrated with social media, increasing the number of
channels we have to communicate
with our users.
CaRMS is currently looking to expand
our use of Zendesk by integrating it
with our existing telephone system.
Beyond 2015, CaRMS will be able to
gain additional insight into our users’
needs by comparing data and usage
trends across multiple match cycles.
Save the date
2015 International Medical Graduate
(IMG) Symposium
October 15, 2015
Toronto, Ontario
Match Point / Winter 2014-2015
6
What’s new in the communications department?
CaRMS’ renewed emphasis on robust
and dynamic communications has
resulted in exciting changes big and
small. In the past year alone, we’ve
enhanced our presence on social
media, introduced a series of instructional videos, initiated wide-ranging
consultations on our products and
services and opened up more channels for feedback from our clients
and partners. But our commitment to
increased communication is ongoing
and we’re excited to announce several new initiatives.
within our community. If you have
a subject you’d like us to address,
please let us know.
Residency Link
Residency Link is a new product geared
toward medical students and graduates. In this series, we provide tips and
information to help make the R-1 Main
Residency Match (R-1 match) year run
as smoothly as possible for current and
future applicants. Residency Link is
about busting myths and highlighting
important facts in a new and interest-
between milestones and deadlines in
the match timeline. We know the R-1
match can be nerve-wracking, but we
hope that separating fact from fiction
can dial back the anxiety.
Topped with a creative cartoon, each
issue provides valuable insight into
an aspect of the match. Just let us
know if there’s a topic you’d like to
see covered.
Social media for
subspecialty matches
CaRMS Blog
In the fall we launched
the CaRMS blog, which
provides insight, opinion
and analysis from CaRMS
on our services, residency
matches, and issues of interest to the medical education community. So far,
we’ve touched on everything from match results
and application tips to
new products and our internal processes. A particularly popular recent post
from CEO Sandra Banner
focused on the controversy surrounding the term
“CSA”, or Canadian studying abroad.
On Facebook, match-specific posts are also
identified by clear and colorful graphic banners.
We hope our posts can both provide
insight into what we do at CaRMS and
act as a starting point for discussion
Match Point / Winter 2014-2015
ing way. Our first two issues dispelled
misconceptions about the interview
process and clarified the difference
Following the success of our
social media activities for the
R-1 match, we recently expanded our Twitter feed and
Facebook page to include
information and updates on
the subspecialty matches.
You may have already noticed the hashtags we’ve
started using on both Twitter
and Facebook posts—#R1,
#MSM, #FMEM and #PSM.
This will help you distinguish
between the matches and
access the information that
matters to you.
As communications initiatives at CaRMS continue to
evolve, we value your questions, comments and feedback. Email us at LetUsKnow@carms.
ca to tell us what you’d like to see
from us in the future.
7
The people at CaRMS
Erin Whittingham, Product Development Analyst
application system for their Degree of
Doctor of Medicine program. When I
first started working at CaRMS, I was
the Executive Assistant to the General Manager and COO.
How long have you worked at
CaRMS?
I have worked at CaRMS for four
years this April, including a one year
sabbatical to travel the world!
What is a typical day like for you at
CaRMS?
Erin Whittingham, Product Development Analyst
Erin Whittingham is CaRMS’ first
Product Development Analyst. In this
exciting new role, Erin is responsible
for consulting with CaRMS stakeholders to better understand their priorities and requirements in relation to
using CaRMS Online. Erin helps assess
the most appropriate methods to obtain and collect feedback from our
stakeholders and is a true asset to the
CaRMS team.
What is your role at CaRMS?
As Product Development Analyst
at CaRMS, my role is to engage our
stakeholders to better understand
how they use CaRMS Online and how
it can be optimized to improve their
user experience. Currently, I am focusing on our platform for our postgraduate users, so I am conducting
focus groups and drawing on the expertise of CaRMS staff with external
perspectives to determine enhancements for the system.
In the past I worked with the admissions office at Memorial University
of Newfoundland to build an online
Match Point / Winter 2014-2015
A typical day for me involves a lot of
planning. We are in the first stages of
engaging our stakeholders, so there
is room for a lot of creativity in planning the focus groups. Coordinating
with 17 groups of stakeholders requires a steady stream of communication and a lot of planning to make
sure everyone has the information
they need. Most days I also attend
meetings with the product development and IT teams to go over system
requirements.
In your opinion, what is the best part
about working for this organization?
The best part about this organization is the people. With the organizational growth that has taken place
over the last few years, roles have
become more defined and our pool
of subject matter experts has really
grown. There are so many knowledgeable and dedicated people to
work with.
We are still under 50 people, so it has
a small town atmosphere. I can meet
with the CEO and a Client Service
Representative all in the same day.
The sense of community really allows
for perspectives and information to
be shared and that is so beneficial
when doing my job. We also laugh a
lot. It is not rare for desks to be decorated or tampered with and many
friendships have been built that extend outside of the office.
What do you think the biggest misconception is about CaRMS or the
work you do?
I think the biggest misconception
about CaRMS is how much control
we have. We work as a middle man
between programs and applicants to
ensure policies and rules are communicated and the process remains
fair, but individual programs and the
provinces are the ones who develop
these policies and rules. In meetings
I constantly hear staff saying, “That
is not fair for the applicant,” or “This
program needs to be informed if that
is going to happen.” We truly want to
make sure everyone has the information they need in order for the match
to run efficiently, but we are often
perceived as the rule makers and not
as the messenger.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges for the organization
in the coming year?
Time. We are constantly implementing enhancements and performing
necessary IT maintenance and there
never seems to be enough time to do
everything. We are working hard at
prioritizing the requirements to ensure the list is feasible.
What do you do to unwind after a
really long day in the office?
After a long day in the office I can
be found playing ball hockey, or soccer or chasing around my nieces and
nephew. I also love watching travel
documentaries – 180 degrees South
and Maidentrip are two of my favourites right now. I love reading travel
stories and attending some of the
awesome events that happen in Ottawa every week. I also have a solid
crew of friends that keep me laughing. Life is good.
8
Taking the pulse of Canadians studying abroad
Over the last several years, the number
of Canadians studying medicine abroad
(CSAs) has been steadily growing. Consequently, there has been an increasing interest in learning more about
this group of students, the schools at
which they study and ways in which
they could be reintegrated into the Canadian health care system.
To make informed decisions, the medical education community needs to
not only understand the barriers that
impede students from returning home,
but to also learn about their individual educational experiences abroad.
Currently governments, policy makers
and medical education faculty lack detailed information about this group of
students, but CaRMS is doing its part to
help.
In 2010, in an effort to bridge the
knowledge gap surrounding CSAs,
CaRMS released a comprehensive report on Canadians studying abroad.
The study estimated that there were
approximately 3,500 Canadian students enrolled in medical schools
abroad, most of whom shared a desire
to return home to Canada to practice
medicine.
In Fall 2014, CaRMS launched a second CSA survey. Our 2014 report will
allow for high level comparisons and
reporting on a number of key areas, including: the demographics of CSAs by
province, pre-medical education and
Canadian post-secondary education,
clerkships, funding, debt, postgraduate plans and Canadians not intending
to return to Canada for postgraduate
medical training.
This comparative data will assist policy makers in better understanding the
specific postgraduate training requirements of CSAs and the recruitment and
retention factors that will encourage
their return to Canada. It will also increase policy makers’ awareness of the
barriers that discourage CSAs from returning to Canada.
Look for results from the 2014 survey of
Canadians studying abroad later in 2015.
Going Green at CaRMS
A look at the first iteration of the 2015 R-1 Main
Residency Match
12,413
or 1,811 more documents
than 2014 R-1 match were
transferred electronically and
uploaded by the Documents
department.
19,270
reference letters were submitted
electronically by reference
providers via CaRMS
Online.
100%
of personal letters created by
applicants were submitted
electronically – In 2015, there
were 53,871 of these
documents created,
a 10% increase
over 2014.
SEND
40,489
documents were uploaded
directly to CaRMS Online
by applicants or their
undergraduate offices
on their behalf.
13,975
paper-based documents were
scanned by the Documents
department for applicant use – a
25% reduction
over the 2014
R-1 Match.
The Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS) is a national, not-for-profit, fee-for-service organization established in 1969 at the request of medical students seeking an independent entity to provide
a fair and transparent application and matching service for entry into postgraduate medical training
throughout Canada.
Match Point / Winter 2014-2015
9
New document transfer function added to CaRMS Online
In 2014, CaRMS partnered with the
Medical Council of Canada (MCC) to
develop a way to facilitate the direct
transfer of applicants’ exam data from
the MCC’s online portal, physiciansapply.ca, to the CaRMS Online application platform.
Last September, we introduced a new
feature that enables applicants to
share their examination results in real-time, by simply indicating their desire to do so in both physiciansapply.ca
and CaRMS Online. This new, streamlined data transfer function replaces
the time-consuming manual process
used previously. Over 2,300 applicants
have used this new feature to assist
them in completing their application for the 2015 R-1 Main Residency
Match.
The MCC and CaRMS are collaborating once again on a second phase of
this project. Phase 2 will allow for
the automatic transfer of exam result
documentation, diplomas and medical
school transcripts in real time. Phase 2
is scheduled to be rolled out for applicants in the 2016 matches (excluding
the Pediatric Subspecialty Match). Automating this process will result in a
significant time savings.
We look forward to future collaboration with organizations like the MCC
as part of our ongoing efforts to enhance CaRMS Online.
Upcoming milestones
2015 R-1 Main Residency Match (R-1 match)
FIRST ITERATION
February 11, 2015 (14:00 ET)
Program rank order list deadline.
February 19, 2015 (15:00 ET)
Applicant rank order list deadline.
March 4, 2015 (12:00 ET)
MATCH DAY. Match results are
available at 12:00 (noon) ET.
SECOND ITERATION
February 11, 2015 (12:00 ET)
NAC OSCE milestone and MCC
examination milestone.
February 12, 2015 (17:00 ET)
Translation request milestone.
March 19, 2015 (12:00 ET)
Rank order list period begins.
February 19 – March 6, 2015
CaRMS Online application closes.
March 24, 2015
Request for registration deadline.
March 6, 2015 (12:00 ET)
Late request for registration for
second iteration opens.
March 26, 2015 (14:00 ET)
Applicant participation deadline.
March 10, 2015
Document milestone.
March 11, 2015
Document assignment and program
submission milestone.
March 12, 2015 (12:00 ET)
File review begins.
March 26, 2015 (14:00 ET)
Program rank order list deadline.
April 2, 2015 (15:00 ET)
Applicant rank order list deadline.
April 14, 2015 (12:00 ET)
MATCH DAY. Match results are
available at 12:00 (noon) ET.
2016 Pediatric Subspecialty Match (PSM)
February 25, 2015 (12:00 ET)
Program selection opens.
March 13, 2015
Program submission milestone.
April 21, 2015 (12:00 ET)
Rank order list period begins.
March 4, 2015 (12:00 ET)
MCC examination milestone.
March 16, 2015
Document assignment milestone.
May 14, 2015 (14:00 ET)
Program rank order list deadline.
March 12, 2015
Letter of reference milestone.
March 17, 2015 (12:00 ET)
File review begins.
May 21, 2015 (15:00 ET)
Applicant rank order list deadline.
March 12, 2015
Document arrival milestone.
March 24 – May 10, 2015
Interview period.
Wednesday, June 3, 2015 (12:00 ET)
MATCH DAY. Match results are
available at 12:00 (noon) ET.
For more detailed timelines, please visit our match timelines on at carms.ca/en/match-process/match-timelines/.
Refer back to the online timelines regularly, as dates are subject to change.
Match Point / Winter 2014-2015
10