CAST Committee
Chair: Jeff Weinberg, MD, and Jason Sheehan, MD, PhD
Members: Costas Hadjipanayis, MD, PhD, Kimberly Hoang, MD, Michael Link, MD, Jennifer Moliterno-Gunel, MD, Ryan Ormond, MD, PhD, and Vivian Tabar, MD
The Committee on Advanced Subspecialty Training (CAST) has recently sent out a survey to program directors to gather information about the practice patterns for fellowship recruitment. The questions for the survey are listed below. If you are a fellowship director and have not submitted survey results, please send your responses to the questions to Drs. Weinberg and Sheehan.
- In what month do you typically interview fellow applicants for your program?
- How far in advance of the fellowship start date do you interview fellows?
- For what start date will you be interviewing you next fellow applicants?
- What annual fee could you reasonably expect to pay to help the section support this infrastructure?
- Do you believe that your GME office would support funding for a formal match process?
- Assuming the applicants would have to pay a low fee to participate, what do you believe would be a reasonable cost?
- Are your interviews remote/in-person/hybrid (you accommodate fellow’s preference)?
Several other CAST specialty fellowships currently participate in a formal match process. In an effort to explore options for a fellowship match process in neurosurgical neuro-oncology, we are gathering information from SF Match and the National Resident Matching Program. With the current number of fellowship programs in neurosurgical neuro-oncology, it is likely that a formal match process would be feasible in the years to come. More information will follow as we gather fellowship practice details and evaluate the logistical and economic framework for a match program overseen by an external coordinating entity.