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Identifying Bias in Virtual Zoom Interviews for Surgical Residency
Emily Hensler, Meghamsh Kanuparthy, Kenneth Lynch, Ashlie Haas-Rodriguez, Rachel E. Beard, Carla Moreira, William G. Cioffi, Thomas Miner
Department of Surgery, Lifespan/Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States

Objectives: In the setting of virtual interviews conducted via zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic we sought to determine if there is a difference in the way male vs female faculty score applicants and if there are differences in scoring of applicants by gender or race.
Design: Retrospective analysis of faculty-interviewer subjective scores for applicants to General Surgical residency. Two consecutive years of virtual interview data were included for analysis. For academic year 2020-2021, each applicant was interviewed and scored by 2 surgical attendings; for academic year 2021-2022, each applicant was interviewed and scored by 4 surgical attendings.
Setting: Academic Level 1 trauma center in the Northeast
Patients/Participants: 240 applicants (104 male, 136 female), 29 surgery attendings (18 male, 11 female)
Interventions: None
Main Oucome Measure: Total subjective applicant score and subcategories (presentation, personality, verbal skills, goals well-defined, and work ethic) evaluated
Results: The Mann-Whitney U test was used for analysis of data by attending and applicant gender. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used for analysis by applicant race. No statistically significant differences were seen in total subjective score by attending gender, applicant gender, or applicant race. No significant differences were noted in the 5 subcategories listed above by attending or applicant gender, or by applicant race apart from the goals well-defined category where female attendings scored applicants higher than male attendings (p=0.0403).
Conclusions: Candidate performance in the residency interview process has long been a vital assessment of resident selection. Program directors routinely rate the interview as the most important component of resident ranking. Given the subjective nature of this process, the influence of implicit and explicit bias remains a significant concern. While virtual interviews offer several advantages over traditional interviews, data concerning bias in this setting is scarce. Despite the shift to a virtual interview platform as required by the pandemic, we did not find evidence of overt bias in subjective scoring of residency applicants by attending gender, applicant gender, or applicant race. While these results are reassuring, continued departmental education in reducing gender and racial bias in our interview process is necessary. In addition, review of interview data through the lens of bias should be regularly conducted moving forward.


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