(Research Hub Theater) A National Survey and Evaluation of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Accredited Sports Medicine Fellowship Websites

Background and/or Objectives: Due to the virtual format of fellowship applications, prospective physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) sports medicine fellowship applicants commonly rely upon fellowship website content to make decisions about applications. Studies have shown that information available to applicants on program websites is inadequate, and there is no standard for material posted on these websites. The purpose of this study was to determine what PM&R sports medicine fellowship program features applicants consider the most important to be listed on fellowship websites.

Design: We developed a 30-item list of criteria divided into categories of general information, fellowship education, recruitment, experience, and academic research. Survey participants were asked to rank the importance of those various items. We then assessed the 21 PM&R accredited sports medicine fellowship websites for the presence of these criteria.

Setting: Email Survey

Participants: 52 survey respondents composed of PM&R residents, sports medicine fellows and attendings.

Interventions: not applicable

Main Outcome Measures: Survey results of important criteria for applicants and the percentage of websites which include them.

Results: Criteria ranked as most important were those in the categories of general information, fellowship experience, and fellowship recruitment. The most valued criteria were program location, program coordinator contact information, program length, specific requirements for applying and types of procedures taught. Academic research criteria were ranked as least important. Most programs displayed adequate general information regarding fellowship location, length to completion, program director name/contact but lacked in fellowship training and recruitment including past fellow information and sports team affiliations.

Conclusions: Survey respondents identified many fellowship website criteria as important factors when applying to programs. However, many of these were not listed on fellowship websites, suggesting that adding these criteria to fellowship sites would benefit applicants. Our findings can assist in developing standardized criteria for important components of sports medicine fellowship websites to improve the application and recruitment process.