The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) has made an interesting decision that will affect thousands of applicants in the coming years. After launching their initial pilot program in 2016, the AAMC decided that there will be no more Standardized Video Interview (SVI) beginning in the 2020-21 residency application cycle.

The SVI initially launched as a pilot program for the emergency medicine specialty. Upon 4 years of consistent evaluation, the “AAMC stands confidently behind the SVI as a reliable, valid assessment.” However, they decided to not expand the SVI to other specialties and discontinue its use in emergency medicine. Now, you are probably wondering why!

Why No More Standardized Video Interview

According to the AAMC’s SVI evaluation summary:

• “Only 42% of those [program directors] surveyed in the ERAS 2019 season reported using SVI scores at some point in the process and most of whom reported that SVI scores were not important when deciding whom to invite to the in-person interview.“
• “Results have consistently shown that applicants are satisfied with the instructions and policies that support the SVI. However, they are not satisfied with the SVI overall. They do not believe it will contribute to holistic review or that it is a good measure of their interpersonal and communications skills or professionalism.”
• “Based on the data collected to date, the AAMC concluded that the SVI is a reliable, valid assessment of behavioral competencies that does not disadvantage individuals or groups. The decision not to offer the SVI for the ERAS 2021 application cycle is based on lack of interest among the emergency medicine community in continuing to use and research the SVI, as well as an assessment of operational factors necessary for successful expansion of the program.”
• “[T]here is a lack of interest among the emergency medicine community in continuing to use and research the SVI, as well as operational challenges scaling the SVI to the full applicant pool across multiple specialties. As such, the AAMC decided not to renew or expand the SVI pilot in emergency medicine for the ERAS 2021 application cycle.

 

Will Computers Be Future Evaluators?

Basically, there is a lack of interest in the emergency medicine community in addition to the operational challenges in implementing and scaling the SVI across multiple specialties. Interestingly, the AAMC has also been studying computer scoring of interviews. Luckily for applicants, “Given the large volume of residency applicants across all specialties, the AAMC has been studying computer scoring of interviews. After several years of research, we do not believe computer scoring is ready for operational use.“

So, for those of you who perhaps suffered through the SVI, or perhaps those who have dreaded it looming ahead, you are probably relieved that there will be no more Standardized Video Interview… at least for now. But who knows, maybe when they fine-tune their computer assessment algorithms, it may come back…?

Let us know what you think in the comments below!

 

Source: https://students-residents.aamc.org/applying-residency/article/svi-evaluation-summary/