Volunteering: an untapped opportunity for IMGs

Volunteering an untapped potential for IMGs

As I sat down to analyze the characteristics of matched versus unmatched applicants, I came across a hitherto undiscovered trend that may be the Holy Grail that some IMGs are looking for. Volunteerism.

Parsing through the Charting outcomes of the residency match data, a publication of the NRMP (3rd edition, latest one). I recognized an important trend amongst the applicants who matched versus those who did not.  Looking at the publication here is the raw data

Table 1

Averages	Matched IMG	Unmatched IMG	Delta variance (IMG)
Number of specialties ranked	1.3	1.5	-0.2
Research experience	1.3	1.2	+0.1
Abstracts, presentations	2.5	2.7	-0.2
Work experience	3.3	3.7	-0.4
Volunteer experience	3.5	2.4	+0.9

Table 1: Comparing the characteristics of matched versus unmatched IMG applicants

figure accompanying table 1

In table 1, we can see that IMGs who matched, ranked fewer specialties (this is a consequence and not cause of matching, stronger candidates apply to one specialty and get in as opposed to people with lower scores who apply in multiple specialties.) They also had slightly more research experience. They did however have fewer abstracts and presentations than those that did not match. My hypothesis is that applicants with lower scores tend to ‘fill’ in the resume with abstracts and posters and work that may not have much credible standing, thus elevating the numbers of such data in the unmatched category.

IMGs who matched had a lesser work experience (again could be a reflection of unmatched candidates wanting to improve resume with work) but the biggest impact of all was a big surprise. Volunteer work had a +0.9 difference between matched and unmatched applicants. On average matched applicants reported 3.5 mean volunteer experiences versus 2.4 in the unmatched group. This was comparable to the delta variance in similar set of data for AMGs (+0.9) data not shown.

Figure 2 demonstrates the relative importance of these factors for the matched versus unmatched applicants in the form of delta variance (diff between matched and unmatched group)

Unfortunately, NRMP did not define what was considered as a volunteer experience. Looking at SDN or resources of US seniors, some popular activities are working in free clinics, working for charitable organizations as volunteer or even going abroad for medical charity work. I dont think many IMGs will be interested in the latter, but volunteering for free clinics in your city may be a very good way to boost your resume. Now, you may have to ask around regarding the visa issues and how much you will be able to work in the clinics (direct patient care versus non clinical duties) and individual clinics may be the best source.


I have come up with some resources, which may be of use to IMGs. If you are just waiting for scores to come or studying or engaged in something that may be contributing to a gap in your CV, then I strongly encourage you to look into these opportunities and bolster your resume. Volunteering seems to work for applicants who matched, why not give it a try?

Volunteer resources

1. Health Volunteers Overseas

HVO is a network of health care professionals, organizations, corporations and donors united in a common commitment to improving global health through education http://www.hvousa.org/

2. American college of physicians

http://www.acponline.org/running_practice/ethics/resources/volunteering/

3. The International Medical Volunteers Association (IMVA) is a nonprofit organization that promotes, facilitates, and supports voluntary medical activity through education and information exchange.

For more information on IMVA, please contact 
International Medical Volunteers Association, 
P.O. Box 205, Woodville, MA. 01784, USA. 
Tel. 508 435 7377 (USA), 508 HELPERS
Fax. 508 497 9568
e-mail info@imva.org

http://www.imva.org/index.html

4. Free Clinics
Free clinics are volunteer-based, safety-net health care organizations that provide a range of medical, dental, pharmacy, and/or behavioral health services to economically disadvantaged individuals who are predominately uninsured.
http://www.freeclinics.us/ for list of free clinics to volunteer in your community.