Author Response to “Effect of current (virtual) vs future (salary) economics on the residency Match”

Drs. Cooke et al. appreciate the comments of Akhter et al. particularly regarding insights into a specialty outside of radiology. As touched upon in our piece, we do recognize there are variable barriers to recruitment, with special challenges for smaller programs or those with less name recognition which therefore may be impacted negatively by the shift to a virtual process even if overall numbers nationally suggest little change in outcomes of the Match process. Factors inherent to the state of a particular specialty at a point in time no doubt have a larger overall impact on specialty Match rates, such as the stressors recently placed on the field of emergency medicine including corporatization of departments, diminishing salaries and reimbursements, increasing reliance on non-physician providers, and high burnout rates post-pandemic.