Matching after lengthy medical leave

[NotAProgDirector]

As an M4, I matched into my first choice of residency programs in emergency medicine. Due to a lengthy illness, I was forced to resign (I missed too much time to not have to restart). As I was ill and not being supervised by the residency, my license was temporarily suspended. Happily, I am enjoying resolution of my health issues and am working with the state board to get my license re-instated. I have over a year of residency completed and have passed Step 3. While I am enjoying good health, there are no guarantees that I will never again need time off to undergo another surgery in the future. If accepted to a program, I plan to be very pro-active about my health and establish relationships with local physicians as soon as possible. I am well aware that emergency medicine remains fairly competitive and am worried about my ability to successfully match again. How can I best set myself up for success in the eyes of program directors?

Thanks in advance for all advice.

I agree that being up front about your leave is the best option. You are also correct that programs may worry that you'll go out on leave again, and may decide not to hire you based on that. Although that's illegal -- under the ADA, they can't discriminate against you for something that MIGHT happen in the future. If you can do the essential functions of the job today, then that's it. But, we all know they could simply pick someone else and blame it on something else.

You use the word "match". You only match into a PGY-1 position in ED. If you already have credit for a PGY-1, then you'll be looking for an open PGY-2 position. That can be much harder to find, since you need to find a program where someone has dropped out, changed fields, etc. There's no one central list, so it's lots of calling and trial and error. You should certainly consider your original program -- if they're willing to take you back, that might be the best option.

You can consider trying to match into a PGY-1 again and start over. But, many programs may not be willing to do that, as there is no reason to repeat your PGY-1 if you completed it already.

Good luck!

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