Since the 1950s, physicians and scientists have made incredible advances throughout the field of medicine. We have discovered life-saving drugs, performed procedures that would have seemed unimaginable, and improved the quality of life of patients across the spectrum of care. All of these accomplishments were made possible by technological advances. When it comes to selecting candidates for medical residencies, however, there has been less progress in incorporating technology. Since the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) was developed in 1952, its structure has remained fairly stable. After 4 years of medical school, we require medical students, who often carry 6-figure debt burdens, to pay their own way to visit programs that offer them an interview. With 58?400 applicants participating in anywhere from 1 to 30 interviews each,1 this system creates a great amount of complexity, financial burden, and stress. Despite adopting an online application process and posting some program descriptions online, programs and students have not yet fully harnessed the power of the Internet to meaningfully improve the applicant information, decrease the time and opportunity costs of the application process, or improve the overall outcomes. Having been through this process recently, we offer several suggestions to improve the experience for both interviewees and programs.;Online Interview Scheduling One of the most stressful components of the residency interview process is the scheduling of interviews. Students must triage dozens of e-mails and reply to interview invites with preferences in a time-sensitive manner. The logistical complexity of doing this while on clerkships cannot be overstated. From the program's perspective, this also creates a cumbersome and labor-intensive step for the residency staff, which is associated with long delays in interview date confirmation after preferences are sent by applicants. Recently, online scheduling services, such as Interview Broker and Thalamus, have provided a streamlined, web-based solution to this problem. Similar to the scheduling of an airline ticket online, an online interview portal allows applicants to independently see up-to-date interview availability, select their preferred date, and make wait-list requests for specific days. A singular, online portal for scheduling interviews would allow applicants to view their entire interview schedule and coordinate with all of their other programs. While preserving the egalitarian “first come, first served” approach, an online system would minimize programs' burden of having a dedicated staff member to this otherwise “digitizable” task. If the NRMP were to offer this service, it would further lower the per program cost and improve adoption across all programs. Ultimately, streamlining the scheduling process would improve applicants' experience and reduce costs for programs.;Digital Program Materials When choosing which programs to apply to and determining how to rank them, applicants often supplement advice from mentors and colleagues with online research and materials from the program. Investing in developing an accurate and interactive website creates enormous value. It allows applicants to learn more about a program's schedule, research opportunities, curriculum, and culture. This can be further supplemented with interactive tools like virtual hospital tours and video clips of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act–compliant conferences and didactic sessions. Websites can be a valuable tool for applicants as they decide which programs they would be most interested in attending. Standardized metrics or reports would further enhance cross program comparisons. This would result in more informed applicants and would facilitate applications and ranking lists. On interview day, programs often prepare a physical folder that is handed to interviewees. Its contents vary, but often include information on current residents, faculty bios,
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