ERAS Insights

Celebrating The Match®

March 31, 2025

Update from Leadership

Dear Colleagues,

Congratulations to all who participated in the 2025 National Resident Matching Program (NRMP®) Match®! We’re proud to support applicants, programs, and medical school advisors throughout the recruitment season and during the Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program® (SOAP®) week.

According to the NRMP, this year’s Match included 47,208 applicants who certified a rank order list and 43,237 certified positions in 6,626 certified program tracks. Learn more by viewing the NRMP’s Key Match Data webpage.

Our team is already busily preparing for the 2026 ERAS season! We hope that you will join us on Tuesday, April 22, at 1 p.m. ET for a webinar, Residency Recruitment Recap: Transparency and Collaboration Across the GME Community. We’ll review the current season and share information about the 2026 season with new tools, dashboards, new data, and other improvements that we are developing to help ease the transition to residency for specialty organizations, programs, medical school advisors, and applicants.

As always, feel free to share your questions or feedback on how we can better support you during the application season and all year long.

Patrick Fritz
AAMC Senior Director for Residency and Fellowship Services

In the coming ERAS season, all fellowship and residency programs in participating specialties will have the option to receive program signals from interested applicants. To see the list of specialties that will be accepting signals from 2026 ERAS July fellowship and September residency applicants, visit our website.

Individual programs in these specialties will be automatically opted in to program signaling and do not need to take any action.

Program teams that plan to accept signals can learn more about their use in the recruitment process by reviewing the following resources:

Program Signals: A Guide for the 2026 ERAS Season
A recorded webinar, Program Signals in Action: Insights from Program Directors, from the ERAS team and the Organization of Program Director Associations.
The ERAS team’s presentation of Program Signaling and Interview Invitation Findings from the 2025 ERAS Season

What We’re Hearing About the ERAS Program

“I love the way ERAS allows me to create custom reports with every data field in the order that I need them exported. Makes it so easy to drill into data during our rank list review! The integration with Thalamus has been seamless this year, bravo for the partnership.”

--Leeann Parker, GME Manager, Indiana University School of Medicine, Evansville

Thalamus Update

Celebrating The Match 2025!
Thalamus is incredibly proud to have supported nearly all applicants and over 8,000 programs across over 800 institutions this recruitment season, facilitating over 750,000 interviews.

Post-Match Surveys
Did you know you can gather anonymous post-Match surveys from applicants via Thalamus? Learn more

Complimentary Cortex
We are proud to share that Cortex, Thalamus' technology-assisted applicant screening and review tool, will be available to all ERAS programs starting in July 2025.
Learn more

Thalamus Training
In anticipation of the busy recruitment season ahead, Thalamus has compiled a list of training opportunities designed to equip your program with cutting-edge tools and techniques.

For training updates, announcements, and additional content, connect with Thalamus on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter).

Please contact customercare@thalamusgme.com with questions.

Let's work together for a successful recruitment during the 2025-2026 application season!

Join the Virtual Specialty Forum on April 3

The AAMC Careers in Medicine® program is hosting its annual free AAMC Virtual Specialty Forum on Thursday, April 3, from 6-9 p.m. ET. Medical students early in their specialty exploration (Year 1 through Year 3) are invited to view resources, chat with residents, specialty representatives, and AAMC staff, and attend a live presentation and Q&A with physicians about their specialty choice.

AAMC Webinar Will Explore Responsible Artificial Intelligence (AI) Use in Medical Education (April 1)

Many medical schools and residency programs are exploring artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance their admissions and selection processes. To support this transformation, the AAMC, in collaboration with its Technical Advisory Committee, has developed a toolkit of resources aligned with its Principles for Responsible Use of AI in Medical School and Residency Selection.

Learn more during a webinar on Tuesday, April 1, at 12 p.m. ET, titled AI in Medical Education Selection: AAMC’s Toolkit for Responsible Implementation. Representatives from medical schools, residency, and fellowship programs will have an opportunity to learn how to apply the principles in their institutions and gain insights into the AAMC’s framework for evaluating AI tools in admissions and selection processes.

Requiring Two-factor Authentication for All AAMC Account Users  

The AAMC takes the security of our community’s data very seriously. In addition to substantial internal controls and information security infrastructure, the AAMC will now require two-factor authentication (2FA) for all users to further enhance AAMC account security. 2FA is a two-step process that provides an added layer of security beyond the standard username and password. Upon login, users will be required to set up 2FA before accessing any services (MCAT Accommodations, PREview Portal, ERAS systems, the VSLO application service, and more). This initiative is designed to protect sensitive data and safeguard access to the information of others.

AAMC Lawsuit Secures Nationwide Preliminary Injunction, Halting Cuts to NIH-Funded Research

Judge Angel Kelley, U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, issued a ruling ordering a nationwide preliminary injunction to ensure that the Trump administration’s planned cuts to federal reimbursements of facilities and administrative costs (F&A costs, also known as indirect costs) cannot be implemented throughout any remaining actions in federal court. This ruling was issued in response to three Feb. 10 lawsuits, including one led by the AAMC, which argued that a Feb. 7 notice issued as "supplemental guidance" to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Grants Policy Statement was unlawful and would result in irreparable harm to the research mission at institutions.

You can stay informed about this and other AAMC advocacy work to support medical education and biomedical research by subscribing to AAMC Washington Highlights.