A Review of Online Search Tools to Identify Funded Dermatology Away Rotations for Underrepresented Medical Students.

Publication/Presentation Date

4-1-2025

Abstract

Almost all medical students applying to dermatology residency will participate in an away rotation at an outside institution. In this study, we investigated the available search tools created to find rotations that cover costs for underrepresented in medicine (URiM) students and compared them to Google's search results and official program sites to elucidate their utility. A cross-sectional analysis of the Visiting Student Learning Opportunities (VSLO) Visiting Scholars Resources Database and the Funded Away Rotations for Minority Medical Students (FARMS) database was conducted for all programs with the term dermatology under the specialty column and listings tagged for dermatology. We also conducted a Google search by institution name using the phrase underrepresented in medicine dermatology away rotation. All queries were performed from October 24 to October 26, 2024. Our results suggest that the current search databases do not list most of the already limited funded rotation opportunities available for URiM students. Our findings emphasize a need for a centralized, comprehensive, and well-organized database to improve equity of opportunity in the dermatology rotation application search process and further diversify the specialty.

Volume

115

Issue

4

First Page

116

Last Page

118

ISSN

2326-6929

Disciplines

Business Administration, Management, and Operations | Health and Medical Administration | Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods

PubMedID

40392814

Department(s)

Administration and Leadership

Document Type

Article

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