SAR Recommendations for Abdominal Fellowship Recruitment
2023-24 Academic Year

We strongly endorse adherence to the SCARD guidelines for this recruitment season.
We are asking all programs to complete the pledge showing your commitment to adhere to the guidelines. We will be tracking all responses and creating a listing of those programs that sign the pledge on the SAR Fellowship Section of our website. Programs that do not sign the pledge will not be listed on the website.

Please click here to complete the pledge.

2023 SCARD FELLOWSHIP POLICY

SCARD is pleased to announce the continuation of our fellowship embargo program. The program has been extremely successful in meeting its objectives of improving the fairness of the fellowship application process and providing our residents more time to experience all of Radiology sub-specialties before choosing their future career. In order to maintain flexibility, sub-specialties can either utilize the match or comply with the embargo dates. Based on feedback from many of you, below are the guidelines for this coming year (2023-24).

1. Interviews- All interviews should be virtual.
2. No onsite visits should be made by candidates.
3. Dates-
1. Nov 1 – First day to accept applications
2. Nov 1  – Open house webinars can begin
3. January 8th  – First day of interviews
4. March 31st – Last day of interviews.
4. Offers can be made on the day of the interview but programs cannot send out more offers than they have
   spots to fill.
5. Applicants have until Jan 15th to accept or decline any offer made before Jan 15th. For any offer made on or after Jan 15th the candidate has a 1 day grace period to accept or decline the offer).
6. Exceptions to the embargo:
   1. Applicants whose spouse/domestic partner is also applying for a medical fellowship in the same year.
   2. Internal candidates
   3. Military candidates.
   4. International candidates – international candidates are defined as applicants from programs that are neither ACGME or RCPS programs(i.e. Canadian applicants are NOT excluded from the embargo.)
7. Specialties that have the Match should participate for all external candidates and are strongly encouraged to participate for internal candidates as well. If a program chooses not to participate in a match for an external applicant, no offer to a candidate can be made until 12 weeks prior to the match date.
8. Neuro-interventional programs are excluded from this proposal as many are not under the direction of Radiology
9. Onsite second visits are allowed. However, all programs should reassure candidates that the second visit is optional and is not being used by the programs as a de-facto second interview but purely to allow the applicant to get a better feel and understanding of their program. Second visits should not be used by the program to influence their rank list. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that no onsite visits are scheduled until after the program has prepared their final rank list which they agree not to change based on the second visit.
10. Programs should not make an offer to or accept any applicant that has already accepted an offer from another program.

To summarize the important dates for both match and non-match programs:

For sub-specialties that participate in the match:

For sub-specialties that do not participate in the match:

This proposal is supported by the Association of Program Directors in Radiology, the Association of Program Directors in Interventional Radiology, the Society of Skeletal Radiology, the Society of Thoracic Radiology, the American Society of Emergency Radiology, the American Society of Neuroradiology, the Society of Breast Imaging, the Society of Interventional Radiology, the Society for Pediatric Radiology, and the Society of Abdominal Radiology. 
SCARD believes it is critical for all fellowship programs to follow this date and we ask all Chairs to ensure that their departments follow this proposal unless they notify SCARD that they are opting out.

Prospects of a Fellowship Match for Abdominal Imaging: A National Survey by the Society of Abdominal Radiology