Update from Leadership
Dear Colleagues,
As 2025 winds down and many of us are preparing for holiday travel and time away, I want to thank you for your collaboration and the thoughtful engagement you’ve shown throughout the year. This season brings plenty of activity, as well as a chance to pause, and I hope you’ll have a moment to enjoy time with family and friends.
The AAMC Electronic Residency Application Service® (ERAS®) December fellowship cycle program opening on Dec. 3 went very well. Participation remains strong with 20 specialties participating, and interviews are now underway. Your feedback continues to shape how we support this season and future ones, and we appreciate everything you bring to the process.
I’m also pleased to share that we published another new dashboard on the ERAS Statistics page. This dashboard offers critical data that gives you — and the entire community — a closer look at signal-to-interview trends across participating specialties. The dashboard incorporates interview data from Thalamus, reflecting the continued growth of our strategic collaboration and our shared commitment to providing meaningful, real-time insights to support your recruitment efforts.
Before we wrap up the year, I also want to highlight a new ERAS resource: a webpage outlining what’s new and what to expect for the 2027 ERAS application season. You’ll find more details in the updates that follow.
Thank you again for everything you do to support the transition to residency. I wish you a safe, peaceful holiday season and a happy new year. Take time to recharge before 2026 — we look forward to working with you in the year ahead.
Patrick Fritz
AAMC Senior Director for Residency and Fellowship Services
2027 ERAS® Season Overview Webpage Now Available
A new webpage is now available with a summary of key updates for the 2027 ERAS application season. It highlights the redesigned Scholarly Work section, the transition from the Letter of Recommendation Portal to the AAMC Letter Writer Portal, new specialty-specific Standard Letters of Evaluation information, and more.
The page is designed to help the transition to residency community stay informed about evolving application features, understand ongoing pilot projects, and explore webinars and other resources. Additional updates will continue to be shared as the 2027 ERAS season approaches.
Explore the What You Need to Know About the 2027 ERAS Season webpage for full details.
New Data Dashboard Now Available on the ERAS Statistics Page
The AAMC has added a dashboard to the ERAS Statistics webpage, offering new insights into signal-to-interview trends across participating specialties. The dashboard incorporates Thalamus interview data from residency and fellowship programs that accept applicants’ program signals.
The dashboard provides insight on how signals shaped interview offers, compares signaling approaches, and explores trends across MD, DO, and international medical graduate applicants. The dashboards will continue to be updated monthly.
Take a look on the ERAS Statistics webpage and watch the recent webinar for additional details.
Share your Feedback: 2026 ERAS Program Director Survey
ERAS program contacts, have you completed the 2026 ERAS Program Director Survey? Your feedback helps inform future enhancements to the application process. Please find your unique survey link in the email you received on Tuesday, Dec. 16, and submit your response by Friday, Jan. 9. The survey should take no more than five to ten minutes.
New ERAS Program Webinars Now Available On-Demand
Watch the ERAS Content Refresh: Evaluating Program Signal Statements and Specialty-Specific Essay Pilots recording for an overview of early insights from the 2026 season, including what the data shows about specialty-specific essays, program signal statements, and how programs may use this information to support mission-aligned selection. The session walks through preliminary findings and emerging themes from the recent pilots.
Did you miss the Program Director’s WorkStation (PDWS) Q&A on Dec. 2? Watch the recording to see the team answer common questions about the PDWS, including topics raised by participants during the live session.
Join the ERAS Residency and Fellowship Recruitment Community
The Residency and Fellowship Recruitment Community has replaced the PDWS Community Site and relocated to the AAMC Virtual Communities Network. This new community offers an easy-to-use discussion forum where ERAS users can connect, engage, and share best practices. Through this community, you have access to webinar recordings, tutorials, job aids, and user guides.
Log in or create your new account on the AAMC Virtual Communities Network to access the community. After your account is approved, look for the Residency and Fellowship Recruitment Community in the list of "My Communities" at the top of the page to join. We look forward to seeing you there!
Research and Development: What’s in Progress
The AAMC is continuing work on several features aimed at improving transparency and helping applicants and programs make more informed decisions. This includes ongoing development of the Predicted Likelihood of Interview tool with Thalamus, which is planned for the Residency Explorer™ tool and Thalamus Cortex, as well as continued research on updating geographic preferences to better reflect applicants’ ties and interests. Read last month’s overview for more details.
What We’re Hearing About the ERAS Program
ERAS is the best! It’s made our match process seamless!
- Andrea Creel, Program Coordinator, University of Mississippi
Thalamus Innovation: New AI Hub
As Thalamus advances responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI) in graduate medical education (GME) recruitment, the team is excited to introduce the new Thalamus AI Hub to bring clarity, fairness, and innovation to residency and fellowship recruitment.
The AI Hub gathers Thalamus’s policies, methodologies, educational resources, impact-reports, and broader philosophies, offering transparency into how AI is used in their products.
Why this matters:
- Transparency first: The Hub explains how Thalamus’s AI features work (and what they don’t do).
- Ethics and fairness built in: Guided by the AAMC’s Principles for Responsible Use of AI in Medical Education, it is designed to reduce bias and protect applicants.
- AI that supports, not replaces, human decision making: Thalamus builds tools that directly address day-to-day challenges in recruitment, save faculty time, and create a fairer process for applicants.
- Mission-driven, equity-oriented: This resource is part of Thalamus’s broader commitment to access, educational research, and mission-aligned selection and retention.
The Thalamus team encourages the medical education community to explore the Thalamus AI Hub — the next step toward innovative, ethical, and efficient GME recruitment.
The Future of the Careers in Medicine® Program and Residency Explorer™ Tool
Over the next two years, the AAMC will be working toward integrating the Careers in Medicine® (CiM) program and the Residency Explorer tool into one learner-first platform that connects the journey from self-discovery to residency exploration. This transition will take place gradually, with a tentative launch date of summer 2027. If you weren’t able to join us for the AAMC Services Advisor Update at Learn Serve Lead 2025: The AAMC Annual Meeting, we invite you to review our presentation to learn more about upcoming developments in the integration and other AAMC services that support the transition to residency.
VSLO® System Opening Postponed to January 2026
The planned Visiting Student Learning Opportunities™ (VSLO®) system move to the new VSLO platform is currently underway. Due to the complexity of the data transfer, the AAMC made the necessary decision to delay the new VSLO system launch to ensure the best performance for our users. The system is now scheduled to launch Monday, Jan. 12 for Home and Host institution users, and students will have access beginning Tuesday, Jan. 20.
For additional details, you can view our Dec. 4 messages to VSLO institution users and students. For additional user information, please review the Institutional User FAQs or the Student FAQs. Thank you for your patience during this time, and for your ongoing support of the VSLO program. Please contact the VSLO team with any questions you may have.
New VSLO Student Requirements Resources to Assist with Applications
We recognize the urgency that students may feel regarding timely access to the new VSLO system before it is accessible to students on Tuesday, Jan. 20. The AAMC has developed a new requirements resource for students to reference during this interim period which contains requirements from academic year 2024-2025 catalogs in the VSLO system. Students can filter by “State” and “Institution Name” to view a Host institution’s requirements from the previous academic year. We hope this will be a helpful tool for students to review as they prepare for the away rotation application process.
Please be aware that students who have not been invited to the VSLO system yet can only access this resource through this link. They will not be able to access the requirements resource directly from the website.
New AI-Enhanced Tools for Exploring AAMC Webinars on Medical Education
Select AAMC webinars on medical education topics now include searchable transcripts, chapters, slide outlines, summaries, and more resources to help viewers find the information they need. Features also include captions in multiple languages and links to resources mentioned by speakers. The AAMC remains committed to providing innovative tools and resources to support learning and professional development. Read more.
Requesting Self-Nominations for Advisory Group to Reimagine the MSPE
The AAMC is seeking self-nominations for a new Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE) Advisory Group, which will inform a multi-year national collaborative project to re-envision how medical student performance information is shared during the transition to residency. The group will provide strategic input on the future of the MSPE and explore new, technology-enabled approaches to communicating learner performance. Medical education professionals, learners, and leaders from across the continuum are invited to apply by emailing a letter of interest and brief CV to mspe@aamc.org by Wednesday, Dec. 31. Read more.
New AAMC Analysis: Nearly 200 Hospitals Could Lose Section 131 GME Benefits Amid Low Utilization
A new analysis coauthored by researchers from the AAMC and the University of North Carolina Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research examines the impact of Section 131 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2021, on certain hospitals' ability to establish or expand GME programs by resetting low Medicare-funded resident caps and per-resident amounts. Read more.
Upcoming Webinars
Navigating Away Rotations: Understanding the Advantages and Maximizing the Benefits
The VSLO Program and AAMC Group on Student Affairs (GSA)
Tuesday, Jan. 13, 7 p.m. ET
Register Here
New Webinar Recordings
ERAS Content Refresh: Evaluating Program Signal Statements and Specialty-Specific Essays Pilots
Recording
ERAS PDWS Q&A Session
Recording
2027 MyERAS Enhancements: Highlighting Research and Scholarly Work
Recording