The Impact of COVID-19 on the Orthopaedic Surgery Residency Match

Introduction Matching into an orthopaedic surgery residency program presents a challenging accomplishment for applicants to achieve in any given year. Due to the profound changes to the application process caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic it was theorized that there would be a change in the number of graduates matching close to their home medical school region, state, and program. Methods Orthopaedic surgery residency program Web sites and social media accounts were accessed to elucidate current resident data, including graduates' medical school, and geographical location of their school. Chi-square analysis was performed to identify trends in current residents matching within their home program, state, and region associated with the 2021 orthopaedic match. These numbers were compared with previous year's successful applicants. Results In 2021, a significant 4.4% (p=0.02) increase in successful matches within applicants' home states occurred (33.4% vs. 37.8%) and home programs (p