Utilization of Video-Based Recruitment of Medical Students is Associated with Larger Program Size and Higher Academic Ranking Among Orthopedic Residency Programs

Introduction Social media platforms including Instagram, and X (formerly known as Twitter) have been used by orthopedic residency programs to recruit potential applicants. Many orthopedic residency programs are now creating recruitment videos via the social media video-based platform, “YouTube.” The purpose of this study was to determine which orthopedic residency programs produced recruitment videos as well what demographic factors about each program determine a video’s popularity. Methods A cross-sectional analysis was conducted using the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) website to identify all orthopedic surgery residency programs as of April 2024. This list was cross-referenced with the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) list of orthopedic programs accepting applications for the current (2024-2025) cycle to ensure all programs were included. Doximity rankings were then recorded for each program. Individual program websites, associated medical school websites, and Google searches were conducted to identify YouTube accounts and associated recruitment videos for each residency program. Engagement statistics such as the number of recruitment videos, video view count, video length, and amount of subscribers were recorded. Results A total of 203 orthopedic surgery residency programs were identified of which 79 (38.9%) programs were found to have an associated recruitment video. Of the identified programs, 161 (79.3%) were directly affiliated with an allopathic or osteopathic medical school. No association was found between a residency program possessing a medical school affiliation (p = 0.312) or geographical region (p = 0.208) and publishing a recruitment video on YouTube. Orthopedic residency programs with larger program sizes demonstrated a significant association (p < 0.001) with publishing a recruitment video on YouTube. Logistic regression analyzing Doximity ranking and likelihood of having a recruitment video found a weak, yet significant relationship (coefficient = -0.0093, p < 0.001), indicating higher ranked programs exhibited an increased likelihood of publishing a recruitment video. Correlation analysis between Doximity rank and length of video (R = -0.258), Doximity rank and number of subscribers on YouTube (R = -0.202), and Doximity rank and video view count (R = -0.074) revealed weak or very weak negative correlations. Conclusion Residency recruitment videos exist for only 39% of orthopedic residency programs. There does not seem to be an association between programs with an increased number of residents or a higher Doximity ranking and the likelihood of publishing these videos. Recruitment videos by higher ranking programs were not found to have a strong relationship with a greater view count, longer video length, or account subscriber count.