A 30-year History of the Emergency Medicine Standardized Letter of Evaluation

Thirty years ago, education leaders in emergency medicine (EM) developed a standardized letter of recommendation to address limitations of narrative letters of recommendation in the residency selection process. Since then, multiple iterations and improvements with specialty-wide adoption have led to this letter being cited as one of the most essential pieces of a residency application. Based on the experience and success in EM, many other specialties have also now adopted standardized letters of their own. In this paper, we detail the 30-year history of the EM standardized letter including form changes and technological innovations, research and validity evidence, and discussion of research and administrative priorities for the future.

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Publication Details

Journal
Western Journal of Emergency Medicine
Published
2025-11-26
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5811/westjem.47110
Primary Topic
Innovations in Medical Education
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

A 30-year History of the Emergency Medicine Standardized Letter of Evaluation

J. Hegarty, Samuel M. Keim, Michael C. Bond, Cullen Hegarty et al.
Western Journal of Emergency Medicine
Innovations in Medical Education
article

A 30-year History of the Emergency Medicine Standardized Letter of Evaluation

J. Hegarty, Samuel M. Keim, Michael C. Bond, Cullen Hegarty, Sharon Bord, Kevin Hamilton, Eric Shappell, Alexis Pelletier‐Bui, Jeffrey N. Love
article en

Abstract

Thirty years ago, education leaders in emergency medicine (EM) developed a standardized letter of recommendation to address limitations of narrative letters of recommendation in the residency selection process. Since then, multiple iterations and improvements with specialty-wide adoption have led to this letter being cited as one of the most essential pieces of a residency application. Based on the experience and success in EM, many other specialties have also now adopted standardized letters of their own. In this paper, we detail the 30-year history of the EM standardized letter including form changes and technological innovations, research and validity evidence, and discussion of research and administrative priorities for the future.

Western Journal of Emergency MedicineVol. 26(6)
University of Maryland, Baltimore (US), Regions Hospital (US), University of Arizona (US), University of Maryland Medical System (US), Johns Hopkins University (US), Georgetown University (US), Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science (US), Johns Hopkins Medicine (US), Cooper University Hospital (US), Massachusetts General Hospital (US), Cooper Medical School of Rowan University (US)
Massachusetts General Hospital
Openalex Percentile: Top 53%
Innovations in Medical Education
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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