The digital front door: A national analysis of U.S. allergy and immunology fellowship program web sites

Background: Allergy/immunology (A/I) fellowship recruitment occurs within a competitive match environment, with most interviews conducted virtually. Program web sites play a critical role in informing applicants and shaping program perception. Despite established literature that demonstrates the importance of program web sites across specialties, the comprehensiveness of A/I fellowship web sites has not been systematically evaluated. Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate existing A/I fellowship program web sites with the intent to identify opportunities for improvement. Methods: A list of 91 A/I fellowship programs was obtained from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology web site. Eighty-nine programs with accessible web sites were included. Each web site was evaluated for the presence of 24 predefined metrics derived from previous residency and fellowship web site studies. Sixteen programs affiliated with World Allergy Organization (WAO) Centers of Excellence in the United States were analyzed as a subgroup. Mean metric counts were compared by using a two-sample t-test. Results: Web sites contained a mean ± standard deviation (SD) of 13.7 ± 4.9 of 24 metrics. WAO-affiliated programs contained a mean ± SD of 13.2 ± 4.6 metrics, with no statistically significant difference when compared with all the programs (p = 0.70). Although most web sites listed program leadership, curriculum, and training sites, fewer included alumni information (40%), job placement (38%), or wellness initiatives (18%). Conclusion: A/I fellowship program web sites vary widely in content and may lack information, particularly with regard to wellness, alumni outcomes, and trainee demographics. Enhancing web site comprehensiveness represents an opportunity to improve recruitment, branding, and applicant engagement in a competitive application environment.