Electronic Residency Application Service® (ERAS®) Updates

You may review this sample PDF that demonstrates the prompted questions and content of the Pain Medicine Standardized Letter of Evaluation (SLOE). The APPD’s SLOE was developed in collaboration with the AAMC.  Other specialties have developed similar SLOEs to the one we have customized in Pain Medicine.  This SLOE is integrated into the AAMC Letter Writer Portal and intended to deliver a structured and efficient assessment of an applicants’ proficiency in core competencies as well as their qualitative attributes to Pain Medicine residency program directors.

Applicants will generate a letter request via their MyERAS application – at which point authors or their designees will receive an email that includes a request link directly to the AAMC’s Letter Writer Portal. Letters are associated with the email address the applicants sent the request to.

Yes, designees may complete the SLOE on behalf of authors in the letter writer portal. The letter request email an applicant sends to the author includes a direct link to complete the requested letter. This request link can be shared or forwarded to any number of designees; however, only one letter can be submitted per letter request. Once the SLOE has been submitted, the letter is managed by the individual who completed the evaluative form and submitted it in the letter writer portal.

The SLOE was developed to incorporate feedback from a single source, such as a program director or leader with direct observation and experience with the applicant. It should be utilized to replace a letter from a Pain Medicine Program Director or Associate Program Director.  However, the SLOE includes a question on whether the letter is an individually produced letter or a group letter. Additional authors (including their name and title) can also be provided in a free text response, although the SLOE should routinely be used as an individual letter, with other letter writers submitting traditional letters of recommendation.

The prior APPD-developed SLOR was created as an effort across prior pain medicine task forces as a standardized letter of recommendation most commonly used in recent Match cycles to try to reduce bias and standardize LOR content. The PDF was open access, not required, and used with variable uptake.

The SLOE is intended to replace older APPD standardized letters.

The SLOE will not be uploaded by PDF but rather completed directly in the AAMC letter writer portal and will allow for a portion of free text narrative.  It will allow specialty-based averages for all discrete data elements to benchmark evaluations within the applicant cohort.