Background:
Physicians in Israel are required to do an internship in an accredited hospital upon completion ofthe medical studies, and prior to receiving the medical license. For most students, the assignment isdetermined by a lottery, which takes into consideration the preferences of these students.Objectives: We propose a novel way to perform this lottery, in which (on average) a larger number of students getsone of their top choices. We report about implementing this method in the 2014 Internship Lottery inIsrael.
Methods:
The new method is based on calculating a tentative lottery, in which each student has some probabilityof getting to each hospital. Then a computer program "trades" between the students, where trade isperformed only if it is beneficial to both sides. This trade creates surplus, which translates to morestudents getting one of their top choices.
Results:
The average student improved his place by 0.91 seats.
Conclusions:
The new method can improve the welfare of medical graduates, by giving them more probability toget to one of their top choices. It can be applied in internship markets in other countries as well.
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