SLOE Request for EM Residency Applications

The SLOE is a standardized letter of evaluation (formerly known as SLOR). It was created by the Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors (CORD) and is used widely throughout the United States for Emergency Medicine residency application. It is not absolutely required to have a SLOE included in your application, but most residencies now expect it. 

The SLOE is a standardized letter of evaluation that will become part of your EM residency application in ERAS. The instrument was developed as an evaluative tool to provide a global perspective on an applicant’s candidacy for emergency medicine training by providing meaningful comparisons to peers that are also applying to Emergency Medicine. 

The SLOE provides an overall perspective on what a candidate offers to a training program, including non-cognitive characteristics such as maturity, professionalism, leadership, compassion, initiative, and enthusiasm.

At the University of Arizona College of Medicine Department of Emergency Medicine, we provide a committee SLOE that is co-written by the Residency Directors and the Department Chair. Students from the University of Arizona, as well as visiting students who complete rotations in EM/Critical Care and EM Sub-I/Acting Internship, will receive a SLOE during the interview season IF REQUESTED. Due to the limited ability to evaluate a student while on non-patient care rotations, we are unable to provide a SLOE for students who only participate in toxicology, ultrasound, EMS, wilderness medicine, research, or other EM-related electives. We might use those performances in basing our evaluation. While traditional letters of recommendation from individual faculty can certainly support a student’s application, the UA committee SLOEs will be the only SLOEs written from our Department.

To request a SLOE, go to the AAMC.org website under "MyERAS."  Indicate whether or not you waive the right to see this letter as you would similar to letters of recommendation. You may wish to read the letter to determine if you think it enhances your application or not. It is YOUR CHOICE as to whether you use our SLOE or not in your application.  

When requesting the SLOE, choose "Dr. Sam Keim" as the letter writer and "Department Chair" as the title. Email the completed request receipt form to our Clerkship Coordinator, Sonya Martyna-Seaman at srmartynaseaman@arizona.edu. Your SLOE will be uploaded before ERAS opens to residency programs on 10/1/23.

Best wishes,

Samuel M. Keim, MD, MS
Professor and Chair, Department of Emergency Medicine
The University of Arizona College of Medicine