Residency Match Canada · Program Research Profile
University of British Columbia Otolaryngology
2026 Match
What the research profiles of this year's 2 incoming residents actually look like, by specialty relevance, presentations, and notable activity, not just publication count.
Program Director: Dr. Harman Parhar
2
spots filled this match cycle, unchanged from 2 in 2025. Every stat below describes this full cohort (n=2).
8.5
avg. confirmed publications
6.5
avg. first or second authored
5
avg. otolaryngology relevant
Program context
Source: https://www.carms.ca/match/r-1-main-residency-match/program-descriptions/
Selection weights*
File review: research and publications
File review: CV
Interview: scholarly activities
*Segments are equal width for display only. The program lists these components but does not state their weights.
What the program says it looks for
- Academic excellence and strong technical skills.
- Clear communication and good working relationships.
- Capacity for research or other academic productivity, with research expected throughout training in both basic science and clinical areas.
- Resilience, initiative, and the stamina for sustained physical and mental demands, including working under pressure.
- Genuine interest and aptitude for the specialty, plus cultural fit and the potential to meet all CanMEDS competencies.
Where research appears
Research and publications is its own file review component, framed as research achievement in the specialty or related fields. The CV component also notes research productivity, and scholarly activities appear at the interview stage as a criterion that is simply listed as considered.
Numbers
51 to 200
applicants per year
26 to 50%
interview invite rate
Inference, not the program's wording
Research has its own file review component, but no weight is stated and the program does not say which component counts most. With roughly a quarter to a half of applicants invited to interview, research may play a role at the file review stage, though how large that role is cannot be determined from the description.
The program publishes no percentage weights, lists its stream quota as approximate (2), and does not report interviews per year; the components shown are those named in its research related criteria.
Where this cohort came from
University of British Columbia
McMaster University
Both residents in this cohort are Canadian medical graduates. Schools are shown as a set only and are not matched to the individual research profiles below, since with a cohort this small that pairing would make individuals identifiable.
Per resident breakdown
Otolaryngology relevant
Other medical
Six of the seven specialty papers are systematic reviews or meta-analyses, spread across head and neck oncology (including a machine learning review in The Laryngoscope), rhinology, pediatric otolaryngology, hearing, parapharyngeal tumour surgery and head and neck reconstruction, with five first authored and a further two second authored. The seventh is a first-authored case report on a modified airway technique, the only single-patient clinical paper. The five outside-field papers cluster around a pre-hospital critical care team review, with a second-authored meta-analysis plus a response and a commentary on it, along with a randomized colorectal screening trial and a respiratory guideline review, both middle authored.
Notable: spoke at a student specialty interest event after the match, and was quoted as a contributor in a university news feature on the pre-hospital team review, a rare example of research reaching a public audience.
One paper by a same-name author was excluded as belonging to a different person.
A smaller record than its cohort peer, but four of five papers are first or second authored. The specialty work is varied in type: a first-authored case report with literature review on a rare head and neck carcinoma (Journal of Laryngology and Otology), a first-authored survey study on decision making in head and neck skin cancer, and a middle-authored contribution to a large multicenter Canadian retrospective review of biologic therapy in chronic rhinosinusitis (International Forum of Allergy and Rhinology). There is no systematic review in the specialty. The two outside-field papers are a first-authored population-based breast cancer surgery review and a second-authored systematic review on research methods in orthopedics.
Notable: holds an honours science degree in translational and molecular medicine before medical school. Presented a scoping review on environmental sustainability in the specialty at an international otolaryngology meeting, co-hosted and produced a national medical student podcast series, and spoke at a student specialty interest event after the match. Also appears on a spine surgery conference supplement, which is not counted as a publication because the individual abstract could not be identified.
Reading this data
Volume diverges sharply while shape stays similar. PGY1-A produced more than twice the confirmed output of PGY1-B (12 against 5) and more than twice the first or second authored work (9 against 4), yet the share of each record that sits inside the specialty is close, roughly 6 in 10 for both. What differs is the type of work: PGY1-A's specialty output is dominated by systematic reviews and meta-analyses across several subspecialties, while PGY1-B's is a smaller mix of a case report, a survey study and a large multicenter retrospective review.
Both profiles also include published work outside the specialty, in surgical oncology, orthopedics, pre-hospital care, gastroenterology and respiratory medicine, and both show education or outreach activity beyond the publication list. Program weightings may change from year to year.
