Independence & Affiliation Disclaimer

Who Runs PGY Zero

PGY Zero is written and edited by a collective of US-trained physicians, including attending faculty, fellows, and residents across multiple specialties and institution types. Contributors write anonymously under a shared editorial voice to protect professional relationships and to keep the guidance free from the reputational pressures that come with named affiliation. The site is independently owned; no hospital, health system, academic medical center, or GME administrative body holds any ownership stake or editorial authority over what is published here.

The collective has no single geographic or specialty center of gravity. That range is deliberate: it reduces the probability that any one training environment's norms distort guidance for applicants whose circumstances look different.

No Residency Program Affiliations

PGY Zero is not owned, operated, sponsored, or funded by any residency program, fellowship program, department of graduate medical education, hospital, or academic medical center. No program has paid for coverage, requested coverage, or been offered coverage in exchange for anything of value. Program coordinators, program directors, and GME offices do not have advance review of content that mentions their programs, their institutions, or their specialties.

If content on this site describes how a program type, program culture, or program tier tends to operate, that description is the editorial judgment of the collective based on collective experience—not a characterization negotiated with or approved by any program.

How We Fund the Site

Running an independent editorial operation has real costs. PGY Zero is currently supported by a combination of the following revenue streams:

• Display advertising. Third-party ad networks may serve advertisements on pages across the site. Advertisers in these networks do not select individual pages, and the collective does not select individual advertisers in those networks.
• Direct advertising relationships. Some advertisers purchase placements directly. These relationships are disclosed under the Advertiser Relationships section below.
• Affiliate commissions. Certain outbound links earn a commission when a reader makes a qualifying purchase or signup. These links are identified at the point of use. See the Affiliate Links and Commissions section for the full policy.
• Sponsored content. Occasionally a sponsor funds a piece of content. See the Sponsored Content Policy section for how those pieces are labeled and what editorial protections apply.

If a revenue stream is added that is not represented here, this page will be updated before that stream goes live.

Affiliate Links and Commissions

Some links on PGY Zero—most commonly links to board preparation resources, study tools, and reference books—are affiliate links. When you follow an affiliate link and complete a qualifying transaction, PGY Zero receives a commission from the seller. The price you pay is not affected by the commission relationship.

The editorial policy governing affiliate links is as follows:

• A product or resource is only linked—affiliate or otherwise—if the collective's editorial judgment is that it is genuinely useful to the target reader for the specific purpose described.
• The existence of an affiliate relationship does not cause a product to be ranked higher, described more favorably, or included in a list from which a non-affiliated competitor of comparable quality is excluded.
• Where an affiliate link appears in a comparison or ranked list, the ranking reflects editorial judgment independent of commission rate or commercial relationship.
• Non-affiliated resources that the collective judges to be superior for a given use case will be recommended over affiliated resources.

If you want to support PGY Zero without cost to yourself, using affiliate links when you intended to purchase something anyway is the mechanism. If you prefer not to, the resource name is always visible; you can navigate to it directly.

Sponsored Content Policy

Sponsored content is content that a company or organization has paid to place on PGY Zero. All sponsored content is labeled at the top of the piece with language equivalent to "Sponsored" or "Paid Partnership" before any body text begins. The label is not in a font size, color, or location designed to obscure it.

The following constraints apply to all sponsored content without exception:

• Sponsors do not write editorial copy. Sponsors may provide factual background, product descriptions, or suggested topics. Final copy is written and edited by the collective.
• Sponsors do not have final editorial approval. They may review content for factual accuracy about their own product or service. They may not alter framing, remove caveats, or require conclusions the collective does not independently support.
• Sponsored content does not rank programs, endorse specific residency programs, or imply that a sponsor's product is the only or best option in its category unless that conclusion survives independent editorial scrutiny.
• A sponsored relationship with a company does not generate favorable editorial coverage of that company in non-sponsored content elsewhere on the site.

If a sponsored piece cannot be executed within these constraints, it is declined.

Editorial Independence Process

The people who negotiate advertising and sponsorship arrangements are operationally separated from the people who write and edit content. A writer does not know the commercial terms of a sponsorship before writing content adjacent to it, and a sales contact does not have authority to alter editorial decisions.

Each contributor signs an agreement before publication that requires:

• Disclosure of current institutional affiliation (kept internal; not published to protect anonymity)
• Disclosure of any financial relationship with companies, products, or services referenced in their contribution
• Agreement that content reflects their independent professional judgment, not the position of their employer or any payer

Conflict-of-interest disclosures at the article level appear where a contributor has a relevant financial or institutional relationship to the specific subject matter of that piece. The absence of a disclosure on a given article means no such relationship was identified at time of publication, not that the question was not asked.

Author and Contributor Disclosures

All physician authors and advisors who contribute to PGY Zero complete a disclosure prior to publication covering program and institutional affiliation, current employment setting, and any financial relationships with entities whose products, services, or programs are discussed in their contribution.

Because contributors write under the collective's shared voice, individual names are not attached to articles in the public-facing text. Disclosures are maintained internally and are available for editorial review. If a contribution-level conflict is material to the reliability of the content, it is disclosed in the article itself in terms that identify the nature of the relationship without requiring the contributor to be named.

The author disclosure policy is reviewed when this page is reviewed. Questions about a specific article's disclosure status can be directed to the contact mechanism described in the How to Report a Concern section below.

Advertiser Relationships

Categories of advertisers that currently have or have recently had a direct relationship with PGY Zero include: medical education and board preparation companies, residency application services, and financial products marketed to physicians and trainees. Individual advertiser names are not listed here because advertiser rosters change frequently and a static list creates false confidence in its completeness.

What does not change is the structural rule: purchasing advertising space on PGY Zero confers no editorial benefit. Advertisers do not receive:

• Favorable coverage in editorial content
• Exclusion of competitors from editorial coverage
• Advance review of editorial content outside a sponsored piece they have funded
• Influence over program rankings, specialty assessments, or applicant guidance

If an advertiser conditions a purchase on any of the above, the purchase is declined.

ERAS, NRMP, and Specialty Board Disclaimer

PGY Zero has no affiliation with the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS), the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP), the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG), or any specialty certifying or accrediting board.

Content on this site that describes ERAS functionality, NRMP Match rules, ECFMG certification requirements, or specialty board examination requirements is written based on publicly available documentation from those organizations. It is not written with insider access to those organizations, and it is not reviewed or approved by them before publication.

Requirements, deadlines, fees, and policies set by these organizations change. The authoritative source for any requirement is the official documentation of the organization that sets it. PGY Zero references those organizations' official channels throughout the site and expects readers to verify current requirements directly with the relevant primary source before acting.

Verify current ECFMG and visa-related requirements directly with ECFMG/Intealth and official sources for your application year.

Medical and Legal Disclaimer

The content on PGY Zero is for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute medical advice, clinical guidance, legal advice, or financial advice. Reading this site does not create a physician-patient relationship, an attorney-client relationship, or any professional advisory relationship between you and any contributor or the site as an entity.

Content describing residency training, specialty characteristics, or clinical environments is descriptive and probabilistic. It reflects the collective's experience and judgment and is not a guarantee of any outcome. Individual training programs, match results, licensing requirements, and career trajectories vary.

For decisions with material legal, medical, or financial consequences—including but not limited to visa applications, medical licensing, loan management, and clinical decisions—consult a qualified professional with direct knowledge of your specific circumstances.

How to Report a Concern

If you believe a piece of content on PGY Zero contains a factual error, reflects an undisclosed conflict of interest, violates the editorial policies described on this page, or is otherwise inaccurate or misleading, we want to know about it. The mechanism is straightforward: send a description of the concern to the site's contact address, which is listed on the Contact page. You do not need to identify yourself, though providing enough detail to locate the specific content helps us act on the report efficiently.

Reports of this kind are reviewed by the collective's editorial process, not by the commercial side of the operation. If a report identifies a genuine error or undisclosed conflict, the correction is made and noted on the affected page. If a report identifies a conflict with an existing commercial relationship, the editorial process—not the commercial relationship—determines the outcome.

Updates to This Disclaimer

This page is reviewed at minimum annually and whenever a material change occurs in the site's ownership, revenue model, or editorial structure. A material change includes but is not limited to: acquisition by or merger with an entity that has residency program affiliations; addition of a new category of revenue not described above; or a change in the editorial separation structure described in the Editorial Independence Process section.

The last-reviewed date appears at the bottom of this page. If the date is more than twelve months ago and you are reading this during an active application cycle, contact us so we can confirm the current status of any specific relationship you want to verify.

Last reviewed: June 2025