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All listed programs are part of research consortiums that are working with Altus to evaluate the best use of Altus Suite to contribute to evolving best practices and equity in GME selection. Applicants are encouraged to subscribe to this page to receive updates on participating programs, test dates, and more.

Programs are looking to make sure that students are not only academically capable but also possess suitable personal and professional qualities that make them more likely to succeed in the profession.

Each part of Altus Suite focuses on specific personal and professional attributes to paint a more complete picture of who you are. Altus Suite gives you multiple opportunities to showcase your people skills and unique qualities, while programs benefit from using this information at multiple points throughout their processes.

Applicants to participating US graduate medical programs are recommended to complete all three parts of Altus Suite (Casper, Snapshot, and Duet).

To confirm which parts of Altus Suite to complete, refer to the Dates and Fees page, which will list requirements by program. We also recommend checking the individual program’s website for confirmation.

Our recommendation is to complete all parts of Altus Suite within 14 days of taking the Casper test. This will ensure that all components of your Altus Suite are available together to be considered by your program(s). Should individual program requirements change, you will still be able to complete Snapshot and/or Duet at any time before your earliest program distribution deadline, as shown on the Dates and Fees page.

Test registration will open on June 24, except for Ophthalmology which opens on July 1. 

GME applicants can reserve their Casper test for any of the following dates:

• July 21 – 8pm EDT
• August 16 – 5pm EDT
• August 30 – 5pm EDT
• September 8 – 8pm EDT*
• September 22 – 8pm EDT*

You can find more information on the Dates and Fees page. Once you have created your Altus Suite account and reserved your test date, you will have the ability to access and complete Snapshot and Duet anytime until your earliest program distribution deadline. *Please note that the September 8th and September 22nd tests are not applicable for AUPO applicants.

Yes, all three components of the Altus Suite have been developed using best practices identified from the literature reviews and/or have undergone extensive research.

• Casper was developed at McMaster University’s Micheal G. DeGroote School of Medicine and has over 15 years of research behind it. It has been used to screen for personal and professional characteristics in undergraduate medicine across the US and Canada for 5 years and 10 years, respectively. Additionally, Casper has been used in Canadian PGME programs for the past 3 years. The Casper test has an average internal-consistency reliability of 0.85, an average inter-rater reliability of 0.86, and has shown promising predictive validity results for Canadian licensure examination scores and in-program clinical performance. The Casper test taken at the UME level differs only in the level of difficulty and the context in which the scenarios are presented from the Casper test being used at the GME level. 
• Snapshot was developed out of a clear need that arose from admissions teams across GME pre-COVID and in UME during COVID. Admissions and selection committees had no good way of getting a sense of their applicants’ verbal and non-verbal communication skills prior to bringing them into to interview. In GME, interviews were very expensive for applicants to travel to (pre-COVID), so Snapshot was developed to provide exactly that, a ‘snapshot’ into verbal and non-verbal communication skills and motivation prior to an interview, saving time and resources for both programs and applicants. In UME, COVID made interviews difficult or impossible for many programs, so Snapshot introduced a way for programs to still get a glimpse of their applicants when interviews were not feasible. Snapshot questions have been developed in collaboration with advisory programs, and programs are provided with basic scoring guidelines and implicit bias training to help them evaluate the Snapshot videos. 
• Duet was developed using a consensus-building research methodology called a Delphi. A Delphi takes into account several stakeholder inputs to assemble factors relevant to the categories or themes Duet is looking to focus on. Stakeholders included program directors and coordinators, current residents, and medical students. The assessment format and scoring plan were developed according to best practices for pairwise assessment methods. 

We recommend consulting our detailed Test Prep page, which should help you become familiar with the format of the assessments, their objectives, and system requirements. Practice tests for Casper and Snapshot are also available once you register for an Altus Suite account and reserve your test date. Note that we do not endorse or affiliate ourselves with any third-party test prep company. All the test prep information you need is available for free on our website. 

As processes vary from program to program, Altus Suite may be used in different ways. Each program may use any/all 3 components of Altus to make selection decisions prior to sending interview invites, and/or post-interview, and/or prior to rank list selection.

No. Fees are waived for applicants this cycle.