Canadian Resident Matching Service

The Canadian Resident Matching Service, commonly referred to by its abbreviation CaRMS, is a non-profit organization that provides a uniform appointment to positions in graduate medical education (GME) in Canada.

It organizes appointments to most post-graduate year one (PGY-1) positions, the year following medical school, and R-3 (year three resident) positions for family medicine/emergency medicine.

In the past, its mission was to only match Canadian medical school graduates in English Canada and severe restrictions were placed on graduates of schools not certified by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME). In 2006 the French-speaking medical schools were added to the match. Starting in 2007, there will be a separate and parallel match for international medical graduates (IMGs) in all provinces except Manitoba. In Manitoba, due to a court ruling, Canadian graduates and IMGs will be in one match; IMGs and Canadian medical graduates in Manitoba will compete head-to-head, like in the USA.