A challenge facing many medical schools is balancing student interest against the limitations of clinical capacity.  Paper models of schedule optimization are subject to bias, and are cumbersome to run multiple times.  To address this, a team from the University of Calgary and the University of Alberta collaborated to create and implement a solution for rotation matching. 
 

A macro driven solution was created that applies a best fit approach to sorting students against available rotation capacity. Using Microsoft Excel, the process works using the following data inputs: capacity for each rotation, student list, student rank of each rotation. The macro populates the schedule by randomizing the student list, and placing students in their top ranked rotations that have capacity. Each generated schedule can be compared to select the schedule that has the best outcome for most students.  
 

Here's a video demonstrating the mechanism:

https://yuja.ucalgary.ca/V/Video?v=827542&node=4062900&a=79144750&autoplay=1 

Please find the Macro at the GitHub Repository:

https://github.com/mkpaget/clerkshipallocation/tree/main 

Please note that this is a macro enabled spreadsheet, and as such may require special permission to run.