Match madness
Match Day 2010 saw a boost over last year in primary care matches. More medical school seniors opted for residencies in family medicine, internal medicine and pediatrics, a trend physician leaders hope continues.
Match madness
The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine had a green ceremony of sorts, as dress for many students reflected the timing of this year's Match Day, March 18.
Match madness
Herbert T. Abelson, MD, senior associate dean for admissions and student affairs, distributed envelopes to the 114 medical students gathered to learn their fates. Students were handed their envelopes one by one and they opened them at the same time --11 a.m. Central -- as did every other student participating in the nationwide Match.
Match madness
Medical student Joseph Williams already had his residency assignment but came to Match Day to celebrate with his classmates. His wife, Amy, and infant son, Finn, joined in via an Internet video call. Williams had learned in December 2009, when U.S. Army matches are announced, that he would be doing his residency at Madigan Army Medical Center in Washington state. He plans to specialize in emergency medicine. "You get to do a bit of everything," Williams said. "It's shift work, and family's really important to me, so I like being able to go home when I'm done."
Match madness
Mary Bister (foreground) landed her first choice, a residency slot in emergency medicine at the University Hospital in Ohio. At the same time, Caitlin Schaninger (behind and to the left of Bister), learned she, too, would be joining that residency program. The two have been close friends since meeting in medical school.
Match madness
Mary Bister (left) and Caitlin Schaninger celebrate landing two of the 12 residency slots at the University of Cincinnati Dept. of Emergency Medicine. "I didn't dare to really hope, but it was always in the back of my mind" that the two women would match to the same residency program, Bister said. "We have been friends since the beginning of medical school. We were partners in anatomy lab and have been really, really close this whole time, and we wanted to keep this going."
Match madness
Becca Wolsky's envelope revealed a match with the pathology department at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
Match madness
Like many other students, Cameron Nienaber was a multitasking celebrant on Match Day, having matched at Brown University's Warren Alpert Medical School in Rhode Island. Nienaber and 11 other Pritzker seniors were matched to family medicine residencies. In October 2008, the University of Chicago Medical Center announced the initiation of REACH, the Repayment for Education to Alumni in Community Health program. Pritzker alumni who choose residencies in family medicine or another needed specialty and return to practice at a federally qualified health center or a community hospital in the medical center's area on Chicago's South Side can earn up to $40,000 a year in addition to their salaries.
Match madness
Mac Walter landed his first choice match, an internal medicine residency at the University of Michigan Health System. "I like the way of thinking that a medicine doctor takes when he approaches the patient. He takes a thorough history. I feel that at the end of a medicine call, you really know your patients well." Walter said he is considering a subspecialty in critical care medicine.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Posted with the March 29, 2010 issue - Accompanying article: Primary care gets boost in resident Match
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