Fourth-year students in the University of Louisville School of Medicine learned where they will embark on residency training on Match Day, March 17. Students at UofL and medical schools across the nation received envelopes with the information about medical specialty they will pursue, where they will live and who will join them for the next three to seven years of medical training.

“We are really appreciative of our faculty. I think we have an education that is phenomenal and we are ready to go out and serve our patient populations,” said Matt Woeste, president of the UofL medical school class of 2017.

UofL students matched to prestigious programs including Beth Israel Deaconess, Case-Western Reserve University, Cleveland Clinic, Dartmouth, Johns Hopkins, New York University, Tufts, University of Louisville, University of Texas-Galveston and Vanderbilt. While 27 percent will remain in Kentucky, others are heading across the nation to Washington and New Hampshire, to Florida and Hawaii, and many other locations. A record-high 10 couples all matched together.

• 27 percent will remain in Kentucky
• 39 percent matched in primary-care specialties
• 3 will pursue military residency
• 10 couples matched to programs in the same city

“These students definitely are ambassadors for the University of Louisville,” said Michael Ostapchuk, M.D., associate dean for medical student affairs. “Our students go to a residency and the residency directors in those programs see what the University of Louisville is all about and they want our students in the future.”

Fourth-year student MeNore Lake matched to Mount Auburn Hospital, where she will train as a radiologist.

“I can’t be any more excited than I am today,” Lake said. “It’s exactly what I wanted. I am very grateful.”

During her medical education at UofL, Lake pursued her passion for global health in the Distinction in Global Health track, one of the school’s distinction tracks, which allow students in the School of Medicine to explore a specific area of medicine.

“I’ve been in the Global Health Track and it’s meant a lot of growth for me. I’ve had great community and support here as well. I’ve felt well supported here,” she said.

Dexter Weeks believes UofL provided him with the comprehensive education he needed to earn a position in integrated plastic surgery residency at the University of Texas Medical Branch-Galveston.

“I felt like I got a lot of hands-on experience, being able to do things at the level of a resident even though you are a student, getting an idea of what it’s like in your working environment. I felt like it really helped me make a decision about what I wanted to do with my future,” Weeks said. “I’m excited. I’m ready for the next adventure in residency.”

 ABOUT MEDICAL TRAINING AND RESIDENCY MATCH

After graduating from medical school, physicians must complete training in residency programs in a medical specialty such as internal medicine, pediatrics or general surgery. The physicians obtain this training at academic medical centers, teaching hospitals and other health-care centers.

The National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) provides a uniform process for matching medical student applicants with residency positions in the United States based on the preferences of both the students and the programs. The students interview with officials at residency programs in the fall of their fourth year of medical school. Students submit their specialty and program preferences to the NRMP and residency programs submit their preferences for applicants. A matching algorithm uses those preferences to match individuals into positions, and students throughout the United States receive their match notices precisely at noon on the third Friday of March – Match Day.

The 2017 match was the largest in the program’s history, matching students in 27,688 PGY-1 positions.              

Photos of UofL students in the match are available on Flickr.

Video of Match Day is available on Youtube.