The medical school will welcome more than 70 new resident physicians to Kalamazoo and Battle Creek in July following a successful Match Day for the residency programs at WMed.
The results, announced on Friday, March 20, were part of the 2020 Main Residency Match, which was the largest on record, according to the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP). This year's Match was made up of 44,959 registered applicants - 356 more than in 2019 - and 37,256 positions. Additionally, the number of available first-year (PGY-1) positions rose to 34,266, an increase of 2,072 from last year.
“An exciting feature is WMed’s growing participation in MI Docs, a new program from the state of Michigan which expands residency training positions in certain specialties, said David Overton, MD, associate dean for Graduate Medical Education. “MI Docs residents go on to practice in underserved areas of Michigan in exchange for loan repayment. WMed is delighted to welcome six new MI Docs residents this year into our Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and General Surgery residency programs”.
In addition to Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and General Surgery, the medical school has residency training programs in Emergency Medicine, Medicine-Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Orthopaedic Surgery, as well as fellowships in Emergency Medical Services, Forensic Pathology, Hospice and Palliative Medicine, Simulation and Sports Medicine.
The new residents will begin their training in July. The medical school will also welcome new fellows to its EMS, Forensic Pathology, Hospice and Palliative Medicine and Sports Medicine fellowship programs.
The group of new resident physicians includes three students from WMed’s Class of 2020. The students were part of a class that saw every student enter into a residency program in specialties ranging from Emergency Medicine and Interventional Radiology to Obstetrics and Gynecology and Pediatrics.
Match Day is a time-honored event held at medical schools across the country and it represents a pinnacle moment for graduating medical students as the course of their medical careers is determined and they learn where they will spend the next three or more years for residency training. Residents practice medicine in a clinical setting under the supervision of fully licensed physicians.
The Main Residency Match process begins in the fall for applicants usually in the final year of medical school, when they apply to residency programs at which they would like to train. Program directors review applications and conduct candidate interviews in the fall and early winter. From mid-January to late February, applicants submit to NRMP their rank order lists of preferred programs, and program directors rank applicants in order of preference for training. The NRMP uses a computerized mathematical algorithm to match applicants with programs using the preferences expressed on their rank lists.
About the NRMP: The National Resident Matching Program® (NRMP®) is a private, non-profit organization established in 1952 to provide an orderly and fair mechanism for matching the preferences of applicants for U.S. residency positions with the preferences of residency program directors. In addition to the annual Main Residency Match®, the NRMP conducts Fellowship Matches for more than 60 subspecialties through its Specialties Matching Service® (SMS®).