As part of the annual rite of passage for medical students known as Match Day, University of Alabama School of Medicine (UASOM) fourth-year medical students gathered together to find out where they will go next year to complete their residencies.
Eighty-sevent percent of UASOM students matched with 1 of their top 3 residency choices, compared with 85% of medical students nationally. Seventy-one percent of UASOM students received their first choice residency program; nationally, 60% connected with their top choices.
"The successful results of this year's match represent the collective hard work of the Class of 2001 as well as the faculty and staff," said UASOM Dean William B. Deal, MD. "Our graduating students will represent the University of Alabama School of Medicine well as residents."
All of the 151 graduating students who desired further medical training next year received and accepted job offers.
UASOM students will be working in 28 different states and the District of Columbia, ranging from Maine to California. Seventy-five percent will remain in the South including 50% who have chosen to work Alabama. Additionally, 11% will be in the Midwest, 5% in the West, and 9% in the Northeast.
"This year's match was good news for Alabama as 50% of our students will be completing residencies in the state, up from 40% last year," said Associate Dean for Students Kathleen G. Nelson, MD. “Young physicians tend to establish their permanent practices in the same state or region where they received postgraduate training,” she said. “More residents remaining in-state translates into better health care and better access to health care for all Alabamians.
“At UAB, we encourage our graduates to consider the primary care fields, and in the last few years we’ve seen the number of graduates who pursue residencies in primary care go up dramatically,” said Nelson. “There is a great need for more primary care physicians in this country, particularly in the rural south and inner cities.”
Fifty-seven percent of the class will enter primary care career fields including:
31% Internal Medicine
11% Pediatrics
9% Family Practice
4% Obstetrics-Gynecology
2% Combined Medicine-Pediatrics
Non-primary care specialties that our students have chosen include:
10% Surgical Subspecialties
9% General Surgery
5% Anesthesiology
4% Diagnostic Radiology
3% Emergency Medicine
3% Psychiatry
1% Neurology
1% Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
1% Pathology
1% Dermatology
1% Therapeutic Radiology
Among the programs where our students matched are: Mayo Clinic, Stanford Affiliated Hospitals, Yale-New Haven Hospital, University of California San Francisco, University of Washington, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Alabama Medical Center in Birmingham.
Decisions were made though the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP), a system that matches the program preferences of applicants for U.S. residency positions with the residency programs' choices of candidates, See the national results from this year's NMRP.