March Madness – With a Stethoscope

Medical sudents met their match

• By Suzanna Cisneros
• April 4, 2016

Just as basketball fans wait every year for the tradition, excitement and upsets of March Madness, medical students awaited the same with Match Day. Fourth-year medical students from the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) School of Medicine participated in Match Day.

 

Match Day is a nerve-racking event that has played out on medical school campuses across the country since 1952. Approximately 149 TTUHSC School of Medicine students participated in Match Day and learned where they will be for the next three to seven years for their residencies. Across the country, medical students opened their results that were sealed in an envelope and opened simultaneously at all of the nation’s medical schools.

 

“The Class of 2015 has a record of excellence in course work, patient care and community service,” said Steven L. Berk, M.D., TTUHSC executive vice president and provost and dean of the School of Medicine. “We are proud of our students’ accomplishments this past Match Day and enjoyed sharing their excitement as they pursue their careers at outstanding teaching programs around the country.”

 

This year the TTUHSC School of Medicine students matched to institutions including Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, UCLA, Brown University, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, Duke University, and University of Virginia.

 

Twenty-four of the 149 students matched at TTUHSC with another 48 percent staying in Texas. TTUHSC students matched in 31 states in 27 specialties. With such a need for primary care physicians, Berk is particularly proud that a high percentage of students from this class are focusing on primary care.

 

“Because our School of Medicine has led nationally to push educating primary care physicians, we were pleased to see the number of students focusing on these fields,” Berk said. “Over half of our students who matched went into primary care.”

 

Nationally, the average percentage of students going into family medicine was about 9 percent. TTUHSC School of Medicine will graduate nearly 20 percent of its students with specialties in family medicine.

 

“All of our students who matched received an excellent education, and we are excited to see the wonderful things they will do in the medical profession, both here and across the country,” Berk said.