Graduates Forego Match Day Ceremony to Support Response to COVID-19 Pandemic
Leslie Capo, Director of Information Resources
Forty-six percent, or 86 of 186 graduating medical students participating in the National
Resident Match Program this year, chose to remain in Louisiana to complete their medical
training. Eighty-one percent of those staying in-state will enter an LSU Health residency
program. LSU School of Medicine residency programs in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette,
Lake Charles and Bogalusa will accept 229 new residents.
“The current public health crisis emphasizes the critical value of medical and graduate
medical education and training,” notes Chancellor Dr. Larry Hollier. “These soon-to-be
physicians will play a large role in the delivery of medical care here in Louisiana.
Since we had to suspend their clinical duties to conserve personal protective equipment
and reduce their chances of being exposed to the virus, we are working to organize
other ways for them to contribute to the response to the pandemic. These include telephone
screening of patients and providing support to our faculty physicians and residents
on duty working long hours in our partner hospitals.”
The percentage of LSU Health New Orleans medical graduates going into primary care
is 56% this year, up from 54% last year. Primary care specialties include family practice,
internal medicine, medicine-preliminary, medicine-primary, obstetrics-gynecology,
pediatrics, and medicine-pediatrics. OB-GYN is not always included in primary care
data; however, in some Louisiana communities the only physician is an OB-GYN.
“Match Day this year was an entirely different experience for our fourth-year medical
students and their families,” adds Dr. Steve Nelson, Dean of the School of Medicine.
“The excitement of reaching this milestone has been tempered by this unprecedented
health crisis. We could not hold a ceremony, so our medical graduates received their
letters electronically. They privately celebrated the news of where they will go to
complete their medical training, and we are pleased that about half of them will stay
right here at home.”
Of the 66 accredited residency and fellowship programs under LSU Health New Orleans,
36 participated in the Main NRMP Match whose results were released today. They are
anesthesiology, child neurology, dermatology, emergency medicine (Baton Rouge and
New Orleans), family practice (Kenner, Bogalusa, Lafayette and Lake Charles), internal
medicine (Baton Rouge, Lafayette and New Orleans), interventional radiology, medicine-preliminary
(Baton Rouge, Lafayette and New Orleans), neurological surgery, neurology, obstetrics-gynecology
(Baton Rouge and New Orleans), orthopedic surgery, otolaryngology, pathology, pediatrics,
physical medicine and rehabilitation, plastic surgery, psychiatry (Baton Rouge and
New Orleans), radiology, general surgery, surgery-preliminary, vascular surgery, medicine-pediatrics,
medicine-emergency medicine and pediatrics-emergency medicine.
“LSU Health New Orleans medical graduates are in demand,” adds Dr. Cathy Lazarus,
Associate Dean for Student Affairs. “Those who pursue different experiences at this
stage of their training are going to some of the most prestigious out-of-state programs.
Many of them will bring the benefits of these experiences home when they return to
Louisiana to practice.”
LSU Health New Orleans medical graduates who matched training programs in other states
will be going to such highly regarded programs as Johns Hopkins, Vanderbilt, Emory
University, the University of Alabama-Birmingham, Washington University in St. Louis,
University of Michigan, and Duke, among others.
The Match, conducted annually by the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP), is
the primary system that matches applicants to residency programs with available positions
at U.S. teaching hospitals and academic health centers. The choices of the students
are entered into a software program as are the choices of the institutions with residency
programs. All U.S. graduating medical students found out at the same time today where
they "matched" and where they will spend their years of residency training. National
studies have found that a high number of physicians set up their permanent practices
in the areas where they have completed their residency programs, but Louisiana is
different from many states. A high percentage of LSU Health medical graduates come
home to establish their practices. The vast majority of physicians providing care
to the citizens of Louisiana are LSU Health-trained doctors.
The National Residency Matching Program was established in 1952 to provide an orderly
and fair mechanism to match the preferences of applicants for U.S. residency positions
with residency program choices of applicants. The program provides a common time for
the announcement of the appointments, as well as an agreement for programs and applicants
to honor the commitment to offer and accept an appointment if a match results.
Residency programs begin on July 1, 2020.