Match Day 2014! The envelope please...

March 21, 2014

Congratulations to the Class of 2014! 121 School of Medicine seniors join 16,000 U.S. medical school seniors nationwide in the largest Match Day in history

MatchDay2014This morning, eager and nervous medical school seniors mingled with friends, family and faculty mentors over champagne and breakfast as they waited to learn where they would be spending the next three to seven years of their lives. Match Day is an annual rite of passage for U.S. medical school students and other applicants, a day when they learn at which U.S. residency programs they will train.

The much-anticipated answer came at 9 a.m., when the students – along with 16,000 other medical school seniors participating in the National Resident Matching Program nationwide –simultaneously opened sealed white envelopes addressed with their name and containing a single sheet of paper. The NRMP letter revealed where they would pursue the next phase of their medical training.

At the appointed time, the room lit up with hugs, yelps and photo flashes.

MatchDay2014

"We are enormously proud of all of our students. We learn from them just as much as they learn from our faculty and staff," said Mark Richardson, M.D., MBA, dean, OHSU School of Medicine. "Some of our students may travel across the country for residency. Others will travel to other locations in Oregon. Some will remain right here at OHSU. We look forward to watching them all succeed, and we take pride in OHSU's role in educating the next generation of physician leaders for Oregon."

For some the journey will be short – at least physically. Nineteen students will remain at OHSU for their residency positions, and an additional 11 will stay in Oregon. Altogether, 83 students (69 percent of those pursuing residency training) matched to programs in the Western region, including Oregon. Seven will travel to training programs in the Northeast, 17 to the Central region and 14 to the South.

In terms of medical specialty, the outcome showed an increase in OHSU School of Medicine seniors selecting primary care (internal medicine, family medicine or pediatrics) specialties: sixty students, or 50 percent of those pursuing residency training, are entering residency in primary care. Matches to internal medicine represented the highest proportion of this group, and jumped by 3 percent over last year, with 24 students matching. Twenty-three students selected (and matched to) family medicine, up from 17 last year, with 12 in pediatrics (an increase of three from 2013).

"Four years of hard work during medical school will melt into the gradual realization that a life of service to humanity has begun, that one has been fundamentally changed, and that there is no going back." – George Mejicano, M.D., M.S., senior associate dean for education, on the 96,000 Square Miles blog

MatchDay2014Some of the students selecting internal medicine and pediatrics are likely to go on to sub-specialize and, thus, not all these new physicians will end up practicing primary care. Nevertheless, the overall amount and trend bode well for ramping up to meet the demand for primary care physicians. Graduates in family medicine are likely to remain in this primary care discipline.

Despite this positive trend, and the fact that the match was the largest in history with 25,687 seniors who matched nationwide, the shortage of residency training spots for physicians nationwide – and at OHSU – is a significant obstacle to reversing projected physician shortages, especially in primary care.

Quick Facts

  • 127 medical students will graduate from the OHSU School of Medicine in 2014.
  • OHSU ranks 10th in the nation for in-state retention of physicians who complete their residencies at OHSU.
  • OHSU ranks third in the nation for excellence in primary care education (U.S. News & World Report).
  • One-third of all physicians in Oregon completed all or part of their training at OHSU.
  • 46 percent of all OHSU medical school graduates end up practicing in Oregon.

The flip side! Who is coming to OHSU?

Simultaneous to the Match Day process, the OHSU School of Medicine finds out from other medical schools who 'matched' to our own highly competitive residency programs, in addition to those from our class of 2014 who will remain at OHSU.

OHSU residency programs in all specialties remain among the most sought-after slots across the nation.

For example, OHSU's primary care residency – comprising internal medicine, family medicine and pediatrics – received 5,732 applications for 69 slots this year, according to data from NRMP.

More than a quarter of all U.S. graduates pursuing pediatrics apply to OHSU's residency program in pediatrics.