Media contact: Bob Shepard, bshep@uab.edu
LaKisha Moore-Smith couldn’t hold back the happy tears at Match Day at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Walking across the stage at the Alys Stephens Center to the microphone with her husband, Shawn, and 2-year-old son, Xavier, Moore-Smith announced she would be training in internal medicine at Baptist Health System in Birmingham.
Match Day is when graduating medical school students nationwide find out where they will be doing their residency training and in what field.
“I’m a nontraditional student,” Moore-Smith said, explaining that she first earned a doctorate in pathology at UAB and did breast cancer research before deciding to go to medical school. “I enjoyed the science, but I wanted to interact with people and find ways to help them.”
The 2016 graduating class of the UAB School of Medicine celebrated Match Day on Friday, March 18. UAB’s graduates will continue their medical education at 78 institutions in 31 states across the country.
“I’m incredibly proud of each of our medical students, and I’m especially proud of this year’s class,” said Laura Kezar, M.D., associate dean for students in the School of Medicine. “They had a great impact in the way they shepherded the Learning Communities concept into the medical school curriculum at UAB and worked hard to create a culture where all students feel connected with one another.”
The match only continues to grow. According to the National Resident Match Program, which coordinates the residency match process, this was the largest on record, with more than 42,000 applicants from U.S. medical schools, international medical schools and osteopathic schools competing for 30,750 residency positions.
Brian Warmus, a student in the Medical Scientist Training Program, learned Friday that he will train in neurology at the University of California, San Francisco. A California native, Warmus says he had a great feeling about choosing UAB for his M.D./Ph.D. training.
“I knew I was going to be somewhere for eight years, so I wanted to be happy,” he said. “The proven leadership is outstanding at UAB, and it felt like a family that I wanted to be part of.”
UAB is also celebrating a successful recruitment for residents in its 33 residency programs. A total of 206 new residents, representing 56 U.S. and 32 international universities, will begin this summer in programs at Birmingham (172), Huntsville (20), Selma (five) and Montgomery (nine).
John Killian will be one of those residents. Killian matched into general surgery at UAB — his No. 1 choice.
“I’m absolutely excited,” he said. “Training at UAB was my first choice, and I’m thrilled I have the opportunity to stay here in Birmingham.”
The largest percentage of students matched into internal medicine at 16.8 percent, followed by pediatrics at 16.2 percent and family medicine at 11 percent.
The largest number of students matched into internal medicine at 29, followed by 28 in pediatrics and 19 in family medicine. Students also matched in other medical specialties, including 17 in surgery; 14 in obstetrics and gynecology; 13 in emergency medicine; nine in orthopaedic surgery; six in preliminary medicine; four in anesthesiology; three each in neurology, oral and maxillofacial surgery , otolaryngology, pathology and psychiatry; two each in primary medicine, preliminary surgery and child neurology; and one each in medicine-pediatrics, diagnostic radiology, internal medicine/Center of Excellence, medicine/dermatology and plastic surgery.