3-22-05
Match

Senior medical students graduating from Southern Illinois University School of Medicine matched with some of the most competitive residency training programs in the country again this year.

SIU seniors received the results from the National Resident Matching Program last Thursday and learned where they will be doing their training after medical school. Dr. Erik Constance, associate dean of student affairs at SIU School of Medicine in Springfield, says 65 SIU medical students were matched with residency programs in Illinois, the Midwest and around the country. Constance explains the match program.

SOUNB BITE: ". . . our graduating students have matched with residency programs so they can go complete their training to be full-fledged physicians. What it means to students, it probably is the most important day they have in their four years of medical school because they find out where they are going to be continuing their training."

The largest percentage of SIU's students, 39 percent, will enter primary care residencies in July. Primary care specialties include family practice, internal medicine and pediatrics says Constance.

SOUND BITE: "What we're seeing with the match is that our students are doing what a lot of medical students are doing around the country. And that is they are seeking more specialized training. We seem to have more students entering orthopaedic surgery, dermatology, anesthesiology. And this is something we are seeing all over the country."

One third of SIU medical students will enter residency programs in Illinois. Thirty-eight percent of them will continue their training in the Midwest. SIU's own residency programs also received match results for their 14 residency programs. SIU matched 47 new residents for its Springfield programs and 17 for its family practice programs in Carbondale, Decatur and Quincy.