3-21-06

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 71 SIU medical students were matched with residency programs in Illinois, the Midwest and around the country. Constance explains the match program.

SOUND BITE: "The match program is a national program where all the medical students in the country find out today where they are going to begin their residency training on July 1 st of this year. It means a lot to the students. This day is probably as important as graduation because they know where they’re going to do their further training."

The largest percentage of SIU's students, 51 percent, will enter primary care residencies in July. Primary care specialties include family practice, internal medicine and pediatrics says Constance.

SOUND BITE: " . . . but we continue to see what everyone sees across the country. We have a lot of students entering specialty training as well. So we have students going into orthopaedic surgery, anesthesia, ophthalmology, plastic surgery and a variety of other specialties."

Forty-five percent of SIU medical students will enter residency programs in Illinois. Three fourths of them will continue their training in the Midwest. SIU’s own training programs also received match results for their 14 residency programs. SIU matched 58 new residents for its Springfield programs and 17 for its family practice programs in Carbondale, Decatur and Quincy.

This is Ruth Slottag at SIU School of Medicine in Springfield.