SIU medical students, residency programs matched for next phase of training

Medical students at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine learned crucial information about their futures on Friday, March 18. The graduating Class of 2022, along with other medical schools across the United States, received results from the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) to learn their destinations for postgraduate training programs. A total of 64 SIU students secured residency positions. The Main Residency Match included 39,205 total positions nationally, the largest number on record.

Among the SIU Class of 2022, 11 students (17%) matched with programs in family medicine and 10 (16%) in emergency medicine. Seven students (11%) will specialize in internal medicine, pediatrics drew 5 new residents (8%), and 4 (6%) students each matched in programs for dermatology, anesthesiology and surgery-preliminary. Orthopedic surgery attracted 3 students. Two students each will begin residencies in obstetrics-gynecology, plastic surgery, ENT/otolaryngology and psychiatry, and 1 student matched in each of the following specialties: general surgery, radiology, pathology, interventional radiology, transitional and neurology.

Sixteen students (25%) will begin training at SIU-affiliated programs, including 2 in medicine-preliminary.

The Class of 2022 gathered with family, friends and faculty at the Memorial Learning Center, 228 W. Miller St. It was the first open SIU Match Day since 2019.

The students have experienced a unique journey through medical school, disrupted by a pandemic that made learning more challenging and adaptability paramount. It also underscored the pressing need for more physicians and scientists within the U.S. health care system.

“I’m so proud of every one of our medical students as they enter the next phase of their career, ready to move into residency and fellowship programs,” said Jerry Kruse, MD, MSPH, SIU Medicine dean and provost. “We’re looking forward to them doing great things as clinicians, teachers, researchers and leaders.”

Erik Constance, MD, associate dean of student affairs and admissions, said, “The members of this class know the critical roles they have to fill – and they’ve matched into some excellent training programs.”

SIU School of Medicine’s Class of 2022 will graduate in May and begin residency training in July.

Match results also were announced Friday for SIU’s residency programs in Springfield, based at the school’s two affiliated hospitals – Springfield Memorial Hospital and HSHS St. John’s Hospital. On Friday, 83 starting positions in Springfield were filled. The first-year residents will join more than 246 senior residents and fellows already in training at SIU programs in Springfield.

Eighteen first-year positions were filled in general and preliminary internal medicine, 10 in family medicine, 8 in general pediatrics and 4 in obstetrics-gynecology. Sixteen were filled in the seven surgical programs – general surgery (5), orthopedic surgery (3), otolaryngology (2), plastic surgery (2), urology (2), neurological surgery (1), and vascular surgery (1). Twenty-seven total positions were filled in other specialties: emergency medicine (8), psychiatry (6), radiology (4), dermatology (3), medicine-psychiatry combined (2) and neurology (4).

“We’re so pleased with the match outcome,” said Karen Broquet, MD, associate dean for graduate medical education. “The pandemic, along with an increased awareness of the extent of disparities in health care, has reinforced how very important our trainees are to the community and our mission. Residency programs and candidates have not just adapted to all of the changes, but have managed to thrive. SIU School of Medicine and our partner hospitals in central and southern Illinois continue to attract a talented and dedicated group of accomplished physicians to the region.”

SIU also has longstanding affiliated family medicine residency programs in Carbondale, Decatur and Quincy, each three years in length. A new residency program began in Alton in the summer of 2021. Twenty-three first-year family medicine positions have been filled for next year through the NRMP match. These residents will join 42 senior family medicine residents and fellows at SIU’s affiliated hospitals – Alton Memorial Hospital, Memorial Hospital in Carbondale, Decatur Memorial Hospital and Blessing Hospital in Quincy.

Established in 1970, the mission of SIU School of Medicine is to optimize the health of the people of central and southern Illinois through education, patient care, research and community service. An international leader in medical education, the school is based in Carbondale and Springfield and is specifically oriented to educating new physicians prepared to practice in Illinois. More than 3,000 new physicians have graduated from its program. For more information, visit www.siumed.edu.

Read SIU School of Medicine’s complete Residency Match Results here.
View photos from the morning here.