Class of 2021: SIU Med Students, Residency Programs Meet Their Match
March 19, 2021, SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS – Medical students at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine learned crucial information about their futures Friday. The graduating Class of 2021 received results from the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) at the same time other U.S. medical students learned their matches for postgraduate training programs. Sixty-five SIU students secured residency positions.
Among the class, 11 students (17%) will specialize in internal medicine and 11 in emergency medicine. Ten students (15%) matched with programs in family medicine. Six (9%) will begin residencies in obstetrics-gynecology, and pediatrics drew five new residents (8%). Orthopedic surgery attracted four students. Three students matched specialties in radiology, psychiatry and surgery-preliminary. Anesthesiology attracted two students. One student matched in each of the following specialties: dermatology, anesthesiology, general surgery, otolaryngology, pathology and radiation oncology.
Twenty-five of the students will begin training at SIU-affiliated programs, including 2 in medicine-preliminary.
The fourth-year students experienced a tumultuous final year in medical school, where social distancing and wearing masks everywhere were the norm, not just in surgery. They watched with vested interest as the U.S. health care system struggled to adapt its defenses against a highly contagious coronavirus.
COVID protocols limited the Class of 2021 Match Day event to a students-only gathering on SIU’s Springfield campus.
“I’m so proud of every one of our medical students as they enter the next phase of their career, post-graduate training in residency and fellowship programs,” said Jerry Kruse, MD, MSPH, SIU Medicine dean and provost. “The unique circumstances they faced underscore the critical roles they have to fill, matching into some excellent training programs. 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, “I am also proud of our students and their matches. I think in this unprecedented year in medicine many students chose to stay closer to home.”
SIU School of Medicine’s Class of 2021 will graduate in May, and they will 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 – Memorial Medical Center and HSHS St. John’s Hospital. Seventy-eight starting positions in Springfield were filled. The first-year residents will join more than 245 senior residents and fellows already in training at SIU programs in Springfield.
Sixteen first-year positions were filled in general and preliminary internal medicine, 10 in family medicine, eight in general pediatrics and four in obstetrics-gynecology. Twenty-three were filled in the eight surgical programs – emergency medicine (8), general surgery (4), neurological surgery (1), orthopedic surgery (3), otolaryngology (2), plastic surgery (2), urology (2), and vascular surgery (1). Seventeen total positions were filled in other specialties: psychiatry (6), radiology (3), dermatology (3), medicine-psychiatry combined (2) and neurology (3).
“The pandemic has reinforced how important our trainees are to our community and our mission,” said Karen Broquet, MD, associate dean for graduate medical education. “Due to the upheaval in health care and travel during the past year, our programs and residency candidates across the country rose to the challenge and seamlessly transitioned to a virtual interviewing process. We’re so pleased with the match outcome. 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 had longstanding affiliated family medicine residency programs in Carbondale, Decatur and Quincy, each three years in length. This year a new residency program in Alton is beginning for six residents. Twenty-three first-year family medicine positions have been filled for next year through the NRMP match. These residents will join 36 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 physician have graduated from its program. For more information, visit www.siumed.edu.
View SIU School of Medicine’s complete Residency Match Results here.
