Technology and traditions collide as WVU medical students learn their residency placements

It’s the first medical student class in West Virginia University’s history to complete their entire fourth year of medical training and residency prep during a pandemic. And, on Friday, March 19, those 122 students learned where they would complete the next three to seven years of their training during National Residency Match Day.

Match Day is an event where medical students learn in which U.S. residency programs they will continue their medical training. For WVU’s School of Medicine’s three campuses: Morgantown, Charleston and Martinsburg, the celebration typically unites students, families, faculty members and friends as they unveil their “match.”

This year, in light of social distancing and other restrictions, the event was virtual allowing all our campuses to be linked and families to join us and celebrate.

“Healthcare is a team sport, and the ability for a class to collaborate and build each other up during this past year has shown what good team players we have in our fourth-year class,” said Clay Marsh, M.D., vice president and executive dean of WVU Health Sciences. “It’s a joy to be able to celebrate this moment, and I look forward to seeing them lead and contribute as they continue their medical training.”

About the Match Process

For students, the Residency Match process begins in the final year of medical school, when they apply to the residency training programs and specialties of their choice. Following interviews at programs across the country, applicants and program directors rank each other in order of preference and submit those lists to the National Resident Matching Program, which processes them using a computerized mathematical algorithm to “match” them.

WVU Stats

Students had a near 100 percent placement rate.  Other stats for WVU’s Match Day include:

• Students placed in 20 different specialty training programs across 23 states.
• 59 percent of students matched in primary care specialties. Internal Medicine and Family Medicine were the top two specialties for the Class.
• 34 percent of the class will remain in West Virginia to complete their residencies.

“We’re fortunate to not only train and prepare medical students for their residency programs, but to attract some of the best and the brightest from across the country to join us at WVU for their graduate medical education,” Norman Ferrari, M.D., vice dean for education and academic affairs and chair of the WVU Department of Medical Education, said.

WVU has the largest number of graduate medical education offerings in the state, with more than 75 specialty training programs. Over one-half of those training programs are the only such specialty programs offered in the entire state.

Residency training begins at WVU in July for residents from medical schools across the country.

View the Match Day site: https://medicine.hsc.wvu.edu/match-day-2021.

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cat 3/19/21

CONTACT:

Cassie Thomas, Director of Marketing and Communications

Cassie.Thomas@hsc.wvu.edu, 304-293-3412