Almost 60 percent of MD Class of 2015 choose Primary Care fields

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Contact:
Tina Shelton, (808) 692-0897
Director of Communications, Office of Dean of Medicine
Posted: Mar 20, 2015

Kyla Teramoto shows her Match message.
Kyla Teramoto shows her Match message.
The MD Class of 2015 after the ceremony.
The MD Class of 2015 after the ceremony.

All 66 of the MD students in the Class of 2015 at the University of Hawai`i John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) are competent enough to proceed into post-graduate medical education programs, or Residency Training, upon graduation in May. They learned today where they will spend the next two to eight years of their lives after opening envelopes containing the confirmations of which programs they will begin their careers as MDs while under the supervision of faculty.

The envelopes were opened nationwide at virtually the same moment (that's a 6:00 a.m. start for Hawai`i), in what is called "Match Day."  "It was an exhilarating moment," said UH medical student Cori Hanagami, a graduate of Punahou School. “I matched at (The University of California at) Davis so I am super excited to be going up (there). I definitely want to come back home though and practice after, but I am glad I got my first choice.”

The "Match" of graduating MD to Residency Program is something the students have worked months for, traveling all over the country to interview at programs, and forming a list of their choices, from top to bottom. For those choosing among the 17 Graduate Medical Education specialties offered in Hawai`i, the difficulty of prepping for interviews was no less grueling.  A computer, overseen by the National Resident Matching Program, does linking of hopeful applicant with the institution that accepted him or her.

Thirty-five men and 31 women are in the JABSOM Fourth-year Class, where the total MD student body numbers 264. The Class of 2015 matched into programs in states including Hawai`i, California, New York, Texas, Massachusetts, Washington State, Arizona, Illinois and Minnesota.

In this year in which U.S. News & World Report named JABSOM the #19 school in the country for its Primary Care program, 58% of class matched into the Primary Care fields, which include Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Family Medicine, OB/GYN, Emergency Medicine, and Geriatric Medicine.

"I am going to the University of Arizona in Tucson. Do the program there. Hopefully do maybe a fellowship and then come back to Hawai`i," said Steven Gonsalves, a graduate of Maui High.  “I would definitely consider going back to Maui and practicing, just because there is a need for specialties out on the neighbor islands.”

Said Thomas Gill, a graduate of Punahou School, “I am going to Boston Medical Center for my emergency medicine residency and, as soon as I am done, I will be back here and hopefully working at The Queen’s Medical Center."

The Class of 2015 will be training on the job in Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, Obstetrics & Gynecology (OB-GYN), Pediatrics, General Surgery, Orthopedic Surgery, Plastic Surgery, Neurosurgery, Vascular Surgery, Emergency Medicine, Anesthesiology, Dermatology, Radiology, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Pediatric Neurology, Pathology, Psychiatry and Transitional Year, a one-year program that prepares them for additional training in certain specialties.

See a video of the "Match Moment" at https://vimeo.com/122797920.

For more information, visit: http://jabsom.hawaii.edu