Kathleen Samuels with Alexandra Miller, an M.D./Ph.D. candidate.

Ending one chapter, beginning another

While medical school classes are growing, the number of residency slots isn't. And still, Yalies do well.

The Harkness ballroom erupted with cheers on March 19, as members of the Class of 2009 rushed in to learn where they had been placed for residencies during the annual ritual known as Match Day. In seconds, the mood in the room shifted from anxiety to relief, as the next chapter in students’ lives—and where they would spend the next few years—became clear.

Before the letters were handed out, Joel Green said he was hoping to match to the internal medicine residency program at Northwestern University’s McGaw Medical Center. “I feel pretty good,” he said.

Larry Lo, who had hoped to match in neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital, said he felt “very, very anxious. Extremely anxious. It’s tough, just because neurosurgery is such a competitive specialty, and a larger program like Hopkins only takes a few residents,” he said.

But like many in their class, both Green and Lo received the news they were hoping for: They’d matched with their first-choice programs.

“I’m excited,” Green said after getting the good news. “It was what I expected.”

“I just told my fiancée that my hands are shivering right now,” said Lo after calling her with the good news.

It was a highly competitive year for medical students not just at Yale, but across the country. The National Resident Matching Program, which uses a computer algorithm to pair medical students and residency programs according to their preferences, reported that 2009 set a new record with 29,890 applicants participating, 1,153 more than last year. The challenge, said Associate Dean for Student Affairs Nancy R. Angoff, MPH ’81, M.D. ’90, HS ’93, is that while medical schools are expanding their enrollments, the number of residency slots isn’t growing.

Popular specialties among Yale students this year included plastic surgery, dermatology, radiation oncology, radiology, and ophthalmology.

—Charles Gershman

Match 2009

The Office of Student Affairs has provided the following list, which outlines the results of the National Resident Matching Program for Yale’s medical graduates. Some names appear twice because the graduate is entering a one-year program before beginning a specialty residency. The transitional designation is a one-year program with three-month rotations in different specialties.

ARIZONA
St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, Phoenix
James Park, Neurology

CALIFORNIA
Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles
Tanaz Farzan, Pediatrics

Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, San Francisco
Merritt Evans, Obstetrics and Gynecology

O’Connor Hospital Program, San Jose
Alicia Lee, Family Medicine

Stanford University Programs
Margaret Baumbusch, Obstetrics and Gynecology
Sundeep Bhat, Emergency Medicine
Paul Di Capua, Medicine-Preliminary
Tejaswini More, Internal Medicine

UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles
Janet Abou, Internal Medicine/Primary
Wendy Ciovacco, Emergency Medicine

University of California, San Francisco
Palav Babaria, Internal Medicine/Primary
Sanjay Basu, Internal Medicine/Primary
Adam Frost, Post-Doctoral Scholar
Rachel Wattier, Pediatrics
Sara Whetstone, Obstetrics and Gynecology

University of Southern California, Los Angeles
Jennifer Lee, Ophthalmology

CONNECTICUT
Greenwich Hospital
Nicholas Galante, Medicine-Preliminary
Kylene Halloran, Medicine-Preliminary
Adam Kaye, Medicine-Preliminary
Tracy Wright, Medicine-Preliminary

Hospital of Saint Raphael
Ninani Kombo, Transitional
James Park, Medicine-Preliminary

Yale-New Haven Hospital
Rebecca Bruccoleri, Emergency Medicine
Brittany Craiglow, Medicine/Primary-Preliminary, Dermatology
Caroline Engel, Diagnostic Radiology
Luz Jimenez, Medicine / Pediatrics
Luis Kolb, Neurosurgery
Ninani Kombo, Ophthalmology
Jennifer Lee, Medicine/Primary-Preliminary
Shane Lloyd, Radiation Oncology
Anne Merritt, Emergency Medicine
Anup Patel, Plastic Surgery
Aviva Romm, Internal Medicine/Primary
Kathleen Samuels, Medicine/Primary-Preliminary
Amanda Silverio, Anesthesiology
Natalie Simmons, Medicine-Preliminary, Diagnostic Radiology
Robert Stavert, Dermatology

DISTRICT of COLUMBIA
Howard University Program
Naseem Beauchman, Orthopaedic Surgery

Walter Reed Army Medical Center
Jennifer Sabino, General Surgery

FLORIDA
Dermatology Jackson Memorial Hospital, Miami
Christopher Spock, Transitional

HAWAII
Transitional University of Hawaii, Honolulu
Gene-Fu Liu, Transitional

ILLINOIS
McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University, Chicago
Damien Ellens, Neurosurgery
Joel Green, Internal Medicine
Benjamin Marks, Medicine-Preliminary, Dermatology

Rush University Medical Center, Chicago
Debdut Biswas, Orthopaedic Surgery

St. Francis Hospital, Evanston
Shreya Sood, Medicine-Preliminary

University of Chicago Medical Center, Chicago
Gene-Fu Liu, Radiation Oncology

MARYLAND
Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore
Sheng-fu Lo, Neurosurgery

National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda
Johnathan Bernard, Orthopaedic Surgery

MASSACHUSETTS
Beth Israel Medical Center, Boston
Caroline Engel, Medicine-Preliminary
Stephen Gordon, Internal Medicine
Kylene Halloran, Anesthesiology
Yuen-Jong Liu, Surgery-Preliminary
Jonathan Lu, Internal Medicine
Kudakwashe Mutyambizi, Medicine-Preliminary
Robert Stavert, Medicine-Preliminary

Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston
Ayal Aizer, Medicine-Preliminary, Radiation Oncology
Laura Dichtel, Internal Medicine
Jason Frangos, Medicine-Preliminary
Nicholas Galante, Diagnostic Radiology
Christopher Gibson, Internal Medicine
Eyal Kimchi, Medicine-Preliminary, Neurology
Duncan Smith-Rohrberg Maru, Medicine / Pediatrics
Mallika Mendu, Internal Medicine
Janelle Moulder, Obstetrics and Gynecology
Titilope Oduyebo, Obstetrics and Gynecology
Ami Parekh, Internal Medicine
Shreya Sood, Diagnostic Radiology

Boston University Medical Center
Jason Frangos, Dermatology
Sheela Maru, Obstetrics and Gynecology
Erica Mintzer, Family Medicine

Children’s Hospital of Boston
Seth Rakoff-Nahoum, Pediatrics

Harvard Longwood Program, Boston
Caleb Korngold, Psychiatry

Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
Justin Chen, Psychiatry
Kimberly Gold, Internal Medicine
Sarah Lee, Anesthesiology
Susan Mathai, Internal Medicine
Kudakwashe Mutyambizi, Dermatology
Rajeshvari Patel, Anesthesiology
Amanda Silverio, Medicine-Preliminary
Caroline Sokol, Internal Medicine
Ying Wang, Psychiatry
Rachel Weston, Pediatrics

Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston
Aaron Remenschneider, Otolaryngology

Tufts Medical Center, Boston
Mina Safain, Neurosurgery

NEW YORK
Albert Einstein College/Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx
Samer Fadl, Neurosurgery

Flushing Hospital Medical Center, Flushing
Rajeshvari Patel, Transitional

McKinsey & Company, New York
Oliver Rothschild, Management Consulting

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York
Sarah Milgrom, Transitional, Radiation Oncology
Christopher Spock, Transitional

Mount Sinai Hospital, New York
Steven Abramowitz, Vascular Surgery
James Lee, Internal Medicine
Maya Roberts, Pediatrics/Primary

New York Presbyterian Hospital – Columbia
Arjun Masurkar, Medicine-Preliminary, Neurology
Mary Whitman, Ophthalmology

New York Presbyterian Hospital – Cornell
Heather McCrea, Neurosurgery

New York University School of Medicine
Sarah Lee, Medicine-Preliminary
Rachel Solomon, Internal Medicine/Primary
Mary Whitman, Medicine-Preliminary
Tracy Wright, Ophthalmology

NORTH CAROLINA
Duke University Medical Center, Durham
Carolyn Avery, Medicine / Pediatrics
Lars Grimm, Medicine-Preliminary, Diagnostic Radiology

OREGON
Oregon Health & Science University Program, Portland
Justin Lemieux, General Surgery

PENNSYLVANIA
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Adam Kaye, Diagnostic Radiology
Heather Wachtel, General Surgery

Thomas Jefferson University Program, Philadelphia
Jennifer Voorhees, Family Medicine

TENNESSEE
Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville
Jesse Bible, Orthopaedic Surgery
Rachel Wolfson, Emergency Medicine

TEXAS
Texas A&M College of Medicine, Temple
Michael Martinez, General Surgery

UTAH
University of Utah Affiliated Hospitals, Salt Lake City
Shane Lloyd, Medicine-Preliminary

WASHINGTON
University of Washington Affiliated Hospitals, Seattle
Mary Air, Medicine-Preliminary
Alexander Park, Internal Medicine

Three students have chosen career options other than residency: Veronique Griffith, Postgraduate, Medical Anthropology; Matthew McRae, Plastic Surgery, University of Toronto; and Fabienne Meier-Abt, Internal Medicine/Medical Oncology, University Hospital of Basel (Switzerland).