COVID

March 25, 2020

School of Medicine students take part in virtual Match Day

Match Day — and Vanderbilt’s longstanding tradition of gathering fourth-year medical students, their families, friends and faculty together to celebrate — was revamped to accommodate the social distancing measures that have been put in place to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Donald Brady, MD, and Amy Fleming, MD, hosted last Friday’s virtual Match Day, where fourth-year Vanderbilt University School of Medicine students learned where they will do their residencies.
Donald Brady, MD, and Amy Fleming, MD, hosted last Friday’s virtual Match Day, where fourth-year Vanderbilt University School of Medicine students learned where they will do their residencies. (photo by Erin O. Smith)

by Kathy Whitney

Match Day — and Vanderbilt’s longstanding tradition of gathering fourth-year medical students, their families, friends and faculty together to celebrate — was revamped to accommodate the social distancing measures that have been put in place to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Match Day is the crowning moment of the National Resident Match Program, which matches thousands of medical students with residency programs at medical centers and hospitals across the country. On March 20, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine’s Match Day ceremony took place via livestream.

Deviating from tradition, the students opened their emails rather than envelopes and stayed home instead of gathering as a class in Langford Auditorium. But, some elements of the ceremony remained the same. Donald Brady, MD, Senior Associate Dean of Health Sciences, and Amy Fleming, MD, MHPE, Associate Dean for Medical Student Affairs, who were positioned in 208 Light Hall, kicked off the ceremony on a livestream video by reading welcomes and congratulations sent in from faculty and staff.

During virtual Match Day, Aaron Azose learned he will do his residency in internal medicine at UCLA Medical Center Olive View in California.
During virtual Match Day, Aaron Azose learned he will do his residency in internal medicine at UCLA Medical Center Olive View in California.

Fleming randomly called student names and then one by one, each student virtually revealed where he or she had matched. Brady and Fleming called out the Matches explaining where and in what field students would pursue training. A pin was placed on the U.S. map documenting each student’s residency placement.

“This is clearly an unusual year. Celebrating Match as a large group is inconsistent with current safety practices. As stresses and strains on our health care community continue to rise, it is important for us to find moments of normalcy and celebration,” Fleming said. “We wanted everyone to share in the success of our students because our Vanderbilt community is the foundation of why our students are so successful. Our students have matched into top training programs across the U.S. It was wonderful to celebrate their incredible achievements.”

This year, 20% of the graduates will stay at Vanderbilt for residency or internship. And almost 40% of the women who graduated are matched to surgical specialties. Seven couples participated in a “couples match,” including Shaunak Amin and Nicole Bakhoum.

Amin and Bakhoum met during VUSM’s orientation week. They were both placed in the same advisory college — Batson — became best friends and started dating during their first year of medical school.

Amin matched into otolaryngology and Bakhoum matched into emergency medicine at the University of Washington Affiliate Hospitals.

“While it is unfortunate that a formal Match Day ceremony couldn’t occur due to the present circumstances, and we were unable to celebrate in person with our classmates and families, we were still very excited for the Match. We greatly appreciate all the efforts made by our deans to keep the spirit of Match Day alive through a virtual ceremony along with the age-old tradition of putting a dollar into a fishbowl for whoever is the last name called,” Amin said.

“Vanderbilt has been an amazing place for us both to grow as future leaders in medicine. The school is truly committed to its students and we have fostered an incredibly collegial and welcoming environment among its faculty and students,” Bakhoum said.

“Our small class size has created a very tightknit class and our classmates will be among our closest friends for life. We both love our curriculum, which has allowed us early clinical experiences in order to find the specialties that were right for us.”

Of the 81 students matching into residency programs, 15 students matched to internal medicine residencies; 29 students matched into surgical residencies. All told, 2 each matched into neurosurgery, psychiatry, dermatology and OB-GYN; 5 each into ophthalmology and otolaryngology; 4 each into family medicine, orthopaedic surgery, plastic surgery, urology, diagnostic radiology and emergency medicine; 8 into pediatrics; 3 each into general surgery, neurology, anesthesiology and radiation oncology; and 1 each into interventional radiology and pathology.

Nathaniel Yohannes matched into diagnostic radiology at NYP Hosp-Weill Cornell Med Center-New York.

“I feel the accommodations for Match Day were very thoughtful, and I’m super grateful for everything that the staff did to make the day special in light of the recent pandemic,” he said.

“I’ve loved being at Vanderbilt the past four years. I’ve grown more in these four years than I could have ever imagined. I’ve created lifelong friends and will always look back on my time in medical school in a positive light thanks to my classmates and the wonderful staff I had the opportunity to work with. I wouldn’t trade my experience for the world.”

 

Match Day list 2020

Shaunak Amin – U. of Washington Affiliated Hospitals, Otolaryngology

Joshua Anderson – Emory U., Radiation Oncology

Victoria Anderson – Emory U., Family Medicine

Aaron Azose – UCLA Medical Center Olive View, Internal Medicine

Nicole Bakhoum – U. of Washington Affiliated Hospitals, Emergency Medicine

Justin Banerdt – Yale-New Haven Hospital, Internal Medicine/Physician Scientist

Lauren Barr – Greater Lawrence Family Health Center, Family Medicine

Shawn Barton – Emory U., Neurology

Joshua Bland – U. of Tennessee Chattanooga, Pediatrics

Kendrick Campbell – Duke U. Medical Center, Urology

Rohini Chakravarthy – Johns Hopkins Hospital, Internal Medicine/Urban Health

Leah Chisholm – VUMC, Urology

Elise Clemens – U. of North Carolina Hospitals, Anesthesiology

Jonathan Dallas – U. of Southern California, Neurological Surgery

Jeremiah Dallmer – Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Urology

Sabina Dang – Barnes-Jewish Hospital, Otolaryngology

Joshua Daryoush – U. of Utah Health, Orthopaedic Surgery

Russell Day – VUMC, Surgery-Preliminary/Ophthalmology

Rebekka DePew – West Suburban Medical Center, Neurology

Rachel Do – U. of North Carolina Hospitals, Neurology

Molly Eckman – UPMC Medical Education, OB-GYN

Shervin Etemad – U. of Southern California, Plastic Surgery

Benjamin Facer – U. of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Transitional; Ohio State University Medical Center, Radiation Oncology

Sarah Fitzlaff – VUMC, Pathology

Kari Fossum – VUMC, Surgery-Preliminary/Ophthalmology

Kate Frost – Brigham & Women’s Hospital,   Anesthesiology

Christian Gerhart – Barnes-Jewish Hospital, Emergency Medicine

Joseph Gibian – Barnes-Jewish Hospital, Orthopaedic Surgery

Kevin Graepel – St. Louis Children’s Hospital, Pediatrics

Stephanie Hadley – Children’s Hospital of Boston, Pediatrics

Rachana Haliyur – U. of Michigan Hospitals Ann Arbor, Medicine-Preliminary/Ophthalmology

Eriny Hanna – VUMC, Emergency Medicine

Nicholas Harris – UPMC Medical Education, Pediatrics/Scientist Development

Jennifer Haydek – MedStar Georgetown U. Hospital, Internal Medicine

Merla Hubler – U. of Tennessee Chattanooga, Pediatrics

Kianna Jackson – VUMC, Plastic Surgery

Elishama Kanu – Duke U. Medical Center, General Surgery

Suraj Kapoor – Brookwood Baptist Health, Transitional; Barnes-Jewish Hospital, Radiology-Diagnostic

Ariel Kniss – VUMC, Surgery-Preliminary; Massachusetts General Hospital, Radiology-Diagnostic

Jonathan Knowlton – Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Pediatrics

Katherine Konvinse – Stanford U., Pediatrics/Research Track

Danielle Kubicki – Barnes-Jewish Hospital, Medicine-Primary

Andrew Kuhn – Barnes-Jewish Hospital, Orthopaedic Surgery

Emily Long – BI Deaconess Medical Center, Plastic Surgery

Anne Lowery – Hospital of the U. of Pennsylvania, Otolaryngology

Jennifer Marvin-Peek – VUMC, Internal Medicine

Lauren Matevish – U. of Texas Southwestern, General Surgery

Varun Menon – Fort Belvoir Community Hospital, Family Medicine

Megan Mitchell – Harvard Medical School, Otolaryngology

Emily Moore – Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Medicine-Primary/DGM

Pritha Multani – UC Davis Medical Center, Pediatrics

Kevin Neuzil – U. of North Carolina Hospitals, Urology

Nkechi Nwabueze – VUMC, Surgery-Preliminary/Ophthalmology

Didi Odinkemelu – Hospital of the U. of Pennsylvania, Anesthesiology

Kinsley Ojukwu – VUMC, Internal Medicine

Shan Parikh – Yale-New Haven Hospital, Internal Medicine/Physician Scientist

Sydney Payne – Presence Resurrection Medical Center, Transitional; Stanford U., Radiology-Diagnostic

Rand Pope – VUMC, Surgery-Preliminary

Matthew Puccetti – Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Medicine-Preliminary/Neurology

Christopher Puchi – Northwestern McGaw, Otolaryngology

Henry Quach – VUMC, Medicine-Preliminary; U. of Cincinnati Medical Center, Dermatology

Gautam Rangavajla – UPMC Medical Education, Internal Medicine

Kaitlyn Reasoner – VUMC, Internal Medicine

Vincent Riccelli – U. of Texas Southwestern, Plastic Surgery

Meredith Rogers – St. Thomas Hospitals, Medicine-Preliminary; U. of Texas Southwestern, Dermatology

Olivia Roman – Barnes-Jewish Hospital, Emergency Medicine

Alexander Sherry – WellStar Kennestone Regional Medical Center, Transitional; U. of Texas MD Anderson, Radiation Oncology

Clark Stallings – UPMC Medical Education, Internal Medicine

David Suh – U. of North Carolina Hospitals, Psychiatry

Alexandra Sundermann – Duke U. Medical Center, OB-GYN

Joshua Thompson – VUMC, General Surgery

Alex Tinianow – Barnes-Jewish Hospital Internal Medicine

Samuel Trump – U. of Chicago Medical Center, Internal Medicine

Matthew Villaume – VUMC, Internal Medicine/ABIM Research Path

Jessica Wen – Stanford U., Surgery-Preliminary; Interventional Radiology

Whittney Wiley – Cambridge Health Alliance, Psychiatry

Daniel Wolfson – Rush U. Medical Center, Neurological Surgery

Colby Wollenman – VUMC, Orthopaedic Surgery

Nathaniel Yohannes – Kettering Health Network, Transitional; Weill Cornell Medical Center, Radiology-Diagnostic

Yuxi Zheng – Duke U. Medical Center, Medicin-Preliminary/Ophthalmology

Nicholas Zingas – Wright State U., Internal Medicine