It seems logical that March Madness coincides with Match Day, the momentous occasion for medical students when they learn whether and which medical residency programs they’ve been matched into for the next three to seven years. The nail-biting “madness” of Match Day this year, March 18, turned into joy when members of the DMU College of Osteopathic Medicine (COM) D.O. Class of 2022 achieved a 100 percent residency placement rate.
DMU’s D.O. Class of 2022’s 100 percent placement rate includes student success across many national match programs, including those who applied for military residencies announced in December, the initial National Residency Matching Program® (NRMP®) match completed on March 14, and the Match Week Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program® (SOAP®) process during the week of March 14-18.
According to the NRMP website, the 2022 Main Residency Match included 39,205 total positions, the largest number on record. U.S. D.O. seniors achieved a 91.3 percent match rate, a 2.2 percentage point increase over last year and a rate on par with the match rate achieved for U.S. MD seniors.
Steven J. Halm, DO, FAAP, FACP, dean of the COM, shared the details of this year’s results with students, faculty and staff on a virtual Zoom celebration. “We are incredibly proud of our soon-to-be graduates and helping them make this next step in their medical careers,” he said.
Robert Good, a 1977 graduate of COM and member of the DMU Alumni Association Board of Directors, ensured the students they are ready for this next step in their careers and lives.
“Just like generations before you, you may not feel ready for that first night of house call. But you will be! I know that you are well prepared,” said Dr. Good, an attending physician and professor at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. “Just as you came to DMU concerned if you could compete with the country’s top universities’ best students, you will now be joining graduating medical students from the U.S. and abroad. You will find that you are prepared.”
Jennifer Beaty, M.D., FACS, FASCRS, COM associate dean for graduate medical education and student advancement, applauded class members with a poem, a la the 1971 Don McLean song, American Pie,” before they logged in to the NRMP site to learn which residency program they matched into:
“You’ll be singin’ bye-bye to your DMU hives
Log in to NRMP to see your matched residency where we know you’ll save lives
And the DO ’22s will be drinkin’ whisky and ryes
Singing this’ll be the day the Match arrives
The moment the Match arrives…
Cheers to the next chapter of your lives!”
By the numbers
The 215 members of the DMU COM Class of 2022 matched into specialties ranging from anesthesiology to orthopedics to urology. Family medicine was the top specialty, with 55 students, followed by internal medicine (37), emergency medicine (27), pediatrics (25) and psychiatry (17).
Residency sites for the Class of 2022 range from California to Florida, with the majority in the Midwest. Iowa “won” the most class members, 36, followed by Michigan with 19; Minnesota and Wisconsin, 17 each; California, 16; and Illinois, 13.