Match Day Archives - USF Health News

Finding the perfect Match; USF Health senior medical students are residency-bound

Fredrick J. Coleman — Fri, 18 Mar 2022 18:44:31 +0000

Click here for Match Day 2022 results.

Across the country, senior medical students learned where they will spend their residencies during Match Day 2022, including those from USF Health. Photo courtesy of Ben Eytalis.

It was a day of excitement, disbelief, and tears of happiness as, one by one, senior medical students from the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine opened envelopes during Match Day 2022 to reveal where they will spend their residency years.

Match Day is held simultaneously at all medical schools across the country to reveal where senior medical students will spend their residencies, the next step in their medical education – which can last from three to seven years depending on the specialty.

No medical school in the country celebrates Match Day like MCOM. Friends, families, and even a few pets gathered at Ulele, a downtown Tampa restaurant on the Hillsborough River. This year’s theme took on a science fiction twist “To Residency and Beyond.” The event was live-streamed for those who wanted to celebrate the momentous occasion with the class of 2022.

Charles Lockwood, MD, MHCM, USF Health senior vice president and Morsani College of Medicine dean, is in the spirit of this year’s Match Day Theme “To Residency and Beyond.”

Kicking off the program was Charles Lockwood, MD, senior vice president for USF Health and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine.

“Match is one of my favorite events all year because each of you get to see, firsthand, the reward of your hard work over the past four years,” Dr. Lockwood said. “Wherever residency takes you, please know that you will always have a home with us at MCOM. The same qualities that allowed you to succeed here will carry you through in your career. I could not be more excited for you as you take this pivotal next step in your career.”

The national match process is handled through the National Residency Match Program (NRMP). In the months leading up to Match Day, students apply and interview for residency slots with institutions across the country, and then rank their preferences. Match Day, which begins at noon (ET), is when students learn which residency programs chose them and where they will train for the next three to seven years.

Rachel Patten’s reaction when she learned that she will spend her residency years in Denver.

For this year’s Match Day, the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine Class of 2022 includes 163 senior students, of which 52 are in the SELECT MD program, who have spent the past two years in clinical rotations in Allentown, PA. Many of the medical students in the SELECT program celebrated in Allentown.

Match Day Stats: From the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine Class of 2022: 163 students matched; 35 are staying at USF; 74 are staying in Florida; and 64 students chose primary care as their specialty (internal medicine, family medicine, and pediatrics). Five students move on to care for the country’s service members as military doctors.

Frank Lee learned he got his first choice of matches and he is headed to Rochester, Minn. for his residency years.

This year’s National Residency Matching Program included 47,675 applicants competing for 39,205 positions available. Click here for more details about the nationwide Match from the NRMP. http://www.nrmp.org/

Additional Photos:

Jhulianna Vivar was the last to receive her letter. In the tradition of MCOM Match Day, she receives a money jar in which everyone who received their letters before her donated.

Alicia Darwin couldn’t contain the excitement or the tears of joy when she learned she will spend her residency years at Stanford University.

Drake Scott, SELECT student, is headed to Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, for residency.

Story by Freddie Coleman

Video by Allison Long

Photos by Ryan Rossy

USF Health senior medical students match to residencies

Sarah Worth — Fri, 19 Mar 2021 22:03:55 +0000

Click here for Match Day 2021 results.

About 170 senior medical students from the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine were successfully matched today and learned where they will spend their residency training after graduation from medical school in May.

After a cancellation last year due to COVID-19, this year’s Match Day for USF Health students returned to a format more like those in years past, with mostly in-person presentations of sealed envelopes and students announcing and celebrating their matches with classmates. This hybrid approach included some students streaming in virtually to share their matches with classmates.

At the in-person event, held outdoors at the downtown Tampa restaurant Ulele, public health measures were followed: the senior medical students remained socially distant, wore masks and, as health care providers in training with direct patient interaction, had already been vaccinated against COVID-19.

But some traditions remained on pause, like including friends and family at the event. To help keep them connected, the event was live-streamed so relations across the globe could see matches unfold.

Kicking of the program was U.S. Representative Kathy Castor, who offered good wishes in a prerecorded message shown to all in attendance and across the live-stream.

“From Washington DC, a big shout out and congratulations to everyone who is matching today,” Rep. Castor said. “Congratulations USF College of Medicine and all the fantastic folks who are on the way to their residencies. I know how important it is to have residency slots across the state of Florida. We’re behind. So, wherever you match, just know we want you to return to the Tampa Bay area, return to the state of Florida to practice medicine and serve your neighbors. And you can count on me here in Congress to work to expand the number of residency slots so future graduates can match and serve in the state of Florida. Go Bulls!”

Then came in-person congratulations from Charles Lockwood, MD, senior vice president for USF Health and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine.

“It’s incredibly thrilling to me to be at this live event,” Dr. Lockwood said. “You’re an amazing group of people who have put up with a year that is unlike any in our history. I thank you for your patience, your tenacity, and your grit. This was an incredibly complex year, from an educational standpoint, and was emotionally draining on all of us. We’re all a little better, as physicians, for it. We dealt with a planetary pandemic, the likes of which we haven’t seen for over a hundred years, and came through it, particularly this state, incredibly well. We’re not done yet, but we’re close. So, it’s great to see you off to your residencies and the next phase of your careers. Congratulations, thank you all, and good luck.”

And then the matches began!

This year’s NRMP’s main match was the largest in NRMP history: a record-high 48,700 applicants submitted program choices for 38,106 positions, an increase of 3,741 (8.3%) applicants over 2020 (the largest single-year bump in recorded history).

For this year’s Match Day, the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine Class of 2021 includes 171 senior students, of which 46 are in the SELECT MD program, who have spent the past two years in clinical rotations in Allentown, PA.

Stats: From the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine Class of 2021: 171 students matched; 37 students (22%) are staying at USF; 79 (46%) are staying in Florida; and 57 students (33%) chose primary care as their specialty (internal medicine, family medicine, and pediatrics). Click here for more details about the nationwide Match from the National Residency Match Program.

Photos by Allison Long, video by Torie Doll, USF Health Communications and Marketing

Another beautiful Match Day!

Sarah Worth — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 22:28:56 +0000

Senior medical students at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine learned where they will spend their residencies on national Match Day

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Click here for Match Day 2018 results.

The lawn outside Ulele restaurant along the banks of Hillsborough River was packed March 16, as senior medical students from the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine (MCOM) gathered with friends and family to learn where they will spend their residency training after graduating from medical school next month.

Called Match Day, the annual event is held at all medical schools across the country to reveal where senior medical students will spend their residencies, the next step in their medical education – which can last from three to seven years, depending on the specialty. The match process is handled through the National Residency Match Program (NRMP). Match Day, which follows several months of students applying for, interviewing for, and ranking their preferred residency programs, is when students learn which residency programs chose them. This year’s NRMP main match was the largest in history: a record-high 37,103 applicants submitted program choices for 33,167 positions, the most ever offered in the Match.

For USF MCOM, festivities began with a welcome and good luck from USF System President Judy Genshaft.

“This has always been the most joyous event,” Genshaft said. “Best wishes, good luck and congratulations.”

USF System President Judy Genshaft, center, with Dr. Charles Lockwood, senior vice president for USF Health and Morsani College of Medicine dean, and Dr. Kira Zwygart, MCOM associate dean for student affairs.

Up next was MCOM Dr. Charles J. Lockwood, MD, MHCM, senior vice president for USF Health and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine, thanking the USF Board of Trustees, MCOM Alumni Society members, and donors who attended the event, including Dr. David Vesley and Helen Vasiloudes.

Turning to the students, Dr. Lockwood said “We have all been working on this day for the last four years, but especially our students. All of you senior medical students from the Class of 2018 have worked very hard to get here.”

Then, at high noon, the first envelope was drawn, going to Carrie Ryan, who matched to a general surgery residency at the University of Buffalo School of Medicine.

The first match! Carrie Ryan.

For this year’s Match Day, the Class of 2018 includes 158 MCOM students, of which 48 are in the SELECT MD program and have spent the past two years doing their clinical rotations in Allentown, PA.

More of the Class of 2018: USF Health students in the SELECT MD program matched in Allentown, PA.

In addition, five students participated in military matches. As happens in military matches, these students already learned where they will be conducting their residencies, but joined in the celebration with their classmates at Match Day.

Names continued to be announced by Kira Zwygart, MD, associate dean for MCOM Office of Student Affairs. One by one, senior students came forward to accept an envelope, open it, and discover their futures.

Each medical school has its own tradition for releasing the match information: some simply hand out envelopes and students open them en masse. The USF Health Morsani College of Medicine has a long-standing tradition for handing out envelopes one at a time, in random order, and allowing each student to open and announce to their classmates where he or she is headed. The additional attention to each student and the additional time for sharing their news creates a festive atmosphere that, over the years, has offered generations of USF students an opportunity to savor the moment that defines their future.

Another MCOM tradition: each student places a dollar into a box and, because the student names are called in random order, the final envelope holder gets the cash. This year, the final call went to a couple: Sarah Rawi and Alec Freling. Both are going to the University of Connecticut School of Medicine; Rawi matched in an internal medicine residency and Freling will be in emergency medicine.

And the money goes to a couples match… Sarah Rawi and Alec Freling.

Then the crowd of newly matched students gathered together for what might be their last photo as a class. Everyone cheered in unison, thrilled to have matched.

The MCOM Class of 2018 shows their USF Bulls pride.

Stats: From the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine: 158 students matched; 34 students (21.5%) are staying at USF; 70 (44.3%) are staying in Florida; and 59 students (37.3%) chose primary care as their specialty (internal medicine, family medicine, and pediatrics). Click here for more details about the nationwide Match from the National Residency Match Program.

Match Day defines the future for students

Yohan Perera always knew he wanted to travel internationally to care for the underserved. In choosing a specialty for his career, Perera felt it was family medicine that offered the most opportunities to meet that goal.

“I have always felt a strong calling to serve internationally and family medicine will allow me a lot of flexibility to do that,” Perera said. “I wanted to be well prepared to meet the challenges of international medicine. I love surgery, obstetrics, pediatrics and internal medicine, and it is family medicine that does all of those, plus has the international opportunities I’m seeking.”

California bound: Yohan Perera and his wife Jessica celebrate his match to a residency in family medicine in Ventura, California.

To bolster his drive for serving, Perera started his tenure at MCOM by volunteering at the BRIDGE Healthcare Clinic, which treats a medically underserved population near the USF campus. The effort made a lasting impact: he was executive director for a year, helped apply for and get a $38,000 grant from Florida Association of Free and Charitable Clinics, helped coordinate the addition of a cardiology night at BRIDGE clinics to offer much-needed ultrasound and EKG screenings, and helped expand counseling services, too.

“It’s been awesome to gain this experience,” he said. “In addition to helping an underserved population, I gained invaluable organizational leadership experience.”

Perera said it is MCOM that really provided the strong education he will need in the years ahead. When looking at medical schools, USF Health’s medical school stood out for offering better clinical experiences to their students than other programs, he said.

“Medical schools have pretty much the same first two years for a curriculum,” he said. “It’s the third and fourth year that really make you a doctor, and USF offers the breadth of clinical experience, opportunities and expertise I’ll use my entire life.”

Perera matched in family medicine at Ventura County Medical Center in Ventura, California.

***

Chelsea Wilson saw firsthand the intensity of the emergency room, and she knew she wanted to work in the middle of it.

After spending five years as a physician assistant, nearly two of which was in an ER, she realized that she wanted the increased responsibility of being a physician.

“I love the diversity of conditions and care requirements that come into an emergency room, the diagnostic work that is always from scratch with each new patient, building from the ground up every time – it’s like a puzzle,” she said.

With her parents, Kira and Ron, Chelsea Wilson learns she’s headed to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, NC.

Wilson’s drive fits well with that specialty, and has always pushed her to stay ahead of her peers. She was homeschooled and dual enrolled in college classes, finishing more than two years of college before graduating high school. Then she went on to the University of Florida for a master’s degree as a physician assistant – graduating as a PA at age 22!

While at MCOM, Wilson created a workshop as her capstone project that is designed to teach senior students about finances, loan repayment and saving for retirement.

“My personal goal for the project is to get people to save during their residencies and make responsible financial decisions that will set them up for the future,” she said. “If we keep living like a resident, even for two years, once we become an attending physician, it will make a huge difference in the long term.”

Additionally, saving during residency, she said, means they can contribute to their Roth IRAs while their income still qualifies them. She emphasizes the point by showing how it pays off in the long run through the power of compounding interest.

“This kind of information is lacking for graduating students, especial physicians who already start saving years after their peers due to the length of medical school and residency,” she said.

Wilson, the first in her family to become a physician, hoped to be matched at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, NC. And she did, in emergency medicine.

***

Mark Schattschneider is not your typical senior medical student. He is 39 years old, worked as a registered nurse, and has five children.

But those atypical experiences are really what prepared him to become a physician.

Schattschneider never thought about medical school while growing up. And not in college or in his early career, either. The decision to become a doctor came while he was already in a career and well down the road for building a family. A job as a patient transporter at Moffitt Cancer Center gave Schattschneider his first look at the medical field. That led to training as a nurse aide, then to becoming a registered nurse, a role he had for nine years.

“I was working in the intensive care unit and loving it, but I knew I wanted to do more, to have a wider responsibility for my patients,” he said. “Going to medical school would be a huge time commitment and, like many, I wondered about my academic confidence.”

Mark Schattschneider announces to his family and the world that they are staying in Florida — he matched to an emergency medicine residency at Orlando Health.

Then, while on a medical mission to the Dominican Republic, Schattschneider talked with some of the doctors.

“They all gave me great insight into what the career is like,” he said. “And while chatting with a surgeon, for every excuse or obstacle I said was in my way, he told me he had said the same things, and that nothing was really standing in my way. He told me that, if I feel a calling, I have to go for it.”

But it would take seven more years before he actually started medical school. Work and family stretched the effort but in 2014, at age 35 and with five children, he stood with his classmates on the first day of medical school at USF Health.

Four years later, he is matching to his residency.

Schattschneider fulfilled his hopes – he is staying in Florida in an emergency medicine residency at Orlando Health.

***

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Communications team supporting Match Day 2018: Anne DeLotto Baier, Freddie Coleman, Torie Doll, Shelby Kaplan, Tina Meketa, Ryan Noone, Elizabeth Peacock, Sandra Roa, Sarah Worth, Michelle Young, Eric Younghans.

Lucky match! USF senior medical students learn where they will spend their residencies [video]

Sarah Worth — Fri, 17 Mar 2017 21:51:03 +0000

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Click here for Match Day 2017 results.

Click here for more photos in Flickr

Clear skies, the Hillsborough River and the downtown Tampa skyline helped set the stage for this year’s USF Match Day, held March 17. The open grass yard behind the local restaurant Ulele was filled with senior medical students from the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine (MCOM) as they gathered for Match Day, the annual ritual of finding out where they will spend their residency training after graduating from medical school next month.

The celebratory vibe had a glimmer of green this year – spring green, USF green and St. Patrick’s Day green – with students and family members also wearing specially designed shirts that helped raise $2,500 toward MCOM scholarships. Working with USF’s creative design team, the medical students designed this year’s shirt to reflect St. Patrick’s Day, using the phrase Luck o’ the Match!

The USF MCOM Class of 2017 includes 162 students who matched with residency programs. On Match Day, senior medical students across the country learn where they will spend their residencies, the next step in their medical education, which can last from three to seven years depending upon the specialty pursued. The big reveal follows several months of applying for and interviewing at residency programs and ranking their picks within a formal match through the National Residency Match Program (NRMP).

It is on Match Day that all U.S. medical students find out which programs chose them. The news is available at the same time across the country – at high noon on the east coast and at 6:00 a.m. in Hawaii. This year, the NRMP’s main match was the largest on record.

At Ulele, the festivities began with a surprise visit by City of Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn, offering encouraging words to the senior medical students.

“All of us are very proud of what you have done and how you have gotten to this point,” Mayor Buckhorn said. “But more importantly, what I want you to know is that, whether you match at USF or whether you go on to some other great university or medical school in this country, I want you to do one thing for me: I want you to come back to Tampa when you’re done. I think you’ve seen we’re building an amazing city for you. This is that place in America where the best and the brightest want to be. We want you to come home here. We want you to become part of our community. You are part of us. Good luck to all of you. Go Bulls! and Go Tampa!”

Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn joined the Match Day festivities with Dr. Charles Lockwood and Dr. Kira Zwygart.

Taking the stage next was Charles J. Lockwood, MD, MHCM, senior vice president for USF Health and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine.

“I want to thank our mayor, probably the biggest supporter of this medical school and its relocation downtown on the waterfront with the Heart Institute,” Dr. Lockwood said.

“And I especially want to thank the support system of our graduates, the family members here, and a big hand for all of them.

“If you are feeling the same level of nervous energy that I did – I won’t mention how many years ago – I can only imagine what’s going through your minds,” he continued. “You’re going to be great doctors. Just keep in mind to put the patient first every day, and you’ll have a successful career and outstanding professional life.”

At noon, Mayor Buckhorn announced the first match and presented an envelope to Jewel Brown, who matched to an obstetrics and gynecology residency at USF.

First envelope for USF Match Day goes to Jewel Brown, who will be doing her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at USF Health Morsani College of Medicine.

This year’s group includes 50 students in the SELECT MD program at MCOM, who spent the past two years in clinical rotations in Allentown, PA. Ten of the 50 returned to Tampa to open their envelopes at Ulele.

USF Health SELECT students in Allentown, PA. Photo courtesy of LVHN.

The Class of 2017 also includes seven students matching through the U.S. military, the largest group in MCOM’s history. As happens in military matches, these students already learned where they’re conducting their residencies, but join their classmates at Match Day as part of the Class of 2017.

Although the lawn of Ulele was full of students and their friends and family, anyone who couldn’t make it to the venue could catch all the action via the live UStream, giving access across the world as each student learns where they will spend the next few years of their medical training as physician residents.

As MCOM tradition goes, each student places a dollar into a box – this year a ‘pot-o-gold’ to stay with the St. Patrick’s Day theme – and, because the student names are called in random order, the final envelope holder gets the cash. This year that winning student was Jennifer Carrion who matched in family medicine residency at Florida State University Lee Memorial in Fort Myers, FL.

Jennifer Carrion collects her prize — the Match Pot-o-Gold filled with cash — with help from family and friends.

Then the crowd of newly matched students gathered together for what might be their last photo as a class. Everyone cheered in unison, thrilled to have matched.

Stats: From the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine: 162 students matched; 37 students (23%) are staying at USF; 70 (43%) are staying in Florida; and 56 students (35%) chose primary care as their specialty (internal medicine, family medicine, and pediatrics). Click here for more details about the nationwide Match from the National Residency Match Program.

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For many students, Match Day is a defining moment

Student narratives by Rachel Pleasant

They find out where they will launch their careers. For some, Match Day continues paths of determination. Here are some of their stories.

***

For Mayssan Muftah, becoming a doctor means being able to help rebuild her patients’ health — while also breaking traditions and stereotypes.

“I had a patient tell me once that I had totally changed his ideas of what Muslims are like,” said Muftah, 23, a Syrian-American who lives in Tampa. “I like breaking down people’s ideas of what a woman in a head scarf should be doing.”

Muftah, a third-generation physician, will specialize in gastroenterology, just like her father and grandfather, but in many other ways, she is forging her own path.

“In the Arab culture, not very many women become doctors. They might go to medical school — my grandmother did — but they rarely go into practice,” Muftah said.

Muftah is intent on having a career and a family. This spring, she will marry her finance, Ammar Nassri, an internal medicine resident who starts his fellowship this summer. Because of their impending nuptials, Nassri was unable to attend Match Day. Muftah chose to open her envelope privately a few moments before the match ceremony commenced, so that she could share the news with Nassri via a FaceTime call.

While her fiancé finishes his gastroenterology fellowship, Mayssan will be doing her internal medicine residency. Her future plans include finding a balance between her career and being a mother. She wants to show young Muslim women that they can pursue their dreams and not to give into stereotypes.

Mayssan Muftah shares the good news of her residency match in internal medicine at Emory University School of Medicine with her fiance via FaceTime.

“If you want something, you have to go for it,” she said. “You can’t let anyone stop you. You can be everything — and it’s worth it,” she said.

Unlike her father and grandfather who work in private practice, Muftah plans to practice in an academic setting. There, she will encounter patients from all walks of life, and in all likelihood, certain prejudices, too. Muftah is undeterred.

“I can break down misconceptions about the Muslim faith,” she said, “and change ideas about what someone like me should be like.”

Muftah matched in internal medicine at Emory University in Atlanta.

***

Like most children, SeQuoya Killebrew and her two siblings made frequent visits to their pediatrician’s office as they were growing up, and with every runny nose and fever, she became more certain that one day, she too would become a doctor.

“I really admired my pediatrician,” said Killebrew, 26. “My parents trusted her wholeheartedly to care for their children, to help them and to look out for their best interests.”

The goal of becoming a pediatrician sustained Killebrew for years, throughout high school, undergraduate studies at Florida A&M University, where she earned a degree in biology, and her first two years of medical school.

SeQuoya Killebrew announces that she will be doing her residency in internal medicine at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville.

In her third year, her first clinical rotation just happened to be in internal medicine, and soon, Killebrew was rethinking her professional aspirations.

“I realized I really like internal medicine. It’s a challenging field. You have to study all the time. You can’t be complacent,” Killebrew said.

Later that year, during her pediatrics rotation, Killebrew made her decision. She would become a hospital-based internist rather than a pediatrician.

“I realized that kids aren’t fun when they’re sick, and when they’re better and more fun, it’s time to send them home,” she said. “I like the dynamic of working with adult patients.”

Killebrew aims to work in a hospital setting because of the impact she’ll be able to make on patients when they’re at their sickest.

“When your patients are in the hospital, there is something seriously wrong. I’ll be able to be their advocate, to sit down with them, hear their stories, coordinate their tests, make sure everything gets done, and then send them home healthier and with the tools to live a better life,” she said.

Though she will be treating adults rather than children, Killebrew will still strive to emulate the compassionate care her pediatrician delivered each time she and her brother and sister had a stomachache or needed an immunization.

“People trust you wholeheartedly to take care of them. You’re a counselor and a confidant, as well as a doctor,” she said.

Killebrew hopes to be matched with the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville. And she did, in internal medicine.

***

As the son of a beloved USF Health faculty member, one might think Sam Slone is merely following his father’s footsteps into medicine.

Not so, said Slone, who like his father, Frederick Slone, MD, will specialize in gastroenterology.

“I was always good in math and science. I wanted to use that to help people at the same time. By the time I was in middle school, I had decided that I would become a doctor, too,” said Slone, 26.

In fact, it wasn’t until his son was applying to college that he heard him say he wanted to become a physician, Dr. Slone said.

Dr. Fred Slone and son Sam Slone, who will be staying at USF for an internal medicine residency. Sam plans to specialize in gastroenterology.

During his clinical rotations, Slone explored a variety of specialties, but gastroenterology “just felt right.”

“You have to do something you like. With gastroenterology, I’ll see inpatients and outpatients. I can specialize, but also provide a wide range of services. It’s the area in which I feel I can have the biggest impact for patients,” Slone said.

During medical school, Slone participated in research involving the use of fecal microbiota transplants to treat autism, taught Basic Life Support to members of the public and volunteered with Tampa Bay Street Medicine, an organization that serves Tampa’s homeless population.

All the while, Slone felt his confidence as a medical provider growing.

“At the beginning of medical school, you think, ‘There is no possible way I can learn everything I need to,’ but little by little, you do, and then you realize, ‘I can do this,’ ” he said.

After he graduated from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 1978, Dr. Slone matched to the University of South Florida for his residency. Like the vast majority of medical school residents, Tampa is where he stayed after his graduate education, building a life in tandem with his practice.

The younger Slone was born and raised in Tampa, graduating from Jesuit High School. He completed his undergraduate degree in biochemistry at the University of Florida — to have the away-from-home college experience — but after graduating in 2013, came right back to Tampa for medical school. This is where he hopes to stay; he ranked USF as his top residency location.

Regardless of where his career takes him, Slone is eager to begin his life’s work — and his dad is eager to watch his son make a name for himself.

“This is one of the proudest moments of my life, to see him achieve this goal,” Dr. Slone said. “Whatever he sets his mind on doing, he will do the work it takes to not only do it, but to excel.”

Slone fulfilled his hopes – he is staying in Tampa in an internal medicine residency at USF.

***

He won’t be there to cheer them on as they open their envelopes.

He can’t wrap them in congratulatory hugs after they cross the stage.

But somehow, Sean and Shaara Argo hope, their dad will be watching this Match Day, and he’ll be proud.

“I’m sure he will be,” said Shaara, 26, of Don Argo, who died of cancer in 2008.

“He always held us to very high expectations.”

Added Sean, 30: “He always said that if you weren’t using your head, you might as well have two rear ends.”

Siblings Sean and Shaara Argo will specialize in emergency medicine and pediatrics, respectively. Sean is headed to Florida Atlantic University Schmidt College of Medicine in Boca Raton, while Shaara will stay at USF for her residency.

Though he won’t be there to celebrate with them, their accomplishments, Sean and Shaara agreed, have everything to do with their dad, as well as their mom, Kathy, who lives in Rockledge.

Don taught calculus at what is now Eastern Florida State College. Some of his courses were broadcasted on public access television, earning him the nickname, “Math Man.”

“People would just come up to us and say, ‘Hey, it’s the Math Man,’” Shaara said.

Ever the “Math Man,” Don had his children doing linear algebra by the time they were 5 and calculus by middle school.

“We couldn’t go out to dinner without the napkins and placemats being covered in math problems,” Sean said.

Meanwhile, their mother, a former software engineer turned stay-at-home-mom, was the nurturer, the one who instilled in them the importance of doing for others.

“She is just that type of person,” Shaara said. “She taught us empathy and compassion.”

With these two perfectly balanced influences in their lives, Shaara and Sean grew. Shaara gravitated toward medicine early in life. She recalls a photo taken when she and her brother were 3 and 6. They each held stethoscopes to the other’s chest.

“She was very serious about it,” said Sean.

Shaara earned a bachelor’s degree in biomedical sciences and a master’s degree in medical sciences from the University of South Florida before enrolling in medical school.

Sean, on the other hand, began his higher education as a physics major at USF, but changed his mind during the last years of his father’s life.

“He was in and out of the hospital,” Sean said. “He would schedule his surgeries for over his winter breaks from school, so we had Christmas in the hospital many times. Sometimes he had really good doctors, and sometimes he had doctors who lacked that human element.”

Those experiences led Sean to change his major. He also earned a bachelor’s in biomedical sciences and master’s degree in medical sciences. Afterward, he went to work for a Florida Department of Health laboratory. There, he tested blood samples for diseases, day in and day out, day after day.

“The same things happened at the same time every day. I realized it wasn’t for me,” Sean said.

“I had these skills, and the experiences we went through with my dad being sick. That’s when I decided medical school was the best fit for me.”

Shaara had headed straight into medical school, which is how she and Sean, four years apart in age, ended up in the same graduating class.

“We’ve answered the same three questions ever since: Are we twins? No. Do we live together? No. Do we study together? No,” Sean said.

Although, his last answer isn’t completely true.

“I taught you how to make flash cards in med school,” Shaara said to Sean one warm afternoon a few days prior to Match Day. “I remember. It was amino acids.”

As they progressed in their studies, Sean and Shaara each chose specialties that perfectly reflect their personalities.

Shaara, the organized, flashcard-making sibling, has chosen pediatrics.

“She is the one with the calendar. There are timetables for immunizations and developmental milestones. She’ll be the one to make sure that every kid is progressing on time,” Sean said.

Sean, who so detested the predictability of the laboratory, will specialize in emergency medicine.

“He is very spur-of-the-moment and spontaneous. He will definitely be able to jump from task to task in a way that makes sense to him,” Shaara said.

Shaara is hoping to match at USF, while Sean is crossing his fingers for the University of Florida or Florida Atlantic University.

Wherever their careers take them, Sean and Shaara will be carrying their parents with them.

“I want them to know that everything they did for us our entire lives, all the sacrifices they made, it made this easier,” Shaara said. “They had such a perfect balance. We hope to embody them both as physicians.”

Both got their preferred matches! Shaara matched in pediatrics at USF. And Sean matched in emergency medicine at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.

***

He knows how it feels to be a stranger in a foreign land.

He can still recall the heartbreak of his parents’ divorce.

He’s watched his home burn down, and he’s spent his summers counseling children battling for their lives. Now, Ariel Peñaranda is ready to put these and many other experiences to work for others.

“I have an understanding of what it’s like to go through these things. I know the struggle, and I know that if someone is there for you and there to listen to you, it can get better,” said Peñaranda, 27, who entered the USF Morsani College of Medicine through SELECT, a leadership track that prepares students to take active roles in changes to our health care system.

A native of Colombia who immigrated to Miami when he was 11, Peñaranda first considered becoming a medical doctor when he was in middle school, but that was mostly because both his parents are lawyers and he wanted to take a different path in life.

Ariel Peñaranda, who entered Morsani College of Medicine through the SELECT MD program, was glad to match in psychiatry at Montefiore Medical Center in Bronx, NY. He plans to pursue a child psychiatry fellowship after residency.

During his undergraduate years at the University of Miami, he veered away from medicine, earning a bachelor’s degree in motion pictures and psychology. As he progressed in his studies, however, he found that he was more inspired by the time he’d spent volunteering at an Orlando camp for children diagnosed with cancer, heart disease and other life-threatening conditions than the prospect of editing movies behind a computer screen all day.

“Medicine was a way to combine my love of people and science,” he said.

His undergraduate degree, unusual as it may seem for a future doctor, actually represents what he aims to achieve in his medical career.

“I like listening to people’s stories,” he said.

Peñaranda, the oldest of four siblings and a slew of cousins, has always loved children, and long planned to specialize in pediatrics, but changed his mind after his psychiatric rotations.

By specializing in psychiatry, Peñaranda will be able to spend his days doing what he likes best — listening — in order to devise a course of care that incorporates individual and group therapy, role modeling, and other patient-centered interventions. After his residency, he plans to pursue a child psychiatry fellowship.

“When I walk into the room, I’m not going to be asking for the chief complaint and then writing a prescription,” he said.

In all of his patient interactions, Peñaranda will dig deep, using his personal experiences to relate to those under his care. He gave the experience of being displaced from his Allentown apartment after a fire late last year.

“People have been so kind and have helped me through that,” he said. “I’ve been through that and now I can help others going through the same things.”

Peñaranda added he is especially interested in working with children whose behavioral and emotional issues are affecting their academic performance. He hoped to be matched with Montefiore Medical Center in Bronx, N.Y. And he was.

***

Communications team supporting Match Day 2017: Anne DeLotto Baier, Grace Beck, Freddie Coleman, Vjollca Hysenlika, Mark Leaning, Tina Meketa, Ryan Noone, Elizabeth Peacock, Rachel Pleasant, Sandra Roa, Ashley Rodriguez, Emily Wingate, Sarah Worth, Eric Younghans. Technical support by Andy Campbell.

The MCOM Class of 2017.

USF Pharmacy students celebrate a successful Match for seniors heading to residency programs

Sarah Worth — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 21:21:06 +0000

Senior USF pharmacy students were surrounded by classmates as they celebrated their Match Day April 8. The special gathering was a culmination of the several weeks needed to finalize this year’s match results, at both USF and for graduating pharmacy students across the country.

USF College of Pharmacy students did well in their matches: 77 percent of those seeking to match succeeded in filling positions for their first year of residency (PGY1), the next step in their pharmacy education. Nationally, roughly 66 percent of pharmacy students who participated in the Match for PGY1 were successful. This is the second year for the USF College of Pharmacy to participate in the match – its charter class just graduated last year.

“I’m very pleased with how our students placed,” said Kevin Sneed, PharmD, dean of the USF College of Pharmacy and senior vice president for USF Health. “The strong programs our students filled reflect the strength of our program.”

At USF, 13 pharmacy students of the 53 in the graduating class opted to pursue residencies through the national Match, which is coordinated by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP).

While Match Day for medical students covers a tighter timeframe with a peak moment that reveals how almost all of the graduating group matched, pharmacy students experience a more drawn out process as programs and students try to connect. Phase I fills most positions but it’s during Phase II, which lasts several weeks, when the remaining positions get filled.

Even so, many pharmacy students will not match at all during PGY1 simply because there are not enough pharmacy residency positions, Dr. Sneed said.

“Because there are so few openings, some of students won’t match in this first phase,” he said. “But things need to change and more residencies need to open. Highly qualified students are being denied opportunities to excel and offer their talents to residency programs and the patients they serve.”

For the national ASHP 2016 Match, there were 4,609 senior pharmacy students vying for 3,312 PGY1 positions (and 829 students vying for 678 second-year PGY2 positions). And the demand for residencies is only going to increase as the number of graduates choosing residencies also increases, said John Clark, PharmD, assistant professor and director of Experiential Education, and of Pharmacy Residency Programs for the USF College of Pharmacy.

“The message for students who seek to go into a pharmacy residency is to prepare, prepare, and prepare,” Dr. Clark said. “More employers seek pharmacists who have one to two years of advanced and more specialized training beyond graduation – which might give them a competitive edge in the job market.”

That is the case for Ivonne DeValle, one of USF’s fourth-year pharmacy students. DeValle said she knew residency training was a must.

“My pharmacy rotations really opened my eyes for the impact pharmacists have on patient care through team-approached care,” DeValle said. “I knew that, in order to reach that level of success, I would need to pursue a residency.”

Ivonne DeValle

DeValle matched at Bay Pines Veterans’ Hospital in Pinellas County, a position that perfectly matches her career goals of caring for the elderly, working on a health care team, and helping veterans.

“This residency offers a perfect balance for what I was looking for,” DeValle said. “Veteran health care facilities across the country have been ahead of the curve by incorporating pharmacists into ambulatory care teams.”

This year’s Match also helped fulfill goals for Benny Yau.

Originally from California, Yau is headed back west for a residency at Stanford University, which helps meet his hope for a residency filled with variety.

Prior to attending USF, Yau spent a year with a family-run pharmacy group in the San Francisco area, which exposed him to many pharmacy-centered settings – retail, out-patient at hospitals, health clinics, and even mail order and nursing home settings.

Benny Yau

“Across all these areas, the pharmacists really got to know their patients and were able to help the people they served,” Yau said. “Stanford was able to provide a residency that offered similar experiences, including the acute care and critical care found in hospital settings, but also ambulatory, out-patient care, too.”

The College of Pharmacy offers several opportunities for students to learn more about pharmacy residencies: Dr. Clark directs an elective course called Introduction to Post Graduate Residency Training that aims to help the interested students to prepare for residency training, residency topics are incorporated throughout the Pharmaceutical Skills course, and a Residency Showcase invites residency programs from around the Tampa Bay area, as well as out of the region, to exhibit their programs to USF pharmacy students.

USF College of Pharmacy Class of 2016 Match results

Steven Cindric, Bay Pines VAMC, St. Petersburg, FL
Ivonne DeValle, Bay Pines VAMC, St. Petersburg, FL
Rania Elmaddawi, Coram Healthcare, Jacksonville, FL
Alexandria Hatzileris, St. Anthony, Tampa, FL
Suzanne Huber, Haley VAMC, Tampa, FL
Stephanie Hughes, Florida Hospital, Celebration, FL
Lukose Joseph, Wolfson Children’s Baptist Hospital, Jacksonville, FL
Jose Leon-Burgos, Florida Hospital, Celebration, FL
Sullivan Lynch, Haley VAMC, Tampa, FL
Sandra Martin, Florida Hospital, Winter Haven, FL
Lauren Nardelli-Briggs, St. Joseph Hospital, Tampa, FL
Jerica Singleton, Mercy Family Health, University of Iowa, Dubuque, IA
Benny Yau, Stanford Medical Center, Palo Alto, CA

Photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Office of Communications

Pirates invade USF Match Day 2016, deliver good news to USF medical students heading to residencies

Sarah Worth — Fri, 18 Mar 2016 22:00:27 +0000

Gasparilla’s Ye Mystic Krewe pirates and U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor cheer on senior medical students as they learned where they will conduct their medical residencies.

Miss the UStream Live? Watch the recording here.

Click here for Match Day 2016 results

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Eye patches, beads and the occasional ‘Arrgh!’ filled the backyard of local restaurant Ulele March 18 as the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine Class of 2016 found out where they will spend their residencies, the next phase in their medical education. The theme was played out by members of the local Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla – Gaspar’s Grenadiers – a Tampa civic group based on the City’s famed legend surrounding noted pirate Jose Gaspar and a co-sponsor of the City’s annual Gasparilla invasion and parade.

Dr. Charles Lockwood (center with Match Day shirt), senior vice president for USF Health and dean, Morsani College of Medicine, with the Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla.

Match Day is the annual ritual when senior medical students across the country learn where they will spend their residencies, the next phase in their medical education, which can last from three to seven years depending upon the specialty pursued. They’ve spent the past six months or more interviewing with residency programs and then ranking their picks within the National Residency Match Program (NRMP). Match Day is when students find out which programs chose them.

As the group waited for noon to strike – marking the time when the national match begins – a large birthday cake was presented to Richard Gonzmart, owner of the Ulele and a long-time supporter of USF. Bryan Bognar, MD, MPH, vice dean for the MCOM Office of Educational Affairs, thanked Mr. Gonzmart for his ongoing support and helped lead the crowd of hundreds in singing Happy Birthday.

In thanking everyone, he shared how his appreciation for USF was cemented.

“I’m so thankful to the USF College of Medicine,” Gonzmart said. “My Dad was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 1992 at the Cleveland Clinic. We found out that the best surgeon in the country happened to be at USF. Thank you and congratulations.”

Richard Gonzmart with Dr. Bryan Bognar.

Amid the pirate themed fun was concern for the nation’s shortage of residency positions. Pointing to local and national initiatives to grow graduate medical education opportunities and the impending physician shortage for the growing Baby Boomer population, U.S. Representative Kathy Castor spoke to the group of soon-to-be residents.

U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor is introducing a new bill that addresses the shortage of residency positions.

“I’ve filed a bill this week that would lift caps on the numbers of residents and create more physician training slots in Florida,” Rep. Castor said. “You have gone to medical school at one the premier health training centers in Florida… Even if you do not match in Florida, we need you to return here to practice medicine to help keep our state healthy and well.”

Taking the stage next was Charles J. Lockwood, MD, MHCM, senior vice president for USF Health and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine.

“So, can you believe that this is the same person who wanted to wear a suit and tie last year?” he asked with a laugh.

At noon, the first envelope was presented, going to Dusty Nicolay, who matched in an anesthesiology residency at Western Pennsylvania Hospital in Pittsburgh, PA.

First envelope for USF Match Day goes to by Dusty Nicolay.

This year is also the second Match Day for the SELECT students, who spent the past two years in clinical rotations in Allentown, PA – for this Class of 2016, 36 SELECT graduates participated in Match Day in Allentown and six returned to Tampa to open their envelopes at Ulele.

USF Health SELECT students in Allentown, PA. Photo courtesy of LVHN.

The entire Class of 2016 is the largest group to match in the history of the USF medical school – 172 students participated in the match this year. An oversized map on the Ulele grounds helps illustrate the class size as it was filled by students placing pre-cut red x’s to mark their residency destinations. And although the lawn of Ulele was full of students and their friends and family, anyone who couldn’t make it to the venue could catch all the action via the live UStream, giving access across the world as each student learned where they would spend the next few years of their medical training as physician residents.

For most students, this day is a defining moment: they find out where they will launch their careers. And for some, Match Day continues paths of determination.

***

Like most senior medical students matching as couples, Matt Widner and Julianna Naccarato looked at potential residency programs that offered a good program for him (orthopaedics) and a good program for her (family medicine).

But this couple demanded a third criteria in their search: the destination had to be close to a children’s hospital with pediatric heart specialists for their son Luca.

Now 11 months old, Luca was born with a rare congenital heart condition. Constant monitoring and occasional rushes to emergency rooms are part of life for Luca and his family.

“Really, the biggest issue for us in our match is this guy here,” said Julianna, sitting next to wide-eyed, smiling Luca.

Matt and Julianna met as undergraduates. Each worked in the pediatrics unit at Shands Hospital in Gainesville, FL. Both were accepted into USF’s medical school, but entered in different years. This timetable would mean they wouldn’t graduate the same year, something that would negate their option to match as a couple. So Julianna took a year off from medical school to earn a master’s degree in public health from USF. That deferral put both in the same graduating class and, thus, they could match as a couple.

That’s the kind of planners they are. But planning ahead couldn’t prepare them for the rough third year of medical school they faced together. In addition to having a baby with a rare congenital heart condition, Matt’s father was diagnosed with an aggressive form of kidney cancer and passed away within months of Luca’s birth.

“We’ve learned so much but mostly that there’s a lot you can plan for in life but a lot you can’t plan for – you just have to roll with it,” Matt said.

Matt Widner and Julianna Naccarato with baby Luca.

So the planning and rolling with life continued on Match Day when their trifecta match came through. They are heading to the Hershey Medical Center at Penn State in Hershey, PA, to noted orthopaedics and family medicine programs for Matt and Julianna, and to a children’s hospital with pediatric heart specialists for Luca.

***

Alison Cullinane was well on her way into a marketing career with her MBA when a nagging thought grew louder: she liked her job but it didn’t give her a strong sense of satisfaction. There had to be more, she thought.

“I enjoyed the work,” she said. “But something felt like it was missing. I couldn’t put my finger on it.”

Alison said it was when a friend came right out and told her she should be a doctor that it became perfectly clear.

“As soon as she said it, I knew she was right,” Alison said. “When I told my husband, he was happy, but said he wasn’t surprised, that he’d known all along I would come to that conclusion. Our biggest concern was that we would still have a family.”

And so they did. On the first day of medical school, Alison was 10 weeks pregnant. Across her first year of medical school, she found the environment nurturing and supportive – especially when she had doctor-ordered bed rest late in her pregnancy.

Alison said she was interested in pediatrics from the very start of medical school.

“Having had a baby, I wavered a little and thought about obstetrics,” Alison said. “But I just loved pediatrics. Even though it is difficult to see very sick children, I was so fulfilled with my day’s work and I couldn’t wait to go back the next day. I know pediatrics will allow me to have an impact on kids’ futures.”

Alison Cullinane will stay at USF for her residency in pediatrics.

Alison will be doing a residency in pediatrics. Now, with two children, the family of four will be staying in Tampa – Alison matched with the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine.

***

Armed with a bachelor’s degree in cultural studies and a minor in chemistry, Kristian Johnson von Rickenbach set out to go to medical school – just not right away.

“I wanted to take time off, to grow up a bit and understand more about medical careers,” Johnson said. “I knew in general what medicine was about, but I wanted to see another side of it. I wanted to look at research.”

Kristian got a job at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and she spent three years learning about cancer research and clinical trials. Her next step was to test herself to see if she could handle the rigors of a medical school curriculum. Kristian found USF MCOM’s master’s degree program in medical sciences, which offered her a pre-professional program where she sat alongside medical students for several courses and learned, in essence, content of the first-year of medical school.

At the end of the one-year program, she felt confident she could do well in medical school, and should earned a master’s degree, to boot.

“I figured that, after one year, I would know if I was on the right path,” Johnson said. “I found out I was definitely going in the right direction.”

Kristian entered MCOM as part of the SELECT program, a leadership track that prepares students to be physician leaders who can take active roles in changes to our health care system.

“SELECT had everything I believed medicine should have, plus its second half in Allentown is just 55 minutes away from where I grew up,” she said. “It all seemed right for me from the start.”

For her match, Kristian is aiming for physical medicine and rehabilitation, and is considering a fellowship later on in cancer rehabilitation.

“I feel I could see myself going into cancer rehabilitation,” she said. ““It’s inspiring to me to take patients who are at what might be their lowest point and build them back to their best. It all came from a job I got after college. At that time I didn’t realize how important that job would be and how much it would shape my direction.”

Kristian Johnson is heading to NYC for a preliminary internal medicine residency at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai followed by a physical medicine and rehabilitation residency at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Columbia and Cornell. Photo courtesy of LVHN.

Well on her way toward her dream, Johnson will conduct her preliminary internal medicine residency at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and her in physical medicine and rehabilitation at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Columbia and Cornell, both in New York City.

***

A sunny day greeted everyone at Ulele, the new Match Day venue. Ulele is named for the daughter of a legendary Native American chief and is located on the site of a former City of Tampa Water Works building, next to the new Water Works Park. The old brick mixed with the newness of neighboring buildings and the Tampa Riverwalk along the Hillsborough River give the event a traditional yet modern urban feel.

Following Dr. Lockwood’s announcement of the first match at noon, Kira Zwygart, MD, associate dean for MCOM Office of Student Affairs, continued calling student names.

One by one, students came forward to accept an envelope, open it, and read to the crowd of classmates and family where they’re headed.

As if the sudden appearance of pirates wasn’t enough of a surprise, a marriage proposal popped out of nowhere when Matthew Wollenschlaeger fell to one knee as Ansley Brown read her Match letter, which had the words “Will you marry me?” added at the bottom, thanks to the help from the Office of Student Affairs staff. A gasp and a quiet nod ‘yes’ along with tears and a huge smile gave Matt his answer. Theirs was the second proposal in the history of USF Match Days.

Matthew Wollenschlaeger pops the question at USF Match Day. Ansley Brown said yes!

And three Division I USF Bull former athletes who are now senior medical students all matched. They are Melissa Rosas (softball), Monique Konstantinovic (track and field), and Jonathan Koscso (baseball).

From Jocks to Docs! USF Bull former athletes Melissa Rosas (softball), Monique Konstantinovic (track and field), and Jonathan Koscso (baseball) all matched.

The student names were called in random order, a tradition at USF because each student called up drops a dollar bill in a box. The last student called to open his or her Match envelope wins the cash. This year that winning student was Nikki Freedman, who matched in preliminary internal medicine residency at Cleveland Clinic in Weston, FL, and diagnostic radiology residency at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, FL.

Nikki Freedman collects her prize — the Match treasure chest filled with cash — with help from her parents and Rocky!

Then the crowd of newly matched students gathered together for what might be their last photo as a class. Everyone cheered in unison, thrilled to have matched.

The USF Health Morsani College of Medicine Class of 2016.

From the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine: 41 students (24%) are staying at USF; 64 (37%) are staying in Florida; and 83 students (42%) chose primary care as their specialty (internal medicine, family medicine, and pediatrics). Click here for more details about the nationwide Match from the Association of American Medical Colleges.

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Photos by Eric Younghans, video by Sandra C. Roa, USF Health Office of Communications.

USF med students find their residencies with Match Madness (Multimedia)

Sarah Worth — Fri, 20 Mar 2015 21:32:53 +0000

Click here for Match Day 2015 results.

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There was a new vibe to this year’s Match Day.

After some 25 years of gathering at Skipper’s Smokehouse in north Tampa, the Morsani College of Medicine Class of 2015 opted to move their Match Day closer to downtown Tampa, finding a celebratory spot along the banks of the Hillsborough River and Tampa’s Riverwalk at Ulele, one of Tampa’s hottest dining destinations.

Larger space was needed to hold the largest matching class in the history of the USF medical school. Students, along with their friends and family, filled the green lawn just outside Ulele’s back door to learn where they would spend the next few years of their medical training as physician residents.

This year is also the first Match Day for the charter group of SELECT students, who spent the past two years in clinical rotations in Allentown, PA. Nine SELECT graduates participated in the Match in Allentown and seven returned to Tampa to open their envelopes at Ulele.

In total, 128 USF senior medical students participated Match Day 2015.

“This is a perfect venue for what is probably most important day of our careers,” said. Charles J. Lockwood, senior vice president for USF Health and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine.

Great friends and supporters of USF, Frank and Carol Morsani.

“I’d like to thank Mr. Gonzmart and his family for their generosity and to acknowledge Carol and Frank Morsani. There is no one more dedicated or committed to our school. This incredible experience will change your life. The next three to seven years will be exciting. It’s really where you become physicians. We do our best to lay the foundation, but the actual super structure, the building itself, that will allow you to be a doctor is going to be set over the next several years of your residency training.”

Joking about the obvious low-key theme of USF’s Match Day tradition, he added, “This is my first match day here. I’ve gone from wearing a suit, which I wanted all of you to do, to wearing your jerseys. We know who’s running the place.”

With that, Dr. Lockwood read the first match: Christopher DeClue, who matched with a specialty of diagnostic radiology at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine.

For most students, this day is a defining moment: they find out where they will launch their careers. And for some, Match Day continues paths of determination.

***

For Kanchi Batra, the upbeat theme of Match Day is a perfect complement to what she experienced during her four years of medical school: continuous exposure to good people and positive experiences. Kanchi entered medical school with an attitude of optimism. As a member of the SELECT program’s charter class – a program founded for students looking for “ways to shape their own educational experiences” – she set out with high hopes. When she was admitted to the program, Kanchi was quoted as saying “I would like to become one of those players in the future who helps the country, the healthcare system, the community, and that one specific patient.”

Such a positive outlook is in her DNA. In her second year, she started Project Happiness, a task force aimed at increasing morale throughout USF Health.

“The idea was to bring together like-minded people and have them work as a team to bring more cheeriness on campus,” she said. “We wanted our peers to know it’s not all about tests and struggles. There is more to life than that.”

One of the group’s efforts included mounting a large poster board in a study area for students to write what they were most thankful for. Another event was a spring-time carnival day with face painting. Called Hump Day Happiness – because it was on Wednesdays – the event is probably the pinnacle project, Kanchi said, since it was so well received by students.

Four years later her expectations for medical school and for SELECT were met, and even exceeded.

“Being the first SELECT class was a life-changing experience,” Kanchi said. “And the administration was so receptive to feedback from us so they could make the program better. My experience was eye opening. The faculty up here (in Allentown) really wanted to make sure we were ready for residency and to work in teams, which is what medicine is all about now.”

Kanchi Batra, a charter student in the USF SELECT MD program, will be doing her residency in internal medicine at Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Medical Center.

For Match Day, Kanchi looked forward to matching in an internal medicine program with hopes of a career in critical care. Her hard work and optimism were rewarded; she matched in internal medicine at Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Medical Center.

***

Seeing gaps that prevent success drives Yasir Abunamous to improve things. Following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, he and a group of like-minded friends realized that relief organizations needed to recruit younger people into relief efforts.

“Campaigning to put younger people on the frontline of relief projects can inject raw optimism into the effort,” he said.

So with that in mind, he helped start Muslims Without Borders (now United Muslim Relief), a completely student-led – therefore young – relief organization.

And when he saw firsthand in Haiti that the relief efforts didn’t have a strong dental care component, he helped develop a branch of Muslims Without Borders that focuses on dental care, the first American Muslim dental relief group.

That same drive to improve brought Yasir to USF’s SELECT program, a leadership track whose students commit to “positively changing medicine” and to “transform health care and improve the health of communities.”

A perfect fit.

“They took a huge chance on us,” he said. “And we took a chance on a new program that would likely have challenges along the way. But they invested enormous resources in us and the program, and empowered us with a ton of new content and skills. They taught us to enhance our relationships with patients and challenged us to build something new and become true stakeholders. I wouldn’t trade it.”

It was during his two-year time in Lehigh Valley Health Network that his drive to improve presented itself again. Yasir helped design a pilot study to measure the number of homeless people within the LVHN patient population, a number that hadn’t been tracked before but could help better define access to health care and lead to cost savings because of reduced visits to the emergency room. He calls this “a critical data point to better allocate care and resources to this population.”

To improve, again.

SELECT student Yasir Abunamous reads his match in Allentown.

Yasir is hoping to match into a family medicine residency. And he did, at Lehigh Valley Health Network in Allentown, PA.

***

In addition to having the desire to help care for people, Rachael King found another common thread among many of her classmates: they were from various places in the Caribbean, just like she was. Her family is from Jamaica.

Seeing an opportunity to blend a passion for medicine with a compassion for Caribbean populations, she formed the Caribbean Outreach through Medical Missions Association. The student-run organization takes annual trips in association with Caribbean Community Association to provide much-needed health care to impoverished areas of the Caribbean.

“Our first goal was to educate fellow students about the people in need of quality medical care throughout the Caribbean,” Rachael said. “Each population is quite different and requires different approaches. There is a different exposure and a different world in each place. Some have a bigger focus on AIDs, others diabetes or hypertension. The key is to do something.”

The effort is one of several proud moments of outreach Rachael has experienced while attending medical school at USF.

Another was when she was on USF’s MD Program Admissions Committee to provide input about potential USF medical students. The process helped validate her own journey, she said.

“It’s really gratifying to help applicants become students,” she said. “I was in that seat once and someone saw something in me beyond scores and grades. I’ve succeeded at USF because the community here has nurtured me. So I try to look for those same qualities in others who might also succeed.”

Her work at the national level as a member of the Governing Council of the American Medical Association’s Minority Affairs Section is another proud moment. In that role, she helped promote the Doctors Back to School program that encourages physicians to connect with local high schools in low-income areas to expose young students to opportunities for becoming physicians.

Locally, similar efforts are playing out at King’s Kids Academy for Health Sciences for elementary students and Tampa Bay Tech for high schoolers.

“A lot of times, it’s about knowing there’s an option,” Rachael said. “Getting young kids exposed to doctors says to them ‘hey, you can do this, too.’ It empowers kids to set goals and make them aim for success.”

Rachael King will be doing her internal medicine residency at the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago.

So that she can continue to reach populations in need of quality primary care, Rachael vied for a residency slot in internal medicine. She found out March 20 that she’ll be moving to Chicago after graduation to start an internal medicine residency at the University of Illinois College of Medicine.

***

Always an active mentor and tutor to those in need of extra help, Jason Ricciuti took that initiative a step further when he started Tampa Bay Street Medicine (a local chapter of a national effort) to help provide basic medical care to the homeless in Tampa.

“A couple of us students started it as a service learning project,” he said. “We contacted other medical schools that are doing it, worked with our Student Affairs Office for approvals, went to a conference about it, recruited other USF students, got a grant, and started the chapter last April.”

Jason and fellow students worked with local organizations to help identify those in need and also connected with social service professionals and partnered with a group to gain access to a local community center that gave the patients access to some basic needs, such as laundry facilities.

The group of about 10 students hits the streets every other Friday and includes a mix of upperclassmen students who help guide first- and second-year students, as well as one to two supervising faculty physicians or physician assistants. And then they walk.

“We usually are around downtown Tampa and the Tampa Heights areas,” he said. “Over time, people have gotten to know us and expect us when we come around again or are waiting there so we can follow up on their conditions.”

Much of what the team sees are chronic problems, like cough and colds, skin problems, allergies problems, acid reflux. They dole out over-the-counter medications and wound care supplies in addition to health education. And the impact is good: typically, they see about 20 people with medical conditions, even more when you count the ongoing concerns.

Before Jason started medical school and the Tampa Bay Street Medicine, he spent two years with the AmeriCorps’ program City Year tutoring middle and high school students in Rhode Island and in Miami. During his first year of medical school, he also helped found Explorers Mentoring at USF.

“I feel like it’s an obligation to serve,” Jason said. “I certainly benefitted from other people’s support and it made a difference to me. It’s good to help each other and realize you’re not alone. You are where you are because of someone else. You can never forget that.”

Jason Ricciuti and fiance Dr. Asha Balakrishnan, a current USF resident.

For Match Day, Jason chose a residency in obstetrics and gynecology. He matched in ob/gyn at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

***

Following Dr. Lockwood’s announcement of the first match at noon, Kira Zwygart, MD, associate dean for student affairs for the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, continued calling student names.

One by one, students came forward to accept an envelope, open it, and read to the crowd of classmates and family where they’re headed.

USF SELECT students matching in Allentown, PA. Photo courtesy of LVHN.

Several couples opened their envelopes at the same time to learn where they would be going, together. One couple represented two medical schools: Katherine Diaz from Texas Tech joined her partner Robert Lorch from MCOM at Ulele to learn they will be doing their residencies at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

The student names were called in random order, a tradition at USF because each student called up drops a dollar bill in a box. The last student called to open his or her Match envelope wins the cash. This year that winning student was Danielle Kamis, who matched in psychiatry at Stanford University.

Danielle Kamis collects her prize — the Match box filled with cash.

Then the crowd of newly matched students gathered together for what might be their last photo as a class. Everyone cheered in unison, thrilled to have matched.

From the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, 39 students (30%) are staying at USF; 52 (41%) are staying in Florida; and 64 students (50%) chose primary care as their specialty (internal medicine, family medicine, and pediatrics).

Click here for more details about the nationwide Match from the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Video by Sandra Roa and photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Office of Communications

Students anticipate USF’s first Pharmacy Match Day

Wed, 18 Mar 2015 16:23:12 +0000

View USF College of Pharmacy Class of 2015 Match Results

By Saundra Amrhein

It’s that time of year when attention turns to medical schools and the jittery students awaiting the announcement of their residency assignments on Match Day.

But this year for the first time in the University of South Florida’s history there is another crop of students counting down to March 20: the inaugural doctoral graduating class of the College of Pharmacy. Their participation in Match Day marks both individual student accomplishments and dramatic changes in the entire health care industry.

About 47 percent of the USF College of Pharmacy’s first 48 graduating students participated in the Match. Some of them are pictured here with College of Pharmacy Dean Kevin Sneed, PharmD, center.

Of the College’s first 48 graduates, 23 opted to participate in the Match for obtaining a one-year residency, reflecting a rising movement toward the specialized credentialing of pharmacists as health care shifts to a team-approach and pharmacists assume a larger role in patient care.

“This is a very significant transformation in health care,” said Kevin Sneed, PharmD, founding dean of the USF College of Pharmacy and senior associate vice president of USF Health.

He added that the growing number of pharmacy residencies, pharmacological specializations and clinical training opportunities reflect the movement of pharmacists from the back-end of filling prescriptions to the “interprofessional” role in patient management, care and diagnosis.

“This is where health care is going,” Dr. Sneed said.

Nathan Seligson, a Match Day participant, conducted his final rotation as a USF pharmacy student in the Bone Marrow Transplant clinic at Moffitt Cancer Center. He is supervised here by Janelle Perkins, PharmD, USF associate professor of pharmacotherapeutics and clinical research. Seligson matched at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, TN.

To be sure, pharmacy residencies have been around since the 1930s, when they were considered internships and mostly involved preparing pharmacists in hospital pharmacy management, according to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, or ASHP.

In the 1970s, residencies in clinical care grew rapidly, leading to accreditation standards, and in the 1990s, the ASHP recognized 15 specialized areas of practice, according to its website. In 2005, in conjunction with other pharmacy associations, the ASHP set forth new national residency accreditation standards that established the postgraduate year one (PGY1) pharmacy residencies and specialized residencies in postgraduate year two (PGY2).

The Match process for pharmacy graduates, run by the same service that directs the Match residencies for general medicine graduates, has been growing steadily. For instance, the number of graduating pharmacy students and new practitioners participating in the Match at both levels has grown from 3,284 in 2010 to 4,799 in 2014, according to the National Matching Services. Likewise, in that same timeframe, the number of positions offered in the Match has increased from 2,276 to 3,394.

Meanwhile, the number of pharmacists becoming board certified in a pharmacy specialty has skyrocketed in just over a decade – from 3,600 in 2002 to 18,000 in 2013, according to a recent article in ASHP Intersections. The largest category is for pharmacotherapy, which can be practiced in a variety of settings, followed by oncology and ambulatory care, which is fast growing as care shifts from in-patient to out-patient settings and the need soars for medication management over chronic diseases, the journal reported.

USF pharmacy student Athar Naif, right, at a community rotation in Pharmacy Plus at the Morsani Center for Advanced Healthcare. Here she looks over some prescription information with pharmacy technician Nicholas Stephens. Naif will be doing her residency at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa.

The publication and ASHP officials also attributed the growth of specializations to the greater role pharmacists are playing in direct patient care in primary settings. Reflecting that change, pharmacists have won provider status in five states, including California in October, 2013, with legal statewide recognition of their roles in providing direct patient care and counseling, managing multi-drug medication regimens and participating in long-term follow-up care.

The growing opportunities for pharmacists in aspects of patient care – along with the required advanced training to go with it – accompany a nationwide shortage of primary care physicians as millions of Americans enter the health care system following the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

USF’s pharmacy students, set to graduate this spring, plan to ride that wave as they pursue their goals and passions.

Shafaat Pirani, 26, has all his hopes in one place for the Match by listing just one preference – a major university-affiliated medical center on the West Coast. His interests include a combination of pharmacogenomics (or the study of the role of genetics in drug response), oncology and psychiatry.

If he doesn’t get matched with his preference, Pirani, like his classmates, plans to enter what’s called the “scramble” – when unmatched applicants and programs seek each other out.

“We’re committed to a residency,” Pirani said of himself and his fellow students.

He believes the training would help make him a better overall clinician in the future as well as pave the way for a possible teaching position. While he always knew he wanted to enter the health and medical field, he decided upon pharmacy after spending time more than a dozen years ago in the hospital with his grandfather, who suffered from diabetes and hypertension. Pirani watched as a pharmacist entered the hospital room to discuss his grandfather’s various medications with his grandmother. He said he started to see the large roll pharmacists play in patient care.

Years later, after already placing a deposit on a northern pharmacy program, he had a brief encounter with Dr. Sneed.

“It changed my life,” he said of that 20-minute conversation that convinced him to come to USF and its new College of Pharmacy. He sensed Dr. Sneed’s pioneering spirit regarding the future of pharmacy. “He’s a visionary.”

Ahead of the Match, Pirani was calming his nerves by staying busy with his rotations at Lakeland Regional Medical Center and a weekend job at a pharmacy in Clearwater.

Athar Naif, 27, also was distracting herself with rotations at the new Morsani Center’s Pharmacy Plus and studying for board exams, trying to put the Match out of her mind until the announcements. Having interviewed at eight locations, she ranked five on her Match list of preferences – including a top-tier out-of-state teaching hospital, and several community hospitals in Central Florida.

“It’s exciting and nerve-racking at the same time,” she said.

Naif was offered a job at a major pharmacy chain, but she declined in order to pursue a residency and further training. One day she wants to work with transplant patients, both with the medications in preparation for transplant procedures as well as the life-time patient care through medications afterward.

“In the end, wherever I end up going, it will be a good experience,” she said. “I’m putting my faith in the Match program.”

Nathan Seligson, 26, hopes to one day combine research and clinical care, possibly either through an academic medical center or through the pharmaceutical industry. His interests at the moment are in pharmacogenomics, pharmacokinetics and oncology.

The residency experience, he believes, gives young pharmacists the opportunity to hone clinical skills, applying specialized drug knowledge and patient care knowledge to a particular disease or patient population. He’s interested in designing research around patient care.

“It’s not research for the sake of research but could change clinical practice,” said Seligson, who spent six weeks on rotation at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. He was particularly interested in long-term effects of treatments on survivors of childhood cancers, effects that are still not largely understood. After residency training, he hopes to pursue a research fellowship.

For now, he was focusing on his rotations at Florida Hospital in Connerton and the Moffitt Cancer Center, keeping the Match out of his mind until the day of the announcements.

“I’m trying not to think about it too much,” Seligson said.

Dr. John Clark – an assistant professor who is the director of both the pharmacy residency programs and the Office of Experiential Education within the College of Pharmacy – has created an elective course on post graduate residency training. He encouraged the students to get as much training as possible and to keep striving for a residency, even if they have to enter the “scramble.”

“This is a career-changing move,” Dr. Clark said.

Photos by Eric Younghans and Klaus Herdocia, USF Health Communications and Marketing

Dreams come true at this year’s Match Day

Sarah Worth — Fri, 21 Mar 2014 22:06:21 +0000

CLICK HERE FOR MATCH DAY 2014 RESULTS

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Alicia Billington was the first to find out.

“Plastic surgery at University of South Florida,” she said, as she opened the first envelope for this year’s Match Day.

As one of 120 senior medical students matching, Billington found out where she will spend the next few years as a physician in resident training.

Match Day is the annual ritual when senior medical students across the country learn where they will spend their residency, the next phase of the medical education. They’ve spent the past six months or more interviewing with residency programs and then ranking their picks within the National Residency Match Program (NRMP). Match Day is when students find out which programs chose them.

For most students, this day is a big deal because it’s such a defining moment: they hear where they will launch their careers. And for some, it’s the destination that has come after detours before arriving at medicine as a career.

***

Danielle Kurant remembers the first time she sat at a piano. She was 5.

“I loved it from the start,” she said.

Kurant is a senior medical student waiting calmly at USF’s Match Day 2014 to hear her named called. She is aiming toward pathology, but won’t say where she hopes to match. “I’m nervous and excited, but not worried,” she says, “I liked all the programs I interviewed with, so I’m okay with pretty much any of them.”

Kurant’s love for music grew as she grew, and she continued playing on into high school and college. Performing took an interesting turn when, while an undergraduate at USF, she and some friends formed a group and performed on campus and at coffee and tea shops around the Tampa Bay area.

“It was just for fun; I think we were only paid once,” she said. “I grew up learning and playing classical music so it was completely different being in a band and playing more popular songs.”

Taking her love for music a step further, Kurant found her talent for composing. As an undergrad, she spent a semester focused on composing at Middlesex University in London. And in medical school, she was able to blend her passion for music with her love of medicine in a medical humanities Scholarly Concentration project. She also performed some of her works at the BRIDGE Talent Show.

“I wrote a musical that followed a patient’s journey through our medical system, from diagnosis to treatment,” she said. “I wanted to show what a patient goes through when they get life changing news, like a diagnosis. It was a lot of hard work; definitely novel, but it got a great response. People weren’t expecting it. Composing a story like this is a different way of impacting people.”

Kurant admits that, even with talent and intense interest, she knew performing wasn’t in her future as a career. “Although I couldn’t imagine life without music, I still knew I wouldn’t want to make a living at it,” she said. “I’m going to be a doctor.”

As Danielle Kurant opened her envelope, she faced the Livestream camera and told her friend to “Get my room ready. I’m coming to UVA!” That’s University of Virginia where she will specialize in pathology.

***

Lowell Dawson thought he was already in his career. A cardiovascular surgical technician in Tampa, Dawson was already making a comfortable living and starting a family. But on the job, he’d watch the surgeons work and be amazed, not just of their ability to open and fix a human body, but of their passion for doing it.And that’s when he realized he wanted something more.

He applied to USF’s medical school and began classes Fall 2010.

It was an odd feeling, he said, going back to school at an older age. While the average age of students starting medical school is 22, Dawson started at age 36.

“I was the oldest guy, with a little more life experience, and a family,” he said. “But I think those extra years helped me to identify with patients and facilitated the way I deal with patients.”

In those first two years, when most of his time was spent in the classroom, Dawson said would sometimes wonder if he’d made the right decision to go back to school. Add to that the birth of his third child in the fall of his freshman year, and there could easily have been reason to put school on hold. But in his third year, when most of his time was spent in clinical settings, he felt very comfortable.

“It was kind of like wearing old shoes,” he said. “I already had a good comfort level with hospitals and I saw so many familiar faces there. It was sort of like a big homecoming. That’s when I really excelled.”

Going to medical school while being a husband and a father can test you, but Dawson found a lot of support.

“Actually, having a family really helped a lot,” Dawson said. “There were definitely challenges with keeping all the balls in the air. Got to say, my hat is off to my wife. She’s a champion.”

Now, ready to graduate with is MD, he likes to tell other ‘older’ people considering medical school to go for it. “But being a little older really helped,” he said. “For a lot of things, I know how to prioritize a little better.”

Dawson received a lot of support and encouragement from the surgeons he worked with as a surgical tech when he told them he was going to be a doctor. But his interests, and his desire to have lots of family time, are not in surgery.

“Maybe interventional radiology,” he said. “It’s the best of all worlds for me and fits my life and my family.”

And, he’s one of few medical students willing to say where he hopes to match.

“We wanted to stay local, where we have a support system with my wife’s family to help with the kids,” he said. “We’re rooted in the community.”

Lowell Dawson and his wife and three children approached the front to accept his envelope. Dressed in child-size white coats, the three girls caught the hearts of everyone at Skipper’s. With Dad’s cues whispered in her ear, 5-year-old Aniya announced that Dad will be a diagnostic radiologist at USF.

***

Judith Puckett and Daniel Restrepo are both strong students who excelled in medical school. That dogged determination is also helping them handle the many emotions that go with matching as a couple in this year’s Match Day.

The two started dating in their third year of medical school at USF while in the same clinical rotations.

“We were friends at first,” Puckett said. “But time on the same clinical teams got us talking together more.”

Although the NRMP tends to successfully match couples at the same institution, the process can still feel more uncertain for two than going through the match solo. Puckett said she spoke with many physicians during her residency interviews who had gone through couples match and felt reassured by their experiences.

“I heard a lot about how the process has changed for the better,” Puckett said. “And USF was very supportive of us and gave us a smooth process to start our lives together. They gave us good advice.”

Advice like support each other in your own interviews.

“We always tried to plug each other at our interviews,” Restrepo said. “But it was reassuring when they had already read about your partner when you sit down to interview yourself.”

Nervous? Excited?

“It’s a combination of both,” Puckett said. “Matching as a couple adds a layer of stress and complexity.”

“But it could go easier for us, with a partner in the same boat, than those opting to not do a couples match,” Restrepo added. “It’s nice to have each other.”

Then he mentioned his countdown app, a smartphone application he and some classmates are using to watch the time tick down to Match Day. “Got to keep track,” he said, with a laugh.

Like a lot of medical students, Puckett and Restrepo won’t divulge where they hope to land for their residency. Superstition, they supposed.

Restrepo, originally from Colombia, studied biology as an undergrad. He wants to specialize in internal medicine. Puckett studied integrated physiology, and wants to specialize in psychiatry.

Each took a year off before going to medical school. Puckett was a nanny, and Restrepo was an interpreter at Shands Hospital in Gainesville and tutored students preparing for their own MCAT exams.

Both will be the first physicians in their families. And plenty of family on both sides will be at Match Day and tuning in via the Livestream.

“In a lot of ways, Match Day is bigger than graduation,” Puckett said. “We know we’re going to graduate. But Match Day is like starting over again.”

Together.

The entire second row erupted when couples-match Judith Puckett and Daniel Restrepo were finally called. Family members cheered again when they announced that both were heading to residencies at Massachusetts General Hospital, where Puckett will practice psychiatry and Restrepo will practice internal medicine.

***

Match Day 2014 started on a record high for USF.

Surrounded by USF senior medical students at Skipper’s Smokehouse in Tampa, U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor had just announced she was pushing legislation to increase the number of residency slots in the United States (see related story). What is normally an exciting day just became more exciting.

At noon, Steven Specter, PhD, associate dean for student affairs for the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, began calling student names.

One by one, students came forward to accept an envelope, open it, and read to the crowd of classmates and family where they’re headed. Even medical school faculty came to see where the students end up being matched, including John Sinnott, MD, professor and chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine.

“Internal medicine is delighted with our match,” Dr. Sinnott said. “We have matched superior students to a superior program. Attracting such quality trainees directly benefits our community.”

The student names were in random order, a tradition at USF because each student also brings up a dollar bill and places it in a box. The last student called up wins the cash.

Then, as all 120 students gathered at the foot of the stage so photographers could take group shots, they all cheered in unison, thrilled to have matched.

A USF Match Day first: A FSU senior medical student, Megan McDowell, couples matched with a USF student, Cameron Nereim. The husband and wife will both be conducting their residencies at USF Health Morsani College of Medicine.

Photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Office of Communications

Match Day Archives - USF Health News

Top 10 USF Health News Stories of 2022

1. USF Health and Weill Cornell Medicine earn funding to further develop artificial intelligence that uses voice to diagnose disease.

2. A USF Health patient had very few answers to her condition until she met with Dr. Jolan Walter.

3. Congratulations to our USF Health physicians who made the 2022 list of the country’s top doctors.

4. The USF Health Morsani College of Medicine is on the rise faster than any medical school in the country.

5. A USF Health psychiatry expert explains how the COVID-19 pandemic led to an increased number of patients with Social Anxiety Disorder.

6. No medical school in the country does Match Day like the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine.

7. USF Health and Tampa General Hospital neurosurgeons are the first in Tampa Bay to offer game-changing ultrasound.

8. USF Health was awarded $3.2 million to develop blood tests designed to detect Alzheimer’s Disease.

9. Researchers begin to unlock how gut and oral microbiomes are linked to brain health in older adults.

10. Take a look at all of the USF Health physicians who made the Tampa Magazine list of Top Doctors in 2022.

Finding the perfect Match; USF Health senior medical students are residency-bound

Additional Photos:

USF Health senior medical students match to residencies

Another beautiful Match Day!

Match Day defines the future for students

Lucky match! USF senior medical students learn where they will spend their residencies [video]

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For many students, Match Day is a defining moment

USF Pharmacy students celebrate a successful Match for seniors heading to residency programs

USF College of Pharmacy Class of 2016 Match results

Pirates invade USF Match Day 2016, deliver good news to USF medical students heading to residencies

Gasparilla’s Ye Mystic Krewe pirates and U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor cheer on senior medical students as they learned where they will conduct their medical residencies.

USF med students find their residencies with Match Madness (Multimedia)

Students anticipate USF’s first Pharmacy Match Day

View USF College of Pharmacy Class of 2015 Match Results

Dreams come true at this year’s Match Day