Celebrating their matches were, from left: Haran Sivakumar, University of California, San Diego (Family Medicine); Ali P. Subat, University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center (Anesthesiology); Imikomobong “Micky” Ibia, Massachusetts General Hospital (Emergency Medicine); and Stephen Trinidad, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (General Surgery).
At Match Day 2018, graduating medical students opened their envelopes to learn which residency programs they would be attending during the next phase of their training. Joining them were family members, friends, and Mount Sinai Health System physicians and staff, who offered hugs and congratulations.
But first there was an announcement by Peter Gliatto, MD, Senior Associate Dean, Undergraduate Medical Education and Student Affairs, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai: “I’d like to start with a 45-minute lecture and some PowerPoints,” Dr. Gliatto told the anxious students, to laughter and scattered moans. But he quickly made it clear that he was joking. “Actually, I just want to say how proud we all are of you and the amazing things you’ve done for yourselves, for our school, for our city, and for our world. I’m not exaggerating that.”
During the event on Friday, March 16, in the Annenberg West Lobby, 139 graduating students were matched to residency programs throughout the country, including highly competitive ones at Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Johns Hopkins Medicine; Massachusetts General Hospital; the University of California, San Francisco Medical
From left: Fatemeh Parvin-Nejad was matched with Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School (General Surgery); Marielle Young with Massachusetts General Hospital (Pediatrics); and Caitlin Pacheco with Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center (Otolaryngology).
Center; and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Thirty-four students will remain within the Mount Sinai Health System to continue all or part of their graduate training. They were among 18,818 students around the nation who participated in this year’s Match Day event, the largest so far. Match Day is managed by the National Resident Matching Program, a nonprofit organization that uses an algorithm to align the preferences of applicants with those of residency programs.
Imikomobong “Micky” Ibia was “really excited and really grateful” to learn that he will study emergency medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. He said he chose the field so that he could interact with patients from all walks of life and someday help build “sustainable acute medical care in my birth country of Nigeria.” Fatemeh Parvin-Nejad will go to Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School for training in general surgery, which she finds “fulfilling on many levels” because it allows her to work with her hands and help some of the sickest and most underserved patients.
Benjamin Laitman, PhD, who was matched with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (Otolaryngology), celebrated with his father, Jeffrey T. Laitman, PhD.
Benjamin Laitman was thrilled to be staying at Mount Sinai since it is home in just about every way: He was born at The Mount Sinai Hospital, and over the years at Mount Sinai, his grandfather was a Chair of Neurology; his grandmother attended nursing school; his mother graduated from the School of Medicine; and his father—who attended Match Day with a proud smile—is Jeffrey T. Laitman, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Medical Education and Professor of Otolaryngology. Benjamin Laitman earned his PhD in neuroscience in 2016 and will now train in otolaryngology. He called the surgeons, clinicians, and scientists “masters of the head and neck” in an “amazing” field that intersects with many others.
The class members will receive training in 22 specialties, including 27 graduates in internal medicine; 12 in emergency medicine; 11 in obstetrics and gynecology; and 9 each in general surgery, pediatrics, anesthesiology, and psychiatry. The rest will pursue other specialties, including family medicine and neurology. As its graduates were receiving their matches, the Mount Sinai Health System was extending residency offers to students from around the country. The new residents, who will arrive in July, include graduates of the nation’s top schools, among them Harvard Medical School, the Stanford University School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Medicine, the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and the New York University School of Medicine.
“As the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai celebrates its 50th anniversary, we could not be more proud of our students, who exemplify the School’s culture of innovation, mentoring, clinical excellence, commitment to the community, and biomedical research,” says David Muller, MD, Dean for Medical Education and the Marietta and Charles C. Morchand Chair for Medical Education. “Our students will bring these values and skills to the nation’s best medical programs as they pursue the next phase in their careers.”
Mariel Pullman, left, was matched with New York Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia University Medical Center (Neurology), and Les James with the New York University School of Medicine (General Surgery).