March 18, 2022
Match Day figures revealed that eighty-six percent of the graduating LSU Health New Orleans medical students who are staying in-state will enter an LSU Health residency program. Nearly 50% of the LSU Health New Orleans graduates chose to remain in Louisiana to complete their medical training (forty-eight percent, or 84 of 174 participating in the National Resident Match Program this year.) LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine residency programs in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Lake Charles and Bogalusa will accept 222 new residents.“The fact that nearly 90% of our graduates remaining in Louisiana chose an LSU Health residency program demonstrates their high degree of confidence in the quality of our training programs,” notes Dr. Steve Nelson, Interim Chancellor of LSU Health New Orleans. “Though our outstanding students have many options, we are proud that they elected to stay home, with us. LSU Health New Orleans continues to supply the physicians who take care of the people of Louisiana.”
The percentage of LSU Health New Orleans medical graduates going into primary care is 54% this year. Primary Care specialties include Family Practice, Internal Medicine, Medicine-Preliminary, Medicine-Primary, Obstetrics-Gynecology, Pediatrics, and Medicine-Pediatrics. OB-GYN is not always included in primary care data; however, in some Louisiana communities the only physician is an OB-GYN.“This is a day that our senior students have anticipated for years,” says Dr. Richard DiCarlo, LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine Interim Dean. “The Match process has become increasingly competitive, but our students did very well. That is a testament to the quality of our students, the excellence of our faculty, and the dedication of our leaders in the Offices of Student Affairs and Medical Education.”
“LSU Health New Orleans medical graduates are in demand.” adds Dr. Cathy Lazarus, Associate Dean for Student Affairs at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine. “Those who pursue different experiences at this stage of their training are going to some of the most prestigious out-of-state programs. Many of them will bring the benefits of these experiences home when they return to Louisiana to practice.”
LSU Health New Orleans medical graduates who matched training programs in other states will be going to such highly regarded programs as Duke, Vanderbilt, Columbia, Georgetown, the University of Alabama-Birmingham, the University of California San Francisco, and Brown University, among others.The National Residency Matching Program was established in 1952 to provide an orderly and fair mechanism to match the preferences of applicants for U.S. residency positions with residency program choices of applicants. The program provides a common time for the announcement of the appointments, as well as an agreement for programs and applicants to honor the commitment to offer and accept an appointment if a match results.
Residency programs will begin on July 1, 2022.