Forty-six percent, or 86 of 186 LSU Health New Orleans graduating medical students participating in the National Resident Match Program this year, chose to remain in Louisiana to complete their medical training. Eighty-one percent of those staying in-state will enter an LSU Health residency program. The LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine residency programs in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Lake Charles, and Bogalusa will accept 229 new residents.
“The current public health crisis emphasizes the critical value of medical and graduate medical education and training,” noted Dr. Larry Hollier, chancellor of LSU Health New Orleans. “These soon-to-be physicians will play a large role in the delivery of medical care here in Louisiana. Since we had to suspend their clinical duties to conserve personal protective equipment and reduce their chances or being exposed to the virus, we are working to organize other ways for them to contribute to the response to the pandemic. These include telephone screening of patients and providing support to our faculty physicians and residents on duty working long hours in our partner hospitals.”
“Match Day this year was an entirely different experience for our fourth-year medical students and their families,” added Dr. Steve Nelson, dean of the School of Medicine at LSU Health New Orleans. “The excitement of reaching this milestone has been tempered by this unprecedented health crisis. We could not hold a ceremony, so our medical graduates received their letters electronically. They privately celebrated the news of where they will go to complete their medical training, and we are pleased that about half of them will stay right here at home.”
LSU Health New Orleans medical graduates who matched training programs in other states will be going to such highly regarded programs as Johns Hopkins, Vanderbilt, Emory University, the University of Alabama-Birmingham, Washington University in St. Louis, University of Michigan, and Duke, among others.