A high percentage of program graduates remain in the state to provide medical care for South Carolinians
COLUMBIA, S.C. – Palmetto Health and the University of South Carolina School of Medicine faculty and staff welcome the newest group of first-year resident physicians after receiving the long-awaited results of Main Match Day 2018. On March 16, 75 medical students learned they matched with our health care system to begin their residency training this summer at Palmetto Health. The group will include 24 graduates from South Carolina medical schools including University of South Carolina School of Medicine-Columbia, Edward Via School of Osteopathic Medicine-Carolinas Campus and the Medical University of South Carolina. The 2018 incoming class hails from 38 U.S. medical and osteopathic schools and four international medical schools.
Katherine Stephens, Ph.D., vice president for Medical Education and associate dean for Graduate Medical Education at USC School of Medicine, said, “Palmetto Health’s growth as an academic medical center and leader in advanced medical training attracts outstanding candidates for all of our residency and fellowship programs. We are delighted to have, once again, filled all of our available residency openings. Academic medicine is at the heart of discovering innovative treatments, cures and providing critical services that save lives every day.”
Main Match Day is an important day for graduating medical students and is a celebration for participating medical schools, medical residency programs and teaching hospitals. The Main Match occurs annually on the third Friday in March at each of the 155 medical schools and 693 participating academic health care systems and sites that sponsor medical residency education in U.S. locations where the results of the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) are announced. This year, 37,103 applicants competed for 33,167 residency positions across the nation, setting a record high for NRMP participation.
Resident physicians at Palmetto Health practice medicine in 15 specialties. Each new physician has earned a degree from an accredited medical institution, and has the title Doctor of Medicine or Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine. Under the supervision of highly trained attending physicians, resident physicians complete their graduate medical education at the Midlands’ only health care system that provides medical residency training.
Earlier this academic year, six doctors of dental medicine and 26 advanced resident physicians and fellow physicians in 16 sub-specialty graduate medical education programs that are not participants in the Main Match also were welcomed, for 101 incoming resident and fellow physicians training in 31 specialty areas. The number of advanced training opportunities continues to grow.
Since 1972, the Graduate Medical Education program at Palmetto Health has awarded postgraduate certificates to more than 2,300 resident and fellow physicians, and nearly half of these graduate physicians have remained in South Carolina and continue to provide care for citizens across the state. In 2020, Palmetto Health Richland will celebrate 100 years of providing advanced medical training in South Carolina.
For more information about the Palmetto Health and the University of South Carolina School of Medicine residency and fellowship program, visit residency.palmettohealth.org.
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