Last Friday, nearly 200 University of Arizona medical students joined 18,818 seniors at U.S. allopathic medical schools across the country to celebrate Match Day, learning where they will spend the next several years training as residents.

Of the 80 graduating College of Medicine – Phoenix students, a little more than one-third are pursuing primary-care fields, the most critical shortage facing Arizona, and 29 will train in Phoenix or Tucson. Overall, the students will continue their studies at residency programs in 20 states.

Of the 114 graduating College of Medicine – Tucson students, a third of the class will remain in Arizona; two will serve the country through military matches; and 26 will continue their medical training at College of Medicine – Tucson residency programs, serving the community where they first started on the path to becoming medical doctors.

According to data from the Association of American Medical Colleges, 75 percent of Arizona medical school graduates who pursue a residency in Arizona will stay in the state to practice. Thirty-eight College of Medicine – Tucson students are remaining in Arizona to train — good news for a state critically short of physicians.

"One of my favorite parts of Match Day is learning which students we will be retaining at one of our UA-Banner residency programs," said Dr. Kevin Moynahan, deputy dean for education at the College of Medicine – Tucson. "It's wonderful to be able to have our medical school graduates stay and complete their training here in our health care system."

Of note, the College of Medicine – Tucson MD-PhD program had two students represented at Match Day.

Matthew Bull learned that he had been accepted into the internal medicine training program at the College of Medicine – Tucson. His doctoral research focus has been on the giant filamentous protein titin, the largest known protein, and how it influences muscle structure and function and its role in heart disease. Alex Sandweiss learned of his acceptance into the residency training program in child neurology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Sandweiss' doctoral research focused on understanding how opioids activate the reward pathway and lead to addiction. His goal is to aid in the development of a non-addictive pain reliever.

At the College of Medicine – Phoenix, Narry Savage and her classmate Alona Sukhina learned they had matched into pediatrics at Phoenix Children's Hospital.  

"I'm very excited to have matched at Phoenix Children's," Savage said. "Their program is amazing, and I have a couple of fellow medical students who matched there as well. The celebration was surreal."