On Match Day 2022, UCSF Fresno program directors and the campus community learned the identities of the 73 physician residents and four oral and maxillofacial surgery residents who will start training at UCSF Fresno in late June. The San Joaquin Valley has one of the lowest physician-to-patient ratios in the state and the region ranks near the bottom in California for health outcomes. Roughly 50% of physicians trained at UCSF Fresno remain in the Central Valley to care for patients, continue their education and teach future physicians. UCSF Fresno aims to recruit, train and retain physicians, especially those with ties to the San Joaquin Valley.
“Our reputation as a regional campus of the consistently top-ranked UCSF School of Medicine continues to grow,” said Lori Weichenthal, MD, Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education at UCSF Fresno. “We filled all available residency training positions for the 16th year in a row. Our focus is on training highly skilled, culturally competent physicians who have the tools to be resilient in the increasingly complex field of health care.”
Match Day takes place every year in March and is the time when graduating medical students across the United States, including students in the San Joaquin Valley Program in Medical education (SJV PRIME), receive emails simultaneously that reveal where they will spend the next several years conducting the graduate medical education (residency) necessary to practice medicine in the U.S. It’s also the day when residency programs like UCSF Fresno learn the identities of the first-year residents or interns who will join their training programs.
Six SJV PRIME medical students pursued residency programs this year. The students include:
- Gagandeep Dhuggais from Livingston, California, and a graduate of UC Davis
- Kao Houa Vang is from Fresno, California, and a graduate of UC Berkeley
- Michael Montoya is from Visalia, California, and a graduate of UC Merced
- Harjot Singh-Virk is from Fresno, California, and a graduate of UC San Diego
- Tyler Wilson is from Fresno, California, and a graduate of Fresno State
- Ka Xiong is from Merced, California, and a graduate of UC Davis
All six of the SJV PRIME students are staying in California for residency training and to provide much needed care. Four will be staying in the Central Valley with one staying on at UCSF Fresno. Tyler Wilson matched with the UCSF Fresno Emergency Medicine Residency Program.
“I am beyond excited I get to train to become an emergency medicine doctor in my own community at one of the best EM programs in the country,” said Wilson. “I matched at my number one choice and it’s truly a dream come true.”
“Congratulations to all our SJV PRIME students. It is especially rewarding when SJV PRIME students match with UCSF Fresno,” said Kenny Banh, MD, assistant dean for Undergraduate Medical Education. “It allows us to continue training students from the Valley to care for Valley community members.”
“Increasing and diversifying the physician workforce and training physicians who come from and understand the Valley communities they serve is imperative to improve health outcomes in the San Joaquin Valley,” said Loren I. Alving, director of the UCSF SJV PRIME. “Recruiting, training and retaining physicians for our region is what UCSF SJV PRIME seeks to do.”
Medical school graduates typically register with the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) as part of the Match Day process. The NRMP utilizes a mathematical algorithm to place applicants into residency and fellowship positions. Medical school graduates or interns will then begin residency training at the hospital or program where they “matched. A similar “match” occurs for fellows and sub-specialty training each year in December.
Other medical school graduates from the Valley will be among the interns starting training at UCSF Fresno in June include:
Carolina Aparicio, graduated from Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and matched with the UCSF Fresno General Surgery Residency Program.
“I am from Bakersfield, so I know how amazingly creative, hardworking, and resilient the people of the Valley are. It is truly an honor and privilege to come home to serve the communities of the Valley and train as a surgery resident at UCSF Fresno,” said Aparicio. “UCSF Fresno is the perfect place to do surgical training, especially if one is interested in trauma surgery. While at UCSF Fresno, I want to be a positive path for change. I hope to be a worthy role model for first-generation kids from communities like the one I grew up in.”
Fresno native Andrea Collins graduated from the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine and matched with the UCSF Fresno Psychiatry Residency Program.
“My parents still live in Fresno, and I look forward to being close to them. I’ve lived in the Midwest and missed the warmth, sunlight and culture of California. I look forward to caring for underserved patients throughout the Central Valley and helping meet the need for more local physicians The residents, faculty and staff who I met on my interview day were kind and encouraging.”
Anuvir Singh, who moved to the San Joaquin Valley from India when he was in ninth grade, matched with the UCSF Fresno Emergency Medicine Residency Program. Singh is a graduate of the UCSF School of Medicine Urban Underserved Program in Medical Education and alumnus of the UCSF Fresno Doctors Academy at Sunnyside High School.
“Life has truly come full circle. My first clinical volunteering experience was at UCSF Fresno while in high school and now I’m heading back home as an ED physician,” said Singh. “I’m beyond excited to learn from, work with and uplift my community.”
The UCSF Fresno residency programs that participated in the NRMP match received 7,889 applications and conducted 913 interviews for 73 positions, filling all available residency positions. UCSF Fresno fellowship programs that took part in the October/December NRMP match received 1,922 applications and conducted 203 interviews for 19 positions. Non-NRMP programs filled available positions through another matching service or through interviews and offers. The UCSF Fresno Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Residency Program received 214 applications and conducted 20 interviews for 4 available spots.
“Offering local students the opportunity to complete medical school and pursue residency training in the Valley is vital to keeping them in the region,” said Michael W. Peterson, MD, associate dean for Undergraduate Medical Education and Research at UCSF Fresno. “Undergraduate medical education (medical school) and graduate medical education (residency) are inextricably linked. It’s the continuum of a well-documented pathway that will help keep them in the region.”
UCSF Fresno currently offers residency training in eight medical specialties, one oral and maxillofacial surgery dental residency, fellowship training in 18 medical sub-specialties and three residency programs for physician assistants.
