With recruitment season in full swing at the University of Arizona Department of Medicine, applicant interviews with candidates for our 15 fellowship programs are about to finish and those for residency programs at the UA College of Medicine – Tucson main and south campuses are about to begin.
“It’s an important time of year where we like to put our best foot forward in introducing ourselves to prospective fellows and residents in order to attract the best ones possible to train with us next year,” said Ken Knox, MD, DOM vice chair for education, chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine and a professor of medicine and immunobiology.
Now, after reviewing thousands of IM Residency Program applications, hundreds of applicants will be arriving at the UA College of Medicine over the next few months to interview for open positions that begin next July 1.
Residency candidate interviews begin Nov. 2 at main campus and Oct. 26 at south campus.
“Currently, we have received 3,437 applications,” said Eugene Trower, MD, South Campus IM Residency Program director and a professor of medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology. “We will interview 144 people for 10 spots open in our residency program. That’s just at South Campus.”
For the main campus IM Residency Program, about 3,644 applications have been received for 28 available spots. More than 250 candidates will be interviewed, said Laura Meinke, MD, University Campus IM Residency Program director and an assistant professor of medicine. About 125 residents are currently in training at both campuses, with first-years referred to as PGY-1s, second-years as PGY-2s and third-years as PGY-3s.
IM Residency interviews are expected to be complete by the end of January. Medical students will learn which hospitals they’ll get paired with through the National Resident Matching Program at the next Match Day event hosted March 18, 2016, at academic medical centers across the country. UA festivities for Match Day are in DuVal Auditorium.
Dermatology has its own residency program within the DOM that accepts PGY-2 subspecialty candidates who may be applying simultaneously for a first-year (PGY-1) general medicine internship and the PGY-2 dermatology residency positions, said Mary Dickinson, UA Dermatology Residency Program coordinator. They’re not necessarily applying for both at the UA College of Medicine. Some PGY-2 candidates also may have completed their PGY-1 internship at another institution.
“We have about 469 applicants for two positions. We usually interview between 40 and 45 candidates,” Dickinson said. “Those folks who we’ll be interviewing that match with us on Match Day 2016 would be hired on July 1, 2017.”
For now, though, fellowship program directors, managers and coordinators will submit rankings for their match lists in a few weeks. Fellowship matches for UA Department of Medicine programs are announced in December.
“As we wrap up our fellowship recruitment season, the department thanks all of the faculty members who participated in interviews,” said Helen Hill, a fellowship program manager. “We look forward enthusiastically to our match results in December.”