Students at the Augusta University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership participated in a “Virtual Match Day” at noon on March 19 to receive their post-graduation assignments for residency programs.
This marks the second year that the COVID-19 pandemic has altered the usual Match Day plans—in past years, students, faculty and staff gathered in George Hall on the UGA Health Sciences Campus to celebrate with family and friends. The Class of 2021 opted to have their own private celebrations with family and friends instead of a socially distanced event on campus. This year, students also had to interview virtually with most residency programs because of travel restrictions due to the pandemic.
An annual event, Match Day takes place after students participate in interviews and visits to residency programs in Georgia and across the country. To determine the post-graduation assignments, the students ranked residency programs where they would like to complete their training, at the same time the residency programs ranked the student applicants. The lists are then submitted to the nonprofit organization National Resident Matching Program in Washington, D.C., which uses an algorithm that aligns the choices of the applicants with those of the residency programs. Most students were matched via the NRMP, but some students participated in smaller match programs, including ophthalmology.
The final pairings were announced simultaneously across the U.S. at noon.
“Graduating Medical College of Georgia students from the Augusta University/ University of Georgia Medical Partnership experienced their ‘rite of passage’ today when they learned where they will spend the next several years on their journey to becoming licensed physicians,” said Dr. John Francis, campus associate dean for student and multicultural affairs. “The match is representative of all the hard work these students have accomplished over the past four years. We are so proud and fortunate that these students are part of our campus and community.”
Brian “Quinn” Peragine matched at Georgetown-Washington Hospital Center.
(Submitted photo)
“This is the eighth successful match at the Augusta University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership,” said Dr. Michelle Nuss, the campus dean. “The accomplishments of these 38 MCG students have landed them at top-tier residency programs across the nation. The students will be going to 18 different states plus Washington, D.C., in 17 different specialties, with 65 percent staying in the southeastern United States and 46 percent joining primary care programs. Thank you to the faculty, administrators, staff and physician mentors in our community who have devoted their time and efforts to educating our future physicians.”
Some of the most popular specialties this year included emergency medicine (5), internal medicine (5), family medicine (4) and anesthesia (4), with 32 percent of all matched students doing an internship or residency program in Georgia.
The medical matches
AU/UGA Medical Partnership participants in Match Day 2021 received the following residency appointments. They are listed by name, residency institution and specialty:
- Irenna Agazie, Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, Georgia, family medicine
- Abdilatif Abdulhakim, Northside Hospital Gwinnett , Georgia, transitional year
- Sahar Alimohamadi, UPMC Medical Education, Pennsylvania, vascular surgery
- Brett Askins, University of North Carolina Hospitals, internal medicine
- Lindsey Baer, PGY1 Piedmont Athens Regional, transitional year, PGY2 Emory University School of Medicine, Georgia, physical medicine and rehab
- Wendi Bao, Brown University/Rhode Island Hospital, pediatrics
- Peter Bodunrin, PGY1 Emory University School of Medicine, transitional year, PGY2 Emory University School of Medicine, ophthalmology
- Wesley Brown, University of Alabama Medical Center-Birmingham, emergency medicine
- Shelby Buckner, Stony Brook Teaching Hospitals, New York, pediatrics
- William Butler, PGY1 Piedmont Athens Regional, transitional Year, PGY2 Medical University of South Carolina, radiology-diagnostic
- James Cho, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard, anesthesiology/PG 1-4
- Constance Ediale, PGY1 Northside Hospital Gwinnett, Georgia, transitional year, PGY2 Howard University Hospital, dermatology
- Kendall Flanigan, PGY1 University of North Carolina Hospitals, preliminary medicine, PGY2 University of North Carolina Hospitals, dermatology
- Kelsey Garcia, Madigan Army Medical Center, Washington, obstetrics-gynecology
- Jordi Gaton, Texas A&M-Bryan/College Station, family medicine
- Shouron Ghassemlou, Richmond University Medical Center, New York, obstetrics-gynecology
- Nathan Harris, Baylor University Medical Center-Dallas, Texas, emergency medicine
- Xiaodong Hua, Medical College of Georgia anesthesiology
- Tony Huynh, University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix, orthopedic surgery
- Riley Jay, Louisiana State University School of Medicine-New Orleans, pediatrics
- Terrance Johnson, Medical College of Georgia, family medicine
- Cyril Lukianov, Medical University of South Carolina, neurology
- Jiaqi Mi, WellStar Kennestone Regional Medical Center, Georgia, internal medicine
- Emily Morris, Medical College of Wisconsin Affiliate Hospitals, Wisconsin, neurological surgery
- Jack Neppl, Medical College of Georgia, anesthesiology
- Jungmin On, Northside Hospital Gwinnett, Georgia, transitional year
- Sherayar Orakzai, Rush University Medical Center, Illinois, interventional radiology
- John Parker, Coliseum Medical Centers, Georgia, emergency medicine
- Brian “Quinn” Peragine , MedStar Washington Hospital Center/Georgetown-Washington Hospital Center, Washington, D.C., emergency medicine
- Deborah Shim, Barnes-Jewish Hospital, Missouri, obstetrics-gynecology
Class of 2020 residency appointments
- Zachary, Dattilo, University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, anesthesiology
- Naser Ibrahim, Tulane University School of Medicine, Louisiana, neurological surgery
- Harrison Grace, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, child neurology
Class of 2017 residency appointments
- Palmer Feibelman, Brown University/Rhode Island Hospital, ophthalmology