Prisma Health–Midlands and the University of South Carolina School of Medicine welcome incoming class of resident physicians

High percentage of program graduates remain in the state to provide advanced specialty care for South Carolinians

Photo: Front row, from left: Elizabeth Ramsey, Jaya Ruffin, Rebekah Ward. Back row, from left: Griffin Schultz, Brandon Hanna, Neelam Mulji, Carter DeGennaro, PJ Riddle.

COLUMBIA, SC – Prisma Health–Midlands and the University of South Carolina School of Medicine faculty and staff welcome the new class of first-year resident physicians after receiving the long-awaited results of Main Match Day 2019. On Friday, March 15, 83 medical students learned they matched with Prisma Health–Midlands to begin their postgraduate residency training in Columbia this summer.

The group includes 29 graduates from South Carolina medical schools, including the University of South Carolina School of Medicine in Columbia, the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville, Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine–Carolinas, and the Medical University of South Carolina College of Medicine. The 2019 incoming class hails from a total of 48 U.S. medical and osteopathic schools and four international medical schools.

“Prisma Health–Midlands’ growth as an academic medical center and leader in advanced medical training attracts outstanding candidates for all of our residency and fellowship programs,” said Katherine Stephens, PhD, vice president for medical education at Prisma Health-Midlands and associate dean for graduate medical education at USC School of Medicine. “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.”

Prisma Health–Midlands currently offers 15 specialties for residency training. Each physician accepted for residency has earned a degree from an accredited medical school and has the title of 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 19 fellow physicians in 16 sub-specialty postgraduate programs also were welcomed prior to the Main Match, for a total of 102 physicians beginning their programs at Prisma Health–Midlands this summer in 31 specialty areas.

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 179 medical schools and 830 participating academic health care systems and sites that sponsor medical residency education in United States locations where the results of the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) are announced. The 2019 Main Residency Match is the largest on record, with 44,600 registered applicants and more than 35,000 positions offered.

Since 1972, the Graduate Medical Education program at Prisma Health–Midlands has awarded postgraduate certificates to more than 2,583 resident and fellow physicians and dentists, and nearly half of these graduate physicians and dentists have remained in South Carolina to practice medicine. In 2020, Prisma Health–Midlands will celebrate 100 years of providing advanced medical training in South Carolina.