Aloha!
Match Day is an important milestone in the lives of medical students. It’s an annual rite of passage that sets the stage for a physician’s career. It’s also a day of affirmation, a time to celebrate years of hard work and dedication in preparing for medical residency training.
According to the National Resident Matching Program, this year’s match was the largest on record. There were more than 42,000 medical school students and other registered applicants vying for 30,750 positions worldwide. Internal medicine residency programs clearly led the way, offering more than 7,000 positions.
As with all residency programs across the country, Match Day was an exciting time for us. Personally, it stirred up the feelings and memories from my own Match Day when I was a fourth-year medical student at the UC San Diego School of Medicine and was thrilled to know I would be able to come back home to Hawaii and participate in an internal medicine residency program at the University of Hawaii, John A. Burns School of Medicine.
I’m very pleased to announce our next five internal medicine residents. Three of them are proud University of Hawaii, John A. Burns School of Medicine graduates: Li-Hsieh Chen, MD; Maegan Doi, MD; and Valynn Pham, MD. We’re also thrilled to welcome Henry Lew, MD, who graduated from the Charles Drew/UCLA Medical Education Program; and Punahou graduate Daniel Moreno, MD, who studied at the Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara Facultad de Medicina in Guadalajara, Mexico. Watch for more information about these fine candidates as they prepare to join our first group of hard-working residents and the rest of the internal medicine team in June 2016.
The interview season and Match Day process provide a wonderful opportunity for us to meet some of the country’s brightest young women and men through hundreds of hours of interviews with prospective residents. In addition to screening candidates for excellent board scores, outstanding recommendations, and compelling personal statements, the interview process helps us determine which of these emerging doctors will best be able to thrive in our highly collaborative instructional environment.
Mahalo to everyone who applied to our program in 2015. We wish all of you tremendous success in your careers as healers, leaders, and partners in medicine.
Mahalo,
Mitch Motooka, MD, FACP
Program Director,
Kaiser Permanente Hawaii Internal Medicine Residency Program