To Be...A Spartan MD

Graduation for the College of Human Medicine Class of 2018 is this weekend as we prepare to give our best wishes to the next crop of Spartan MD's. Including students who participated in the National Residency Match Program (NRMP), students who participated in the Advanced Match, and students who participated in the Military Match, 96 percent of those seeking residency secured a match this past March. A total 37,103 applicants entered the match for 33,167 positions, the most ever offered in the Match. Both of those figures are record-highs that made the 2018 Main Residency Match the largest match on record, according to the NRMP . The College of Human Medicine (CHM) contributed 163 students to that total. From those who matched, 42.5 percent are entering a primary care residency, the exact same percentage from a year ago for the Class of 2017. While the percentage is the same, there were particular changes to the top six specialties: 1. Internal Medicine (23 graduates...

For many years, third- and fourth-year students in the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine have used their spring break to go on medical mission trips all over the world. This year, dozens of first- and second-year students joined them on trips to Haiti and Cuba, as part of the new Shared Discovery Curriculum , which places students in clinical settings a few weeks into their first year. Jack Wesley, a first-year medical student, said he wasn’t all that worried about giving physical examinations to real patients – checking children’s blood pressure, poking their fingers for blood tests and palpating their abdomens for masses. Nor did he mind spending his spring break in an impoverished country nearly 2,000 miles from home, where he used his newly acquired skills to provide health care for children who otherwise would go without it. “I honestly felt very prepared,” Wesley said. “If there was anything the College of Human Medicine did well, it was preparing...