Subspecialties? That’s our specialty

The 2004 Match shows that Yale students, like their peers, want a niche to call their own.

By Ilene Wong

“Have any of you guys been having Match nightmares?” one of my classmates asked in March, a week or so before the 2004 residency placements were announced for 25,000 U.S. medical students (including 107 here in New Haven). Many of us had indeed slept fitfully while waiting to learn where we would be spending the next phase of our training, and for good reason. Yale medical students flocked this year toward the most competitive subspecialties, and with precious few slots in these programs, the process was more than a little nerve-wracking. “It can be a real game of chance,” Nancy R. Angoff, M.P.H. ’81, M.D. ’90, HS ’93, the associate dean for student affairs, had warned us. “There are no guarantees.”

The late 1990s saw a shift away from subspecialty training in favor of generalist careers. More than half the students in the Yale classes of 2000 and 2002, for example, chose residencies in internal medicine, family practice and pediatrics, and nationally the figure was higher. This year, fewer than 40 percent of Yale students entered these tracks, favoring instead such highly sought-after fields as dermatology and radiology, which also carry higher salaries. One reason seems to be debt, which will average $109,457 for graduating students this year, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. Another is the desire for a controllable lifestyle with less call and shorter hours. Families have changed, and most physicians will not have a stay-at-home spouse to support a round-the-clock practice. But beyond this, Yale medical students may be predisposed to subspecialize because that is where their curiosity leads them. My classmates are likely to want to become experts in a field and to call something their own.

For nearly every medical student, Match Day is the undeniable climax of four years, a day in which anxiety yields to profound certainty with the rip of an envelope. I approached the third Thurs-day in March on a more even keel than most. Like 16 of my classmates who applied for the early-match specialties (otolaryngology, neurology, neurosurgery, ophthalmology and urology), I had received an early-morning call in January informing me of my match. One moment I was being roused from sleep by a ringing phone; the next I knew for certain where I would be and what I would be doing for the next six years. Many of my friends were on rotations or in class that morning, so my celebration was protracted and intimate. I shared the news with my family and distant friends by phone in the quiet of my room.

March 18, however, was an entirely different matter. After spending the morning discussing professionalism with John S. Hughes, M.D., HS ’76, and other faculty members, we filed into the Marigolds dining area at 11:40 (our itinerary for the day had helpfully noted that from 11:30 to noon, we would experience a time when the “tension mounts”). Family members, significant others and classmates taking a fifth year joined the jittery crowd. At noon the doors to Harkness ballroom opened and my classmates rushed in to open their envelopes. There was a lot of joy and just a little bit of disappointment as people met their match. At around 12:10 the full match list was released and students huddled in groups to marvel at the collective picture, which was on the whole incredibly rosy: an unprecedented 12 students matched in dermatology; a dozen future pediatricians almost uniformly matched at their first choice; six students apiece placed in the competitive fields of orthopaedics, ophthalmology, urology and radiology.

At times it seemed like there were too many people to congratulate. Eliza Auerbach, who will be going to Columbia for pediatrics (her first choice), summed up the sentiments of many of my classmates, noting that she was “happy, but overwhelmed.”

Vernee N. Belcher was ecstatic about staying at Yale for internal medicine/primary care. But even before tearing open that fateful envelope, she reflected that we all had much to be grateful for by having been at Yale Med: “No matter where we match, it’s clear we will all be great doctors.”

Ilene Wong is beginning her residency in urology this summer at Stanford.

2004 residency placements for Yale medical students

The Office of Student Affairs has provided the following list, which outlines the results of the National Resident Matching Program for Yale’s medical graduates. Some names appear twice because the graduate is entering a one-year program before beginning a specialty residency. The transitional designation is a one-year program with three-month rotations in different specialties.

CALIFORNIA
California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco
Paul Kim, radiation oncology

Contra Costa Regional Medical Center, Martinez
Pramita Kuruvilla, family practice

Harbor–UCLA Medical Center, Torrance
Chirag Shah, emergency medicine

Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, San Jose
Paul Kim, transitional

St. Mary Medical Center, Long Beach
Ragui Sedeek, medicine-preliminary

Stanford University Programs
Bao Duong, emergency medicine
Katharine Fast, internal medicine
Saif Ghole, general surgery
Cambria Hembree, internal medicine
Ilene Wong, surgery-preliminary, urology

University of California, San Francisco
Michael Eisenberg, surgery-preliminary, urology
Mona Kotecha, anesthesiology
Liana Kretschmar, pediatrics
Roberto Lugo, orthopaedic surgery
James McCabe, internal medicine
Harsimran Singh, internal medicine

CONNECTICUT
Hospital of Saint Raphael, New Haven
Paul El-Fishawy, medicine-preliminary
Cinthia Guzman, transitional
Nabil Salib, general surgery
John Soderberg, medicine-preliminary

Yale-New Haven Hospital
Nduka Amankulor, surgery-preliminary, neurosurgery
Vernee Belcher, internal medicine/primary
Michael Bloch, psychiatry-adult/child
Victoria Bruegel Sanchez, orthopaedic surgery
Severine Chavel, medicine-preliminary, dermatology
Keith Choate, medicine-preliminary, dermatology
Oscar Colegio, medicine-preliminary, dermatology
Craig Dushey, orthopaedic surgery
Rina Garcia, internal medicine/primary
Grahame Gould, surgery-preliminary, neurosurgery
Michael Greenspan, internal medicine
Cinthia Guzman, ophthalmology
Karl Haglund, medicine-primary-preliminary
Joseph Harburger, internal medicine
Byron Kennedy, general surgery
Elaine Kung, medicine-primary-preliminary
Elin Lisska, internal medicine
Kavita Mariwalla, dermatology
Paola Uranga, general surgery
Erica Wang, obstetrics and gynecology

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Georgetown University Hospital
Heather Shelsta, transitional

Walter Reed Army Medical Center
Clifton Mo, internal medicine

Washington Hospital Center
Mona Kotecha, medicine-preliminary

ILLINOIS
University of Chicago Hospitals
Jennifer Blair, emergency medicine
Melissa Kirkwood, general surgery
Elaine Kung, dermatology

MARYLAND
Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore
Renee Boynton-Jarrett, pediatrics
William Burns, general surgery
John Koethe, internal medicine

National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda
Suneil Ramchandani, internal medicine

MASSACHUSETTS
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston
Wei Chan Hwang, internal medicine
Benjamin Negin, internal medicine
Jared Weiss, internal medicine

Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston
Mark Berman, internal medicine/primary
Ugonna Duru, obstetrics and gynecology
Darlene Gabeau, radiation oncology
Karl Haglund, radiation oncology
Timothy Henrich, internal medicine
Christopher Herndon, obstetrics and gynecology
Stephanie Holler, diagnostic radiology
Alfred Lee, internal medicine
Jacqueline William, pathology

Carney Hospital, Boston
Ryan Jean-Baptiste, medicine-preliminary

Children’s Hospital of Boston
Virginia Cohen, pediatrics
Rupali Gandhi, pediatrics
Dena Springer, pediatrics
Rachel Willner, pediatrics

Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston
Ben Kim, ophthalmology

Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
Allyson Bloom, internal medicine
Amir Fathi, internal medicine
Kavita Mariwalla, medicine-preliminary
Ashraf Thabet, diagnostic radiology
Parsia Vagefi, general surgery
Erik Weiss, surgery-preliminary, urology

Mount Auburn Hospital, Cambridge
Darlene Gabeau, medicine-preliminary
Ben Kim, medicine-preliminary

MICHIGAN
University of Michigan Hospitals, Ann Arbor
Sarah Kohnstamm, internal medicine

NEW HAMPSHIRE
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon
Jennifer Fines, pediatrics
Adam Pearson, orthopaedic surgery
Hilary Ryder, internal medicine

NEW JERSEY
UMDNJ–New Jersey Hospital, Newark
Robyn Siperstein, dermatology

NEW MEXICO
University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque
Lawrence Goldstein, emergency medicine

NEW YORK
Albert Einstein College/Jacobi Medical Center, Bronx
Jessica Newman, dermatology

Albert Einstein College/Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx
Brent Little, diagnostic radiology
Jane Schneider, medicine-preliminary

Beth Israel Medical Center
Jessica Newman, medicine-preliminary

Lenox Hill Hospital
Elizabeth Arleo, medicine-preliminary

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Richard Awdeh, transitional
Stephanie Holler, transitional

Mount Sinai Hospital
Bahar Firoz, medicine-preliminary
Tamiesha Frempong, medicine-preliminary
Brent Little, medicine-preliminary

New York Eye and Ear Infirmary
Ragui Sedeek, ophthalmology

New York Medical College at St. Vincent’s Hospital
Ashraf Thabet, medicine-preliminary

New York Methodist Hospital, Brooklyn
Ryan Jean-Baptiste, diagnostic radiology

New York-Presbyterian Hospital–Columbia
Eliza Auerbach, pediatrics
Paola Ayora, pediatrics
Cordelia Carter, orthopaedic surgery
Caroline Jjingo, internal medicine
Daniel Prince, orthopaedic surgery

New York-Presbyterian Hospital–Cornell
Elizabeth Arleo, diagnostic radiology

New York University School of Medicine
Bahar Firoz, dermatology
Rachel Levy, internal medicine/primary
Reena Rupani, medicine-preliminary

SUNY Health Science Center, Brooklyn
Jane Schneider, dermatology

University of Rochester/Strong Memorial Hospital
Emily Lambert, medicine-preliminary-neurology, dermatology

NORTH CAROLINA
Duke University, Durham
Richard Awdeh, ophthalmology
John Soderberg, dermatology

University of North Carolina Hospital, Chapel Hill
Shannelle Campbell, general surgery

OHIO
Cleveland Clinic Foundation
Edward Cho, surgery-preliminary, otolaryngology

PENNSYLVANIA
Albert Einstein Medical Center, Philadelphia
Robyn Siperstein, transitional

Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh
Eduardo Marchan, surgery-preliminary, neurosurgery

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Spencer Epps, pediatrics
Laura Mobisson, pediatrics

Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Charles Baillie, internal medicine
Kathryn Davis, medicine-preliminary, neurology
Myriam Fernandes, obstetrics and gynecology
Sean Lucan, family practice
Alejandro Necochea, internal medicine
Alejandro Reti, pathology

Scheie Eye Institute/University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Tamiesha Frempong, ophthalmology

Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia
Ada-Nkem Nwaneri, family practice

Wills Eye Hospital, Philadelphia
Heather Shelsta, ophthalmology

RHODE ISLAND
Rhode Island Hospital/Brown University, Providence
Reena Rupani, dermatology

TEXAS
University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, Dallas
Jenny Yiee, surgery-preliminary, urology

WASHINGTON
University of Washington Affiliated Hospitals, Seattle
Rajasekhara Ayyagari, surgery-preliminary, urology
Zachary Goldberger, internal medicine
Eric Gustafson, pediatrics
Grace Kalish, diagnostic radiology
Marco Salazar, surgery-preliminary, urology

Virginia Mason Medical Center, Seattle
Grace Kalish, transitional

In a darkened Harkness, video reigns king of the second-year show

An ad from the Office of Admissions in the program for this year’s second-year show congratulated the Class of 2006, then playfully added, “We were the first to spot your extraordinary talent.” While watching this buoyant and risqué midwinter revue any given year, one has to wonder if singing, dancing and writing ability might not factor into the admissions process to some small degree. For an amateur show, it’s pretty good entertainment—especially for insiders who get the jokes and barbs.

This year, videography topped the list of talents behind a sophomoric (by definition) production titled Not Another 2nd-Year Show. The title may have been a reference to the near-total absence of plot. Digital camcorders and do-it-yourself editing software have fueled an increasing number of video sketches as part of the show each February, and the trend was strong enough this time to keep the stage clear of performers for good chunks of the evening.

Among the highlights on screen was an opening video sequence taken from The Sopranos, with a cigar-smoking Craig Platt navigating an SUV through the gritty highways approaching downtown New Haven. Snippets of video enabled the show’s creators to parody the movie Top Gun, with Associate Dean Nancy R. Angoff, M.P.H. ’81, M.D. ’90, HS ’93 (in the role of the sexy flight instructor) playing opposite Doug Lyssy’s headstrong Maverick, who rode a red Ducati motorcycle onto the stage. Another movie parody cast Davendar Khera and Timmy Sullivan as arch rivals in a sendup of the Ben Stiller/Owen Wilson comedy Zoolander called “Zoolabber.”

A series of video interviews with faculty members including Michael J. Caplan, Susan J. Baserga, Herbert S. Chase and Lawrence J. Rizzolo allowed student Simon Best to embarrass his victims with trick questions on advanced topics in science (“If the ridge line of a house is pointing due south, and on a sunny day a rooster lays an egg precisely on the center of that ridge, which way will the egg roll?”). A Saturday Night Live-inspired segment gave the school’s registrar the chance to bowl over unruly students in the persona of “Terry Tolson, Student Affairs Office Linebacker.” And one of the most original clips was produced by Todd Ebbert, whose 2-year-old daughter, Alia, excelled as a young med student in the making in a sketch titled “Kaplan for Kids.” (She correctly pointed to her frontal cortex, xiphoid process and patella.)

The live-action portion of the show included a clever piece called “Heart Sounds,” patterned after gallops and murmurs; a Tahitian dance number choreographed by Stacy Uybico and Joel Hernandez; amazing break dancing by Eddie Teng; and a tender and comedic pas de deux by Craig Platt and Deepak Rao. Continuing a tradition of exploring the limits of taste, a number titled “Club Moist” probed New Haven’s club scene and the full range of sexually transmitted diseases one might encounter among the clientele.

In the end, lacking a plot didn’t seem to hamper the ability of Not Another 2nd-Year Show to charm and entertain. For the past five or six years, most of the story lines had revolved around former Dean David A. Kessler, M.D., who left Yale last June for a similar post in California. This show, too, managed a nod to Kessler in its final number, “We Lost Our Dean to San Francisco,” which was sung by Angoff, Interim Dean Dennis D. Spencer, M.D., HS ’77, Admissions Director Richard A. Silverman and former Deputy Dean Robert H. Gifford, M.D., HS ’67.

The proceeds of the show, more than $3,000, were donated to the Community Health Care Van in New Haven.

—Michael Fitzsousa


			Originally published in Yale Medicine, Summer 2004. Copyright © 2004 Yale University School of Medicine. All rights reserved.