FRESNO – UCSF Fresno Medical Education and Research Program recently filled all of its new medical resident positions for the 2012-2013 academic year.
Seventy-nine new residents will arrive in Fresno in late June to begin training in specialties, including emergency medicine, family and community medicine, internal medicine, obstetrics/gynecology, orthopaedic surgery, pediatrics, psychiatry and surgery.
A number of the new residents have ties to the Valley:
- Although he was born in the former Soviet Union, Timothy Galan considers the San Joaquin Valley home. Galan came to the United States from Ukraine in 2000. He earned a nursing degree in 2005 and relocated from Minnesota to Modesto, where he worked as a registered nurse at Memorial Hospital. Galan met his wife in Modesto and they started a family. He decided to go back to medical school in 2008 and is currently finishing up his medical degree at the University of Minnesota. Galan will arrive at UCSF Fresno later this summer to train in orthopaedic surgery, a five-year program.
- Rachel Goerzen graduated from Selma High School in 2002. Goerzen attended California State University, Fresno, graduating in 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in biology and minors in chemistry and women’s studies. She took a year off from school then entered Lincoln Memorial University as part of that campus’s second cohort of medical students. She will graduate in May and start residency training in family medicine at UCSF Fresno in June.
- At the age of 9, Vincent Whelan was diagnosed with Fibrodisplaysia Ossificans Progressiva, a rare and incurable genetic condition where muscles and other connective tissue turn into bone. The condition greatly impairs mobility. Whelan was inspired to become a doctor by physicians he met through his diagnosis and treatment, including those at Children’s Hospital Central California. He will graduate from UC Irvine School of Medicine this June and start residency training in pediatrics at UCSF Fresno. Whelan is a graduate of San Joaquin Memorial High School. His mother is a professor at California State University, Fresno.
UCSF Fresno received 4,200 applications for 79 residency slots. Of that number, 800 applicants were interviewed. Applicants were then “matched” with UCSF Fresno through the National Resident Matching Program. As a national standard, when both the resident and prospective program mutually select one another, a “match” has occurred.
Thirty to 50 percent of medical residents who graduate from UCSF Fresno remain in the area to practice and provide care for patients in Fresno and the Central San Joaquin Valley.
According to the Association of American Medical Colleges and data released by the National Resident Matching Program, the number of medical school seniors who matched with residency positions this year is the highest match in 30 years. More than 95 percent of medical school seniors nationwide matched with residency positions. U.S. medical seniors made up 15,712 of the 22,934 applicants who matched to first-year positions. A total of 26,772 positions were offered in the 2012 match, an increase of 614 positions over 2011.
In addition to the residents, 15 new fellows will begin training at UCSF Fresno later this summer in sub-specialties, including acute care surgery, cardiovascular disease, emergency ultrasound, gastroenterology, infectious disease, minimally invasive surgery, pulmonary and critical care, and surgery critical care.
The UCSF Fresno Medical Education Program, established in 1975, plays a substantial role in providing healthcare services to residents of California's San Joaquin Valley and training medical professionals in the region. The medical education program has trained approximately one-third of Central San Joaquin Valley physicians. Annually, UCSF Fresno currently trains approximately 245 medical residents in eight specialties, 45 fellows in 12 subspecialties and about 250 medical students on a rotating basis.
UCSF Fresno faculty and medical residents engage in a broad spectrum of research addressing health issues pertinent to the Valley. UCSF Fresno faculty and residents also care for the overwhelming majority of the region’s underserved populations. In addition, UCSF Fresno provides academic preparation programs for middle- and high school students interested in the health professions through the Doctors Academy and Junior Doctors Academy. UCSF Fresno is a key partner in the UC Merced San Joaquin Program in Medical Education.
UCSF is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. For further information, visit http://www.ucsf.edu
