A Perfect Match

Daniel P. Smith

While the residency match experience stresses many fourth-year medical students, it proved a worthwhile adventure for the five students enrolled in Loyola University Chicago’s innovative MD/MPH program combining medical training with public health knowledge.

Following the residency application and interview process, medical students across the country provide a ranked list of where they would like to go. Then, on one day in March, the National Resident Matching Program assigns all fourth-year medical students their placement based on a mathematical algorithm accounting for both the students’ ranked list and each residency program’s candidate preferences.

The five Loyola students – Jeriann Collymore, Gabriela Fuentes, Angelika Kwak, Caylon Pettis, and Kellie Steele – all earned their first match.

“The fact all five students got their first choice says a lot about them, their perseverance, talent, and intelligence,” says Amy Luke, professor of public health sciences and director of Loyola’s Medicine and Public Health Scholars program.

The five students will begin their residencies on July 1 as working physicians – and, notably, clinicians prepared to examine health inequities and upstream factors that influence health thanks to their MPH studies at the Parkinson School of Health Sciences and Public Health.

“Through the MPH program, we’ve made these students aware that health is not necessarily driven by the person and their choices alone, but that their environments and other determinants of health, from education system to income level, play a role as well,” Luke says. “Hopefully, they take that knowledge with them and become more holistic physicians and advocates as they progress in their respective careers.”

Jeriann Collymore

Matched with: Family and Community Medicine at Northwestern Lake Forest

On the value of Loyola’s MD/MPH program: “One of my passions is community medicine and obtaining my MPH prior to starting the medical school curriculum provided me with a different lens to view patient care and approach patient encounters. I truly believe treating a patient holistically includes learning and knowing the social determinants of health and how they heavily impact a person’s health.”

Gabriela Fuentes

Matched with: Emergency Medicine at Stanford Medicine

On choosing the MD/MPH program: “While I knew my medical education would teach me how to treat the results of health disparities, I also wanted to learn how to address the causes. In pursuing an MPH with an emphasis in Global Health Equity, I learned how to turn my ‘good intentions’ into being intentional and was able to explore how I could leverage the knowledge, skills, and influence I would have as a physician into sustainable change within underserved communities. Put simply: Medical school will help me become a great doctor, while my MPH will help me become the doctor I always dreamed of becoming.”

Angelika Kwak

Matched with: Department of Family Medicine at the University of Chicago

On taking her MPH studies into her residency: “My MPH allows me to have a deeper understanding of the medical system and the health inequities affecting marginalized communities. It has equipped me with the skillset necessary to make change and has informed me of ways to improve quality of care. I am excited to be in a residency program that focuses training on advocacy for vulnerable populations and incorporates understanding of social determinants of health into care.”

Caylon Pettis

Matched with: Department of Psychiatry and Psychology at the Mayo Clinic

On the most exciting part of entering residency: “I’m most excited to begin serving patients in addiction and adolescent psychology. In the past, we often villainized those facing addiction or labeled them as weak. Now, we better understand the physiological aspects of addiction and treat it as a disease. I’m looking forward to the opportunities to connect with patients and help them lead healthier lives, while also using my MPH to work with policy and advocacy to bring about greater change, especially with addiction being such a serious health issue in America.”

Kellie Steele

Matched with: Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

On the greatest impact of her MD/MPH studies: “Through my MPH studies, I got involved in the COVID Equity Response Collaborative: Loyola (CERCL), an interprofessional collaborative of professors and students from medicine, nursing, public health, and law, and the community. Being a part of CERCL from the beginning gave me real-world experience in advocacy and emergency response efforts and helped me learn about public health on an entirely new level. These experiences reminded why I was going into medicine. I am now taking this experience of interprofessional work and responding to the needs of the community in real time into my residency program.”