Of the 39 students in the Tufts University School of Medicine – Maine Medical Center Maine Track program, 12 will be spending their residencies in Maine.
PORTLAND, Maine – On Friday, the 39 fourth-year medical students in the Tufts University School of Medicine – Maine Medical Center (TUSM-MMC) Maine Track program gathered at the MaineHealth offices on Free Street in Portland for Match Day, a celebration during which students across the country simultaneously learn where they will be spending their three-to-seven-year residencies. Every Maine Track student matched to a high-quality program, and 12 of them, along with six Boston-based Tufts students, found out they would be staying in Portland as residents at Maine Medical Center.
Match Day is the culmination of the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) that fourth-year medical students use to enter their next stage of training. Students apply to residency programs in the fall, and programs interview those they’re interested in. Students then rank the residencies, with the program that they would most like to join at the top, and residency programs enter a ranked list of students. The NRMP matches students and programs, and on Match Day, students find out their residency “match.” Previously, TUSM-MMC Maine Track students participated in Match Day at Tufts in Boston. This year, students requested that they celebrate their residency program match along with friends, family, faculty and staff here in Maine.
“I’m so excited!” said Taylor Mezoian, M23, of Old Orchard Beach, when she learned that she had matched with Maine Medical Center. “I can’t wait to stay here. I’m shedding tears of joy learning about where I’m staying, and then where everyone else is going. I’m just so thankful.”
The Maine Track program is a partnership between MMC and Tufts formed 15 years ago to help address the shortage of doctors in Maine, provide financial assistance to aspiring medical students from Maine and develop an innovative curriculum focused on community-based education. Students receive classroom instruction in Boston before coming to Maine for hands-on training. To date, 362 physicians have graduated from the Maine Track Program, 47 percent of Maine Track graduates have chosen a specialty related to primary care, including family medicine, internal medicine and pediatrics, and 45 percent of those who have completed training report they are now practicing medicine in Maine.
“This Maine Track class of 2023 spent three of its four years of medical school here in Maine – the most of any of our classes so far – and so it’s only fitting that we celebrated Match Day here, too,” said Dena Whitesell, assistant dean for students in the TUSM-MMC Maine Track program. “We are excited to see where these matches take them in this next stage of their health care careers.”
Thirteen students in the Maine Track class of 2023 matched to primary care residencies. MMC also filled all 16 of its primary residency programs. As of May 2023, 401 physicians will have graduated from the Maine Track program since it began.
Note to reporters, producers and editors: High quality photos and videos of TUSM-MMC Maine Track Match Day are available here: https://assets.mainehealth.org/web/4d8f1e2d98d9ed8c/mmc-match-day-2023/
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About Maine Medical Center
Maine Medical Center (MMC), recognized as a Best Regional Hospital by U.S. News and World Report for 2022-2023, is a complete health care resource for the people of Greater Portland and the entire state, as well as northern New England. Incorporated in 1868, MMC is the state’s largest medical center, licensed for 700 beds and employing more than 9,600 people. MMC's unique role as both a community hospital and a referral center requires an unparalleled depth and breadth of services, including an active educational program and a world-class biomedical research center. As a nonprofit institution, Maine Medical Center provides nearly 23 percent of all the charity care delivered in Maine. MMC is part of the MaineHealth system, a growing family of health care services in northern New England. For more information, visit www.mmc.org.