Touro College In Harlem Celebrates Successful Residency Matches

Nearly all of the 118 students graduating from Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (TouroCOM) in Harlem this coming June who sought residencies have been successfully matched.

The majority following a highly spirited selection process that has landed them at selective hospitals renowned for their excellent training.

“This year’s match list year shows that our students are going to extremely competitive programs at major academic medical centers throughout the country, and at the same time many have matched to hospitals committed to serving the underserved, a cornerstone of our mission,” said Executive Dean Robert Goldberg, DO.

Fifty percent of the class chose primary care, placing into specialties that include family medicine, pediatrics, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology. Fifty-six percent are staying in the New York metropolitan area, with a majority working in medically underserved communities. Eleven percent are underrepresented minorities.

Included among the area’s prestigious, and vital medical centers receiving TouroCOM graduates are Albert Einstein Medical Center, Hofstra North Shore Long Island University, Icahn School of Medicine, New York Medical College, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Stony Brook Hospital, SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Orange Regional Medical Center, Staten Island University Medical Center, and Palisades Medical Center.

In other parts of the country, the graduates will be residents at Albany Medical Center, Children’s Hospital of Michigan, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Drexel University, Rush University Medical Center, Temple University Hospital, Thomas Jefferson University, UC San Francisco, University of Chicago, and Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Reached in Miami, where he is finishing up his last rotation before beginning his residency at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in emergency medicine, Aldo Manresa said he was “ecstatic” about his match. Miami is Manresa’s hometown, and the former president of the school’s student government association said he has wanted to work in emergency medicine since his early college years.

“I love the challenge of developing rapport with people I don’t know – in minutes, or seconds. When people are at their worst, it’s up to us to instill trust and comfort them. The diversity of medical conditions we deal with in the emergency department is very exciting,” he said.

He added that eventually he might aim to become a medical director of a fire department, where he could impact best practices in emergency care on a larger scale.​

Gabrielle Rozenberg, TouroCOM’s “DO Student of the Year,” also was excited to land her first choice – in family medicine at Atlantic Health System Overlook Medical Center in Summit, New Jersey. Rozenberg said she had always been headed toward family medicine and after her rotation at AHS during her fourth year of medical school she knew a residency there would be her goal after graduation.

“I want to be a clinician first and foremost, and to me, family medicine is medicine,” she emphasized. “It’s taking care of a patient from the moment they’re born to when they pass, and taking care of people when they are healthy as opposed to just treating them when they are sick. It’s truly the essence of community and medicine.”

Olga Jacques, who was born in Brooklyn but raised in the Bronx, also wanted family medicine and in an underserved community, in particular. Her aim was to stay in New York City and she got her first choice as well – at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx, where she will be working at an outpatient clinic that coordinates care for patients with teams of specialists. 

“It’s a great family medicine program located in an underserved community. I know how their outpatient clinic works and I’m very grateful for this opportunity,” said Jacques.

The model followed at St. Barnabas meets the needs of the local community because the physicians coordinate patient care with behavioral health specialists, social workers and others, she explained.

“All of that is in one clinic. It may not be just a medical issue, therefore such coordination will bring about a better quality of care,” Jacques said. “It’s a great endeavor to bring this coordinated care to under resourced communities…especially because [they] lack access to these services.”

All of the TouroCOM students will become osteopathic physicians; however, they were eligible to apply for both allopathic (M.D.) and osteopathic (DO) residencies. The allopathic residency “matches” are made by the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) and the osteopathic matches by the National Matching Services (NMS). NRMP residencies are open to students at both allopathic and osteopathic medical schools. The NMS residencies are open only to DO students. Selections are based predominantly on student performance while on rotations at hospitals, as well as their national board scores.

For further information on Touro College, please go to: http://www.touro.edu

Photo credit: Students from Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine’s Class of 2016 celebrating at a Residency Match Party, left to right: Gabrielle Rozenberg, Sarah Rooney, Kim Tuyen, B. Lam, Shelley Co and Olga Jacques.