Dr. Newman celebrates Match Day with UK medical students
Match Day is a milestone moment in the lives and careers of medical students all across the country. On Friday, Dr. Mark Newman, UK HealthCare’s executive vice president, returned to his old stomping ground to help some excited students celebrate that special day.
Dr. Newman participated in the Match Day ceremony for the University of Kentucky College of Medicine’s Bowling Green campus, where soon-to-be graduates of the inaugural class of UK’s four-year medical school program learned where they’d take the next steps in their blossoming careers. The ceremony was held at The Charleston, a venue in downtown Bowling Green.
“It was a joy to return to Western Kentucky and celebrate so many promising medical students embarking upon this important chapter of their lives,” Newman said.
Match Day ceremonies occur annually and simultaneously at medical schools across the United States. Students gather and open letters to learn what residency program they will attend and on what specialty they will focus. The students list their top choices and the National Resident Matching Program (NMRP) places them based on the needs of hospital residency programs.
University of Kentucky students on the main campus in Lexington and another satellite campus run in collaboration with Morehead State University also learned their residency destinations during ceremonies on Friday. Next year, graduates at the satellite campus at Northern Kentucky University will experience Match Day for the first time.
These satellite programs are part of UK’s effort to address the physician shortage in rural areas of the state with the goal of improving access to care and the overall health of the entire Kentucky community.
“Health equity is a key goal of our efforts at UK HealthCare, and expanding our footprint throughout Kentucky to support ambitious young medical students will help us reach it,” Dr. Newman said.
Dr. Newman understands the excitement of Match Day, and the western part of the Commonwealth holds a special place in his heart – after all, it’s where the roots of his career in medicine took hold.
Dr. Newman grew up near Owensboro in a farming family and earned his undergraduate degree in biology from Western Kentucky University. He attended medical school at the University of Louisville on a U.S. Air Force scholarship and after graduating, completed a fellowship at Duke University. Following active duty deployments for the Air Force, Dr. Newman returned to Duke and spent 25 years as a clinician, educator and researcher while also serving in leadership roles.
Dr. Newman’s career came full circle in 2017 when he returned to his home state to serve as the leader of UK HealthCare’s vast academic medical enterprise. Friday marked another special moment for Dr. Newman, as he returned to the region of his roots to celebrate Match Day with fellow Western Kentuckians who took a major step in their medical careers, just as Dr. Newman did years ago when he stepped off the family farm to begin his journey in medicine.
