News Release

Medical Graduates Express Confidence in LSUHSC Graduate Medical Education in Ophthalmology Early Match

Dr. Larry Hollier, Chancellor of LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, announced today that all eight positions in the 2006 Ophthalmology Residency Program Match at LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans’ School of Medicine filled, half in the school’s top ten rank order list, seven of the eight in the school’s top twenty.

The match, which was conducted at the end of January, is for PGY (postgraduate year)-2 positions. Ophthalmology is one of the specialties that conducts an early Match–in January, rather than the Main Match conducted by the National Resident Match Program in mid-March. “The confidence that these bright young medical professionals have expressed in the quality of our graduate medical education is gratifying,” said Dr. Hollier. “Our faculty and staff have overcome never-before-faced obstacles to maintain the excellence of the training experience we offer our residents, while at the same time safeguarding Louisiana’s supply of physicians.”

In addition to Louisiana residents, slots were filled by out-of-state applicants from such programs as Baylor, Loma Linda, and Washington University. Two are flight surgeons.

As in the Main Match program, after the interview process is complete, both applicants and programs list their choices in rank order. The rank order lists are programmed into a computer database which matches applicants with residency programs.

“LSUHSC’s Ophthalmology Residency Program has always been quite competitive,” said Dr. Donald Bergsma, Professor and Ophthalmology Chairman. “Our clinical program has been known as an excellent one.”

Despite the challenges caused by the flooding following failed levees after Katrina, even out-of-state applicants ranked the LSUHSC Ophthalmology program high on their lists.

“The LSU program stood out as the strongest program,” said Major Yuri McKee, M.D., a flight surgeon currently stationed at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona who matched the LSUHSC Ophthalmology Residency Program. In choosing a program, the major, who flew combat search and rescue missions in the Middle East, considered a number of factors, including the number of faculty and sub-specialties. “The depth and experience of the faculty are unsurpassed,” he said. He also had questions about the case volume post-Katrina. “They showed us the hard numbers, before and after, and the number of cases went up.” Before he made his decision, McKee wanted to talk to current residents to see how they felt the program had weathered the storm. “The residents I talked to are happy with the measures taken and with how things are going. That’s important because you can’t learn if you’re unhappy”

After New Orleans evacuated, Dr. Bergsma and his faculty not only expanded clinical opportunities at existing sites, such as Earl K. Long in Baton Rouge, Leonard J. Chabert in Houma, and Ochsner in Jefferson, they added new clinical sites–at Lallie Kemp in Independence, University Medical Center in Lafayette, and Bogalusa Medical Center.

“That we were able to attract such impressive young people to our program is a good indicator that we are going in the right direction,” noted Dr. I. Butler Fuller, Ophthalmology Residency Program Director.
Erin Farrell, a native New Orleanian who graduated from Ben Franklin and the University of Texas at Austin with an economics degree, also chose LSUHSC for her residency training. “I chose the LSU/Ochsner Ophthalmology program because I felt they had a strong, well-rounded program with good exposure to all aspects of ophthalmology with a very varied patient base and good surgery numbers that also provided a good foundation for possible fellowships.” Farrell, who will graduate from the School of Medicine at LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans in May, had another reason for her decision to stay home. “I also have a very strong connection with New Orleans and wanted to be a part of the rebuilding process.”

McKee, who packed his bag anticipating a call for hurricane response duty on August 29th, summed it up this way. “Not a lot of programs have proven they can withstand adversity. Unfortunately, this one had to, and they did it well. They were given a huge number of lemons, and they made a huge batch of lemonade.”

For more information, contact Leslie Capo, Director of Information Services, LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, cell phone (504) 452-9166.