CI MED Class of 2023 Members Chosen for Top-Ranked Residency Programs, Competitive Specialties

Members of Carle Illinois College of Medicine’s (CI MED) Class of 2023 are breaking new ground as residents in some of the top-ranked medical programs in the country starting in July. Their individual success during this year’s residency match process positions them to bring a physician innovator’s mindset to the hospitals and patients they serve, from Boston to San Francisco. It’s the second consecutive year that CI MED’s graduates have been selected for coveted residency positions, poised to impact patient care and to begin changing the face and practice of medicine.

Match Day 2023 brought Carle Illinois’ soon-to-be MD graduates offers for residency positions in highly competitive medical specialties, including orthopedic surgery, neurosurgery, anesthesiology, radiation oncology, and diagnostic radiology. The college’s second group of graduates will serve as residents at some of the top teaching hospitals in the U.S., including Northwestern in Chicago, Mayo Clinic, Massachusetts General Hospital (Harvard), and Stanford.

The placement of CI MED students in elite residency programs and competitive and diverse specialties is a testament to the quality of CI MED’s training programs and the caliber of its students. “It is truly exciting and remarkable to see the expansion of our incredible physician-innovators across the country, influencing great residency programs with their talents and unique skillsets," Dean Mark Cohen said. "In just the last year, I have witnessed impressive growth and recognition of Carle Illinois College of Medicine both nationally and globally as a new and exciting paradigm for medical education that many universities are currently trying to replicate. With the graduation of this wonderful class, and these truly impressive Match results, I am convinced that physician innovators will be even more highly sought after each year by top health systems and institutions around the world.”

CI MED’s Class of 2023 matched into 15 different specialties in 13 states. Students are given the option to share their Residency Match results. Class of 2023 members who chose to make their results public are listed below, by specialty.

CI MED’s female physician innovators continue to forge new paths as future leaders in medical specialties in which women are under-represented. Bailey MacInnis becomes the college’s second female graduate to match into orthopedic surgery, following in the footsteps of Christina Mouwad (class of 2022). MacInnis was selected to serve as a resident at the prestigious Mayo Clinic, considered one of the top orthopedic programs in the country. “It’s a huge accomplishment, and Christina was a really good mentor for me,” MacInnis said. Three of her classmates -- Anton Christensen (Western Michigan), Linus Lee (Georgetown), and Rahul Ramanathan (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center) -- will also specialize in orthopedic surgery. “We had a lot of great success. I think that’s a testament to some of the mentorship we were able to get here.  The principles in ortho apply a lot of engineering, and that attracts a lot of like-minded people,” MacInnis said.

Lindsey Ades shed happy tears when she learned she matched into her chosen field of pediatrics at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston – an affiliate of Harvard. “For me, it’s always been peds, I knew it from the start. I’m beyond excited to match at one of the top programs in the country and to bring all I’ve learned at Carle Illinois with me,” Ades said.

Anant Naik’s path to medical residency has been a long and, at times, a challenging one that culminates in several firsts: he’s CI MED’s first student to match into neurosurgery, one of the most competitive medical specialties; personally, he’s a first-generation immigrant and the first physician in his family. Naik emigrated with his family from India, worked his way to an undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering, and came to CI MED as part of its inaugural class.

“I just fell in love with the field of neurosurgery, and once I knew that was the field for me, I just committed heart and soul,” Naik said. Because his chosen specialty is complex and demanding, Naik took an extra year in medical school to conduct research and prepare for residency match with away rotations at other hospitals. During his research year, Naik served as CI MED’s student government president and worked closely with physicians at Carle Health’s Neuroscience Institute and other students to significantly expand CI MED’s neurosurgery footprint. “Research is so important to the field of neurosurgery. Innovation in neurosurgery relies on people publishing their findings, and I recognized that we would have to build an infrastructure to generate the research output to compete with other programs outside the country.” Naik has co-authored publications in top professional journals and represented CI MED at professional conferences. The work has paid off in a thriving neurosurgery interest group and lab, where students gain valuable advanced experience.

From early in his medical school career, Jacques Lowe developed a passion for emergency medicine. He’s excited to carry that commitment forward at Kaiser Permanente in San Diego. “I know the reputation is that you’re a ‘jack of all trades,’ but emergency medicine is really diversified, and I like the procedures you have to know and use. Plus, working in emergency medicine also supports vulnerable communities, and that was something that was very important to me,” Lowe said. He hopes to follow up residency with a fellowship in wilderness medicine.

CI MED’s 2023 Match Day also resulted several students who will serve their residencies in Illinois, including several at Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana. Among them is Bara Saadah who led a team to innovate a new anti-fatigue vest to help surgeons combat fatigue during long or physically demanding procedures. Saadah will specialize psychiatry in the city he’s called home throughout his academic career, from elementary school to medical school. “I love this city. I have a lot of faith in the hospital, I have a lot of faith in the community, and I want to continue to give back,” Saadah said.

While residency candidates in most specialties learn their results on Match Day, matches in special categories including the military, ophthalmology, and urology are revealed earlier.

Kanesha Overton learned she was the first female from CI MED to match into the male-dominated specialty of urology in January 2023. “Personally, this means everything to me. The goal was to match in urology, and I not only matched but also matched at a phenomenal program,” said Overton, who will serve for five years at the University of Washington. “Professionally, I know that this is a program that will support my future endeavors including device development, research interests, and fellowship opportunities.” Overton’s ultimate goal: to return to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign someday as Carle Illinois’ dean.

Residency match is a competitive process in which fourth-year medical students across the U.S. vie for a limited number of openings in specialties and hospitals offering advanced training under the supervision of experienced clinicians. A ‘match’ occurs when there’s agreement between the medical student’s preferred program and the residency program director’s list of top applicants. Results are kept confidential until students receive official ‘offer’ letters on Match Day.

Carle Illinois College of Medicine is the world’s first engineering-based medical school, created in 2015 as a partnership between the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Carle Health. CI MED’s unique curriculum emphasizes human factors, design thinking, medical technologies, and entrepreneurship to prepare caring, compassionate, and skilled physician innovators for the practice of modern medicine. Carle Illinois graduated its first class in 2022 and is now home to 185 students and more than 700 affiliated clinical and academic faculty members.