The following is a joint statement from Isabella Grumbach, MD, PhD, Interim Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine, and Manish Suneja, MD, Vice Chair for Education and Director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program.

The Department of Internal Medicine celebrates the incoming class of interns for the 2022–23 academic year. Lessons learned from last year’s first-ever virtual recruitment, although clearly successful, led us to make some minor alterations to this year’s recruitment. Last year we hoped that we would not have to do this again, but the pandemic had other plans for us. So, before we go any further, let us first extend a few words of thanks.

First, to a truly outstanding Education Leadership team, our administrative staff, our Chief Residents, our Associate Program Directors, each of them barely blinked when it became clear we would once again be recruiting virtually. They saw what needed to be done and got to work. To the generous and thoughtful faculty members who sat on interview teams, thank you for taking the time to interview and to discuss with applicants what makes our program such a rare gem in a sea of choices. Your very presence on the panels sent a clear message that the members of our department see education as the vital center of everything we do.

And, of course, thank you to the residents themselves. One thing that we did not change in this year’s recruitment from last year was to emphasize our most important assets: their future co-residents. We introduce prospective residents to the people who work here, the people who challenge here, the people who inspire here, and the people who grow here. And the truth is that each one of our residents’ wears all of those hats on a regular basis.

We are certain that our strategy and efforts in this year’s Match have paid off. This incoming class of interns is arriving with a trove of accomplishments already to their credit. The medical schools where they studied are among some of the best in the country and we will soon update our map. They come from 22 programs in 20 states, including 9 graduates from our Carver College of Medicine. (Watch their page for data on how many of Iowa’s graduating medical students choose internal medicine as their specialty.) These 34 interns also include 9 preliminary trainees, who after a year in Internal Medicine will go on to residency in other specialties. That total also includes 2 Medicine-Psychiatry residents and 1 trainee entering our Physician-Scientist Training Pathway.

What will emerge in the coming weeks, months, and years is that Iowa’s Internal Medicine Residency Program did not recruit this remarkable class of interns because we have one of the best programs in the country, but the reverse. Each class of incoming residents brings with them a commitment to excellence, a desire to learn and to teach, and a passion for providing world-class care to everyone. It is these qualities they share with our faculty who will train them that makes Iowa one of the best programs in the country. Class after class of interns is transformed by our educators, but they also shape those of us who have the great privilege to guide them through this next stage of their careers. To this incoming class, we say: We are up to the challenge, and we know that you are too. Welcome to Iowa!