Spring forward

I learned an Iowa-weather-related phrase earlier this month: “Spring of Deception”! Despite the scary-sounding name, I’m choosing to look at that recent brief stretch of 70-plus-degree weather as less of a trick and more of an appetizer before the main course. Even just a couple days of springtime weather has gotten me thinking about my favorite season. I am prepared to be impressed by how Iowa “greens up.” Spring is a time for rejuvenation, for anything that was dormant to rouse, to unfurl and reach for the sun. I hope you all get some time to emerge into the outdoors and soak it up.

One big marker of spring I am already used to no matter what state I live in is the conclusion of residency recruitment season. Who doesn’t get excited about Match Day? I want to reiterate my congratulations to our residency program’s leadership and administrative teams and all the faculty who helped interview so many potential candidates. They carefully reviewed more applications than in any year to interview and then build a highly competitive rank list. This means that not only has Iowa’s internal medicine program filled all of its open slots, but it did so with a remarkably accomplished class. I loved getting to participate in the Chief Residents’ annual tradition of the reveal video here (with a Taylor Swift theme ☺️) and I hope that our interns know that they’re joining a program that believes in them and prioritizes education, growth, AND fun! I also love our annual tradition where we keep track of where these medical students come from on this updated map. Miami to Seattle, California to Rhode Island, everywhere in between, and even beyond the US borders, everyone agrees that Iowa is one of the greatest places to train residents.

Upi’s “OH, WOW” moment
No one knows this better than our own medical students in the Carver College of Medicine. The other lens to view Match Day through is the results of their match, which the college celebrates in style. It is such a big moment for them, and it is thrilling to see the joy they share with friends, family, and the faculty who have supported them over four years. A quick glance over some of the stats here shows impressive data. More than a third of these neo-MDs will train in internal medicine and a quarter will stay at Iowa. (A quarter of our incoming interns are also Iowa grads!) This week and next, a couple dozen Iowa grads heading into internal medicine will go through the Transition to Residency “boot camp,” which grows and refines year after year. You can read more about the inaugural year here and see Year Two here.

Photo for reflection
I knew I wanted to include a photo of some flowers for this week, but the problem was deciding which of these to choose! I went with these tulips for a few reasons. Each flower in this bunch is unfurling at its own speed. Some are already fully opened, others still in bud, making the move when they are fully ready. It is a good reminder that although we can tend our gardens with watering and weeding, our flowers will bloom when they do. Some gardens grow beyond their borders and we have to move some plantings to new soil. One of our growing gardens is our new Division of Hospital Medicine, which is poised to flourish in its own distinct plot. With a large influx of new faculty and growing need to manage diverse inpatient populations at multiple locations, this is the right time to reorganize. Best wishes to their new interim division director, Dr. Jeydith Gutierrez, and her team as they prepare the soil for the flourishing of flowers to come.