PHSU Match Day 2026 Celebrates 95% of Students Matching Across 20 Specialties

95% percent of students from the School of Medicine at Ponce Health Sciences University (PHSU) secured positions in medical residency programs on Match Day 2026, including multiple highly competitive specialties in both Puerto Rico and the United States.

Students matched into 20 specialties, including general surgery, vascular surgery, urology, orthopedics, ophthalmology, dermatology, radiology, neurodevelopment, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, anesthesiology, emergency medicine, pediatrics, and family medicine, reflecting the breadth and diversity of their medical training.

Of the graduating class, 65% will complete their residency training in 22 U.S. states, while 35% will remain in Puerto Rico, contributing to healthcare services on the island.

PHSU’s Doctor of Medicine program, offered at both the Ponce, Puerto Rico, and St. Louis, Missouri, campuses, is accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), the nationally recognized accrediting authority for medical education programs leading to the MD degree in the United States and Canada.

Match Day is a defining milestone in medical education. Organized by the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP), The Match pairs graduating medical students with residency training programs through a computerized algorithm based on mutual preference rankings. Medical schools across the country hold simultaneous ceremonies where students open envelopes revealing where they will spend the next three to seven years of postgraduate clinical training.

“These results are a testament to the hard work and dedication of our students, as well as the ongoing commitment of our faculty and staff to providing a world-class medical education,” said Dr. Olga Rodríguez de Arzola, Dean of the PHSU School of Medicine.

PHSU President Dr. Gino Natalicchio added: “The performance of this class reaffirms the strength of our academic model and our commitment to training healthcare professionals who are prepared to meet the current and future needs of healthcare systems, both in Puerto Rico and globally.”

Notable Placements Across Specialties and Institutions

Students from the PHSU School of Medicine secured notable placements across multiple specialties and prestigious institutions. In dermatology, one of the most competitive fields in medicine, graduates matched into programs at PHSU, the University of Pennsylvania, and Boston University Medical Center. In orthopedics, students secured placements at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, PHSU, Wellstar Health System in Georgia, and Doctors Hospital at Renaissance in Texas.

In internal medicine, students matched at the Medical Sciences Campus, the Veterans Hospital, Episcopal San Lucas Medical Center, and Damas Hospital, among others. Three students matched into PHSU’s psychiatry residency program, including one in rural psychiatry. Additionally, a student matched into a vascular surgery residency at Montefiore Medical Center in New York.

PHSU St. Louis Campus, 100% Match Rate

At the St. Louis Campus, 100% of the Doctor of Medicine program’s Class of 2025 successfully matched into residency programs across eight states and seven medical specialties. Graduates placed into programs at SSM Health / Saint Louis University School of Medicine, St. Louis Children’s Hospital, Mercy Hospital St. Louis, LSUHSC-Shreveport, Mt. Sinai Medical Center-Miami, University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria, University of Texas Medical Branch-Galveston, University of Vermont Medical Center, Florida State University College of Medicine, Wyckoff Heights Medical Center, St. David’s Healthcare GME, and Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine at Washington State University. Specialties represented include anesthesiology, internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics-gynecology, neurology, and transitional year programs. Additionally, PHSU St. Louis graduates secured early match positions in urology and ophthalmology, two of the most competitive specialties in medicine. Notably, three graduates will remain in the St. Louis region for residency training.

Featured Graduate | Shruti Rai

Among the St. Louis Class of 2025, Shruti Rai exemplifies the university’s mission in action. A St. Louis native who completed her undergraduate pre-med education at Saint Louis University, Rai trained at PHSU St. Louis with clinical rotations at both Mercy Hospital and SSM Health, and matched into the Anesthesiology Residency Program at the University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria (UICOMP) at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center — one of the newest anesthesiology residencies in the Midwest.

Rai speaks English, Hindi, and conversational Spanish, skills she applied directly in patient care, including evaluating a Hindi-speaking patient during a late-night emergency medicine rotation when no other staff member could communicate with the patient. She also founded the student Research Club, organized annual research symposiums, collaborated with Vanderbilt University on immunology research, and led a quality improvement project at Mercy Hospital’s ICU focused on reducing readmissions for diabetic patients.

“The opportunity to care for individuals from underserved backgrounds is what truly defines medicine as a service profession,” Rai said. After completing her residency, she intends to pursue fellowship training in anesthesiology with the goal of returning to St. Louis to practice.