UCSF Fresno welcomes residency students for 16th year in a row

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Medical facilities in Central California will soon welcome some new faces.

During this year's Match Day, celebrated on the third Friday of March, graduating medical students learned where they'll be completing their residency program.

Anuvir Singh was jumping for joy in a recorded video after he found out he was matched into UCSF Fresno's Emergency Medicine residency program -- his number one choice.

"I just felt like my heart was so full," recalled Singh. "Like every little emotion in my body was heightened in a positive way."

Singh is one of several medical students returning home to the Central Valley to continue their graduate medical education.

"It was really important to not only come back here and fill the healthcare shortage gap but also serve my community," he said. "In a broader sense that I could talk to them in their language, I could offer resources to them in their language."

Singh moved to the Valley from India when he was in ninth grade. His father was a farmworker, and his mom worked at Foster Farms in Fresno. It sparked his passion for ag worker and immigrant health.

It's also what made him a great candidate for UCSF Fresno's residency program, which focuses on improving diversity in healthcare, so Valley doctors represent the patient population.

Dr. Lori Weichenthal, the assistant program director for UCSF Fresno's Emergency Medicine, said studies show patients respond best to doctors to who they can relate to.

"You, as a patient, are more likely to be responsive and more likely to take care of yourself in the way that that person is asking you to do," she said.

Residents will work up to 80 hours a week at local hospitals.

Dr. Weichenthal said it's a tough program but is excited to see so many students called to the medical field.

"This is the perfect place where I want to practice medicine and learn medicine," Singh said.

The emergency med program is four years.

Anuvir hopes to stay in the Valley afterward, serving the community as an ER physician.