Growing up, little sisters sometimes feel overshadowed by their older sibling.<\/p>\n
But by the fourth year of medical school, Neda Shahriari has worked through that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI need to put aside the whole \u2018my sister\u2019s doing it, I don\u2019t want to do it’ thing. If I\u2019m passionate about something, I should do it,\u201d says Neda.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s four days before Match Day 2017, the fateful day when fourth-year medical students all around the country find out where they\u2019re going to train as doctors. And Neda is explaining why she decided to become a dermatologist. Dermatology\u2019s connection with immunology, how a trained eye can look at a person\u2019s skin and see the signs of deeper health or sickness, captivated her, Neda says. She knew that was what she wanted to do as soon as she learned about it. The only question remaining is where she\u2019ll train.<\/p>\n
Mona Shahriari\u00a0says she loves coming to work each day. Yes, she\u2019s Neda\u2019s big sister, and she happens to be (what else?) a dermatologist at UConn Health. She too was once a fourth-year medical student here, and waited in that combination of happy excitement and abject terror that characterizes fourth-year med students in mid-March.<\/p>\n
\u201cNeda opened my envelope because I was too nervous,\u201d she recalls. And Neda, who had forgotten that dermatologists do an extra year of training before starting their dermatology residency and was confused by the phrasing of the letter, paused.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was thinking \u2018Why is she pausing, what\u2019s wrong?\u2019\u201d Mona says. But then Neda saw the magic words: dermatology and UConn Health. And told her sister the good news. And tears of joy started pouring down her face.<\/p>\n
Mona is still glad now. At UConn Health, \u201cI have the privilege of treating people with very complicated and debilitating skin diseases, and I can give them access to the latest treatment modalities,\u201d she says. And it\u2019s not just the academic powerhouse aspect that she likes. UConn\u2019s dermatology department is \u201cnumber one in terms of camaraderie and unity,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
In the rotunda before the event, Mona says she hopes Neda gets her first choice match. But she\u2019s realistic. Dermatology is a very difficult specialty to get into. Having a strong application is only one part of it. Who interviews you, which medical rotations you do outside your home institution, how strong your competitors are, and how they rank the same programs on their wish lists — all are out of your control.<\/p>\n
But Neda says she\u2019s not too worried. She knows she matched, and she only applied to dermatology programs, so she\u2019s going to be a dermatologist for sure. The only question is where. Eventually, she says, she likes the idea of practicing with her sister.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the future we\u2019ll be colleagues, we can work together,\u201d Neda says. She laughs when asked if they might have their own firm together. Mona agrees, a joint dermatology practice would be a fine thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbsolutely! Both of us are interested in academic medicine,\u201d so working together in a university setting would be ideal.<\/p>\n
Friday morning, the students and their families are milling about, a buzz of excitement in the air as they wait for permission to retrieve their envelopes.<\/p>\n
Faculty members are in the room, too. Some just because they like to join the celebration, but others have skin in the game. Residency program directors are often just as anxious to find out whom their new young doctors-in-training will be. UConn Health has 50 residency programs training 650 doctors at any one time. They are as much at the mercy of the Match Day algorithm as medical students, for they can rank their top applicants but the computer has the final say.<\/p>\n
The clock strikes 12. The announcement is made: \u201cOpen your envelopes.\u201d A pause, a tearing of paper, and then shouting and laughter. The students are happy, and so is Dr. Surita Rao, the UConn Psychiatry program director. She walks over to tell a colleague the good news.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very excited because we got Caleb Battersby, a musician, very bright, and a future psychiatrist!\u201d He\u2019s also a UConn Health medical student.<\/p>\n
Neda\u2019s off to the side, jumping up and down and congratulating her friends, who all matched at their first choice institutions.<\/p>\n
And Neda? She matched with UConn Health dermatology, where she\u2019ll get to train alongside her sister. \u201cShahriari & Shahriari Dermatology\u201d has a nice ring to it, don\u2019t you think?<\/p>\n