Book review Match day One day and one dramatic year in the lives of three new doctors Brian Eule St. Martin’s Press. New York, New York, USA. 2009. 261 pp. $24.95. ISBN: 978-0-312-37784-7 (hardcover). Reviewed by Jehan El-Bayoumi The George Washington University Medical Center, Washington, DC, USA. E-mail: [email protected]

Every year in March, very close to Saint write about their innermost hopes as well gram director stating that married male Patrick’s Day, around 15,000 graduating as their vulnerabilities — with the respect residents make for more stable residents, medical students open letters telling them that comes from having befriended each whereas their female counterparts may be which medical facilities they will be work- of them over the course of the year and more problematic, since they inevitably ing in for the next several years of their lives. a half that he spends chronicling their feel the pull of their outside responsibili- The complex task of pairing up students lives; time that includes following them ties. What is interesting is that at times, and their preferred programs through their grueling first year of resi- the propagation of some of these biases is conducted by a complicated computer dency, known as . may actually be perpetuated by women algorithm known as the Match. What Eule manages to do, while engag- faculty who themselves were the victims In his wonderful book Match Day: One ing us in these personal and human sto- of such stereotyping and discrimination. Day and One Dramatic Year in the Lives of ries, is educate us about the process of the The author himself is put in the position Three New Doctors, Brian Eule follows the Match: how it came to be, from its origins of feeling somewhat defensive about his real-life journeys of three young women in the early 1950s to its current state, as career as a journalist and a writer in light that we meet as fourth-year medical stu- well as some of the controversies, such of his girlfriend’s surgical career. In a bit dents who are going through the agoniz- as an antitrust lawsuit that was filed in of role reversal, while female spouses of ing process of deciding where they want 2002 by a resident and two former resi- physicians are viewed as having a “good to end up for their residency training pro- dents alleging that the National Resident catch” in a doctor, it ain’t necessarily so grams in their chosen fields, all the while Matching Program (NRMP) along with for the husbands or boyfriends of doctors. keeping their fingers crossed that they too several professional associations and Furthermore, to think that this is a book will be chosen by their top program. The medical schools kept wages low by deny- that only speaks to the issues that women whole idea of matching is akin to the awk- ing them the right to negotiate. He also physicians face would be to miss the soci- ward pairing of a couple — “matching” shows us how the debt that students accu- etal discourse about professional women sounds like courting. Indeed, Eule intro- mulate at the end of their four years of who find themselves in the intricate dance duces these three young women to us not medical school ultimately impacts career of finding the ever-elusive work-life bal- simply as random members of a couple, choices, making the coveted R.O.A.D. ance. An alternate title might have been but rather as three complex lives embark- (radiology, , anesthesiol- Match Day: Are Women Doctors Really Equal ing on what will be a challenging career in ogy, ) to happiness a goal for and Able to Achieve Balance While Finding medicine. We get an up-close and personal many. Eule infuses this book with well- True, Long-Lasting Happiness? In summary, view of the excitement, the fears, the dis- researched facts and information, while Brian Eule’s book is a well-researched look appointments, and, ultimately, the agony maintaining the focus on these women’s at the process by which fourth-year medi- of making the choice. Deciding where to stories. To have stopped with just their cal students end up at their chosen insti- go, but, also, where not to go. Choosing narratives would not have done justice tutions for residency training, while shar- what each one wants, but also forgoing to what ends up being a case study for ing the very compelling stories of three dreams and sacrificing, not always so eas- women grappling with the complex deci- women who weathered the storm. Not ily, so that a spouse can have the hopes of sions involved in trying to negotiate a only did they match, but they survived the finding a job in the same city. Eule does career in medicine as well as a life outside legendary internship year and lived to tell this with concern for and sensitivity to his of the field, often with children. The soci- about it. Match Day is about the coming of three subjects — one of whom he is dating etal double standard is exposed over and age and loss of innocence that all young and all of whom give him full license to over again, with examples such as a pro- adults eventually face in life.

1366 The Journal of Clinical Investigation http://www.jci.org Volume 120 Number 5 May 2010