Adriana Facchiano, of Allentown, said being matched to a physician residency program at St. Luke’s University Health Network is a dream come true.

The Lehigh Valley native and fourth-year student at Temple/St. Luke’s School of Medicine, will begin her residency training in emergency medicine at St. Luke’s for the next three years, a specialty that draws on her passion for a fast-paced and challenging clinical setting with a varied mix of patient populations and disease processes, according to a recent news release.

Facchiano looks forward to multi-tasking and using her diagnostic and hands-on skills as she takes care of the community she has lived in all her life.

Facchiano is one of 15 Temple/St. Luke’s School of Medicine students who matched to a St. Luke’s University Health Network residency March 17 on Match Day.

Facchiano and her Temple/St. Luke’s peers attended the Match Day ceremony held at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University in Philadelphia. On that traditional day in medicine, they learned of their paths for advanced, post-medical school training after graduation.

Match Day is a national event for medical school students moving onto residency programs when medical students are matched to top choice of residencies.

This “match” news is conveyed to each student through an envelope medical students open at noon on Match Day.

Postgraduate medical education can last from four to seven years, including residency and fellowship.

The Temple/St. Luke’s School of Medicine at St. Luke’s University Hospital in Fountain Hill is the Lehigh Valley’s first and only four-year medical school.

By cultivating homegrown medical talent, St. Luke’s is helping the region to secure its health and well-being amid a worsening doctor shortage nationally, according to a news release from SLUHN.

“National Match Day is a pivotal and unforgettable milestone for every medical student across the country,” Senior Associate Dean of Temple/St. Luke’s School of Medicine and Associate Professor, Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University Shaden Eldakar-Hein, M.D. said in the news release.

“We are proud of the graduating class of 2023 and are certain they will make skilled and compassionate physicians and any program is lucky to have them.”