Match Day milestone: Medical learner heading to Western for urology residency

Ask Grant Sweeny where he sees himself in five years and he’ll have a definite answer for you.

He’ll be finishing his fifth year of residency in urology at Western University in London, Ont.

Until Match Day last Tuesday, however, Sweeny, a student at McMaster University’s Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine – Niagara Regional Campus (NRC), could only speak in vague terms about wanting a residency in the medical and surgical specialty somewhere in Canada.

Dubbed the most important day in a medical learner’s journey, Match Day is when graduating students learn if and where they will secure a residency – crucial hands-on training done while working full-time in hospitals and clinics.

Hitting refresh on the Canadian Resident Matching Service (CARMS) website as his wife, Emily DiMatteo, sat next to him, a “slightly nauseous” Sweeny dealt with the page crashing before clarity about his – and her – future came in few words on his computer screen and evoked many feelings.

“It’s a whirlwind of emotions,” Sweeny said. “I’ve been working toward this for three years plus my undergraduate degree, writing the MCAT, and the entire application process. Everything has been building up to this moment. To have this buildup and this moment, it’s difficult to put into words.”

“I’m very proud of him,” a beaming DiMatteo said as the couple processed the news. “A lot of people don’t get an inside look into what it takes for these students. They work incredibly hard.”

Sweeny was one of 32 students in the NRC class of 2026 waiting for word about their futures on Match Day. It’s not a job offer, he stressed, but a contractual agreement that he will commit to training in London en route to becoming an independent practitioner wherever his career takes him.

"Everything has been building up to this moment. To have this buildup and this moment, it’s difficult to put into words.”

While Sweeny will leave Niagara because urology residencies aren’t offered locally, two of his classmates will stay here as family medicine residents. Niagara will also gain eight family medicine residents from other schools, along with one new general surgery resident at Niagara Health.

Starting in July, Niagara Health will welcome two family medicine residents completing an extra year in emergency medicine and another focusing on care of the elderly. The organization will also host three fellows – physicians who finished residency – for highly specialized training in diagnostic imaging.

Overall, this year saw a high rate of matches in particularly competitive specialties, including urology, orthopedic surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, otolaryngology and anesthesia, said Dr. Amanda Bell, NRC Associate Dean.

“All of these are crazy competitive specialties so it’s really exciting how many of our kids matched,” Dr. Bell said.

Watch Grant and Emily's reaction to his residency

Western was a top choice for Sweeny after doing a clinical rotation in urology there last summer.

“I loved the program,” he said. “It’s an incredibly strong surgical program with some of the best trained surgeons and strong opportunities for careers in academic or community practice.”

Last fall, Sweeny applied to 10 residency programs across Canada. He did online panel interviews with seven of them over one weekend in January. The 20-minute conversations gave programs a sense of how he would fit with their teams.

He will join one other resident at Western when he starts there, officially as Dr. Grant Sweeny, MD, July 1.

In the meantime, he and DiMatteo will leave their home in Burlington, where they’ve lived all their lives, and settle in London as Sweeny finishes his last few weeks of clinical rotations and classroom learning before graduating in May.

DiMatteo, who works as a leadership development manager for a global accounting and tax firm, can take her job with her wherever the couple goes. She recently switched to a remote role in case they had to relocate.

“This is a big part of the life we’re building together, and this is one of those defining moments that will shape what that life will be,” she said. “We both stayed close to home our entire lives for our degrees and working as young professionals. I’m excited to branch out and live somewhere new and plan for our family. It’s been a long journey.”

As for what the next five years will bring, Sweeny will spend the first two as a resident physician mastering surgical foundations before moving into more specialized urology training. Along the way, he’ll also gain experience in other specialties, including intensive care medicine, nephrology, and vascular surgery at Western and its associated hospitals.

He can’t wait to get started.

“It’s a huge emotional release and I’m ready for what this next chapter holds for us,” Sweeny says. “The logistics need to be figured out but it’s exciting.”