{"id":70434,"date":"2026-04-01T14:16:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T18:16:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/?p=70434"},"modified":"2026-04-01T14:16:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T18:16:28","slug":"kunal-patel-chosen-by-medical-students-to-be-their-match-day-speaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/kunal-patel-chosen-by-medical-students-to-be-their-match-day-speaker\/","title":{"rendered":"Kunal Patel Chosen by Medical Students to be their Match Day Speaker"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_29495\" class=\"thumbnail wp-caption alignright\" style=\"width: 198px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-29495 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2019\/04\/kunal-patel.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"188\" height=\"250\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption wp-caption-text\">Dr. Kunal Patel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">Kunal Patel, MD, PhD, an<\/span>\u00a0Assistant Professor in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and a Foundation Phase Academic Coach in the Office of Academic Excellence, was chosen to be the 2026 Match Day speaker by the graduating class of medical students.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Patel was the final speaker before students opened their match envelopes, providing last words of encouragement!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-70435\" src=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2026\/03\/Screen-Shot-2026-03-26-at-11.39.36-AM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"293\" height=\"207\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2026\/03\/Screen-Shot-2026-03-26-at-11.39.36-AM.png 1376w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2026\/03\/Screen-Shot-2026-03-26-at-11.39.36-AM-300x211.png 300w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2026\/03\/Screen-Shot-2026-03-26-at-11.39.36-AM-1024x722.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2026\/03\/Screen-Shot-2026-03-26-at-11.39.36-AM-768x541.png 768w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2026\/03\/Screen-Shot-2026-03-26-at-11.39.36-AM-600x423.png 600w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2026\/03\/Screen-Shot-2026-03-26-at-11.39.36-AM-301x212.png 301w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 293px) 100vw, 293px\" \/> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/md\/events\/match-day\/\">Read more about Match Day here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kunal Patel, MD, PhD, an\u00a0Assistant Professor in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and a Foundation Phase Academic Coach in the Office of Academic Excellence, was chosen to be the 2026 Match Day speaker by the graduating class of medical students. Dr. Patel was the final speaker before students opened their match envelopes, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/kunal-patel-chosen-by-medical-students-to-be-their-match-day-speaker\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Kunal Patel Chosen by Medical Students to be their Match Day Speaker\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":116983,"featured_media":29495,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"layout":"","cellInformation":"","apiCallInformation":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","odd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Kunal Patel Chosen by Medical Students to be their Match Day Speaker | Department of Medicine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/kunal-patel-chosen-by-medical-students-to-be-their-match-day-speaker\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kunal Patel Chosen by Medical Students to be their Match Day Speaker | Department of Medicine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kunal Patel, MD, PhD, an\u00a0Assistant Professor in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and a Foundation Phase Academic Coach in the Office of Academic Excellence, was chosen to be the 2026 Match Day speaker by the graduating class of medical students. Dr. Patel was the final speaker before students opened their match envelopes, &hellip; Read more\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/kunal-patel-chosen-by-medical-students-to-be-their-match-day-speaker\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Department of Medicine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UNCDeptMedicine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-01T18:16:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2019\/04\/kunal-patel.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"188\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"250\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lillian Harbison\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@uncdeptmedicine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@uncdeptmedicine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lillian Harbison\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/kunal-patel-chosen-by-medical-students-to-be-their-match-day-speaker\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/kunal-patel-chosen-by-medical-students-to-be-their-match-day-speaker\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lillian Harbison\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/#\/schema\/person\/583f230c1448c20a7f8507f25c34980c\"},\"headline\":\"Kunal Patel Chosen by Medical Students to be their Match Day Speaker\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-01T18:16:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/kunal-patel-chosen-by-medical-students-to-be-their-match-day-speaker\/\"},\"wordCount\":88,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/kunal-patel-chosen-by-medical-students-to-be-their-match-day-speaker\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2019\/04\/kunal-patel.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/kunal-patel-chosen-by-medical-students-to-be-their-match-day-speaker\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/kunal-patel-chosen-by-medical-students-to-be-their-match-day-speaker\/\",\"name\":\"Kunal Patel Chosen by Medical Students to be their Match Day Speaker | Department of Medicine\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/kunal-patel-chosen-by-medical-students-to-be-their-match-day-speaker\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/kunal-patel-chosen-by-medical-students-to-be-their-match-day-speaker\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2019\/04\/kunal-patel.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-01T18:16:28+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/#\/schema\/person\/583f230c1448c20a7f8507f25c34980c\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/kunal-patel-chosen-by-medical-students-to-be-their-match-day-speaker\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/kunal-patel-chosen-by-medical-students-to-be-their-match-day-speaker\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/kunal-patel-chosen-by-medical-students-to-be-their-match-day-speaker\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2019\/04\/kunal-patel.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2019\/04\/kunal-patel.jpg\",\"width\":188,\"height\":250},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/kunal-patel-chosen-by-medical-students-to-be-their-match-day-speaker\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Kunal Patel Chosen by Medical Students to be their Match Day Speaker\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/\",\"name\":\"Department of Medicine\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/#\/schema\/person\/583f230c1448c20a7f8507f25c34980c\",\"name\":\"Lillian Harbison\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cf508b25f1a4b6cfd299cad04f9f23c1a5209708cf67893bec17599d8d00d461?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cf508b25f1a4b6cfd299cad04f9f23c1a5209708cf67893bec17599d8d00d461?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Lillian Harbison\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/author\/lilharbi\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Kunal Patel Chosen by Medical Students to be their Match Day Speaker | Department of Medicine","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/kunal-patel-chosen-by-medical-students-to-be-their-match-day-speaker\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Kunal Patel Chosen by Medical Students to be their Match Day Speaker | Department of Medicine","og_description":"Kunal Patel, MD, PhD, an\u00a0Assistant Professor in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and a Foundation Phase Academic Coach in the Office of Academic Excellence, was chosen to be the 2026 Match Day speaker by the graduating class of medical students. Dr. Patel was the final speaker before students opened their match envelopes, &hellip; Read more","og_url":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/kunal-patel-chosen-by-medical-students-to-be-their-match-day-speaker\/","og_site_name":"Department of Medicine","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UNCDeptMedicine","article_published_time":"2026-04-01T18:16:28+00:00","og_image":[{"width":188,"height":250,"url":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2019\/04\/kunal-patel.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Lillian Harbison","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@uncdeptmedicine","twitter_site":"@uncdeptmedicine","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Lillian Harbison","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/kunal-patel-chosen-by-medical-students-to-be-their-match-day-speaker\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/kunal-patel-chosen-by-medical-students-to-be-their-match-day-speaker\/"},"author":{"name":"Lillian Harbison","@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/#\/schema\/person\/583f230c1448c20a7f8507f25c34980c"},"headline":"Kunal Patel Chosen by Medical Students to be their Match Day Speaker","datePublished":"2026-04-01T18:16:28+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/kunal-patel-chosen-by-medical-students-to-be-their-match-day-speaker\/"},"wordCount":88,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/kunal-patel-chosen-by-medical-students-to-be-their-match-day-speaker\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2019\/04\/kunal-patel.jpg","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/kunal-patel-chosen-by-medical-students-to-be-their-match-day-speaker\/","url":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/kunal-patel-chosen-by-medical-students-to-be-their-match-day-speaker\/","name":"Kunal Patel Chosen by Medical Students to be their Match Day Speaker | Department of Medicine","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/kunal-patel-chosen-by-medical-students-to-be-their-match-day-speaker\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/kunal-patel-chosen-by-medical-students-to-be-their-match-day-speaker\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2019\/04\/kunal-patel.jpg","datePublished":"2026-04-01T18:16:28+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/#\/schema\/person\/583f230c1448c20a7f8507f25c34980c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/kunal-patel-chosen-by-medical-students-to-be-their-match-day-speaker\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/kunal-patel-chosen-by-medical-students-to-be-their-match-day-speaker\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/kunal-patel-chosen-by-medical-students-to-be-their-match-day-speaker\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2019\/04\/kunal-patel.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2019\/04\/kunal-patel.jpg","width":188,"height":250},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/kunal-patel-chosen-by-medical-students-to-be-their-match-day-speaker\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Kunal Patel Chosen by Medical Students to be their Match Day Speaker"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/","name":"Department of Medicine","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/#\/schema\/person\/583f230c1448c20a7f8507f25c34980c","name":"Lillian Harbison","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cf508b25f1a4b6cfd299cad04f9f23c1a5209708cf67893bec17599d8d00d461?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cf508b25f1a4b6cfd299cad04f9f23c1a5209708cf67893bec17599d8d00d461?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Lillian Harbison"},"url":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/author\/lilharbi\/"}]}},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2019\/04\/kunal-patel.jpg","featured_image_medium":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2019\/04\/kunal-patel.jpg","featured_image_medium_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2019\/04\/kunal-patel.jpg","featured_image_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2019\/04\/kunal-patel.jpg","featured_image_thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2019\/04\/kunal-patel-150x150.jpg","featured_image_alt":"","category_details":[{"name":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/category\/news\/"}],"tag_details":[],"_links_to":[],"_links_to_target":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/116983"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70434"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70452,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70434\/revisions\/70452"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}