HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Three faculty from the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine recently represented the new rural general surgery residency program during a virtual rural residency fair sponsored by the Rural Training Track Collaborative. More than 110 medical students throughout the nation and 24 rural family medicine, internal medicine and surgery residency programs participated in the two-hour event. 

David Denning, M.D., professor and chair of surgery; Farzad Amiri, M.D., associate professor and rural surgery program director; and Jodi Cisco-Goff, M.D., assistant professor and associate program director, met virtually the medical students to promote the Marshall Community Health Consortium’s newly accredited rural surgery residency program.  The trio also participated in a panel discussion to offer the students advice on the interview process for matching into a specialty program of their choice and the qualities programs look for in an applicant.   

“As the nation’s first separately accredited rural surgery training program, we want to get the word out to medical students that we are officially recruiting for applicants for the 2023 match,” Amiri said. “As a new program, it is exciting to plan the interviewing process to select our inaugural class, which will start in July 2023.”

Denning said he finds it refreshing to talk about a career in surgery with medical students. “With so many general surgeons approaching retirement age, we need to do all we can to recruit more medical students to general surgery as their chosen career path.”

As a surgeon for more than 20 years in rural Logan, West Virginia, Cisco-Goff provided aspiring surgeons with insight into the rural surgeon’s typical daily case load and shared what it is like to practice surgery in a rural area. 

“I have the best job,” Cisco-Goff told the students.

The rural surgery program will officially welcome its first three residents in July 2023.  As part of their training, rural surgery residents will spend at least 50% of the five-year training program in Logan Regional Medical Center in Logan with Cisco-Goff and other faculty members from the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine.

Date Posted: Friday, July 29, 2022