HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – More than 103 incoming resident physicians and fellows officially began their post-graduate medical training this week at the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine. Advanced physician training programs range from one to five years for residencies to one to four additional years beyond residency for fellowships. The hands-on experiences achieved through this intensive learning environment ensure trainees are prepared to enter private practice and/or academic medicine.

 Marshall’s newest cohort of trainees represents 60 medical schools across 14 different states and 22 countries. Thirty-two are medical alumni from West Virginia’s three medical schools.

“We are proud to welcome the new residents and fellows to our training programs,” said Paulette S. Wehner, M.D., the school’s vice dean of graduate medical education. “This marks the exciting start to the next phase in their medical training. Upon completion of their programs at the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, they will be autonomous physicians ready to serve our unique patient population here in Appalachia or carry the Marshall flag with them to wherever their practice may take them.”

The new group of trainees includes three rural general surgery residents as part of the nation’s first officially designated, separately accredited rural residency training track program. The trio will spend at least 2.5 of their
five-year program training under long-time rural surgeons Drs. Jodi Cisco-Goff and James Paugh at Logan
Regional Medical Center in Logan, West Virginia.

“We are proud to lead the nation in the first rural general surgery residency program accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education,” said Program Director Farzad Amiri, M.D., F.A.C.S., a general surgeon and associate professor at the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine. “It is of utmost importance that we train the next generation of surgeons to have the skills to handle the challenges seen in rural America. There is a dire physician shortage in rural America that we, as educators, need to help solve.”

The Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine now has 289 total trainees across 26 programs, the largest number of trainees in the school’s 46-year history.  

##

Photo captions:
Incoming Resident Group.jpg:  Some of the incoming resident physicians at the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine

Rural Surgery First Residents.jpg: The first rural general surgery residents at the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine are (left to right) David Kanarowski, D.O., M.B.A., Rebecca Meyer, D.O., and Bradley Muncy, M.D.

Date Posted: Thursday, July 6, 2023