LOGAN, W.Va. – The Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, Marshall Community Health Consortium and Logan Regional Medical Center celebrated the nation's first separately accredited rural surgery residency program with a ribbon cutting ceremony for a new residency suite October 10 at Logan Regional Medical Center.
The residency program was established in 2021 and welcomed its first three residents in July 2023. The program addresses the growing need for general surgeons trained to serve rural communities through a training model that incorporates specific benchmarks unique to surgeons practicing in a rural setting.
“To truly be a rural healthcare leader, we must identify scalable solutions with a lasting impact,” said David Gozal, M.D., M.B.A., Ph.D. (Hon), vice president of health affairs and dean of the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine. “Rural residency programs are one such solution where we’re already seeing immediate results. We look forward realizing the full impact this training program will have in southern West Virginia and beyond in the coming years.”
More than 100 physicians, staff and community leaders, including state and local elected officials, gathered Tuesday for the ribbon cutting ceremony. The residency suite includes a LapAR simulator, which uses state-of-the-art technology that allows surgeons to practice a range of general surgery procedures. Funding for program planning and development was provided by a 2021 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA 20-107).
“I am extremely proud of our outstanding general surgery faculty who have embraced the opportunity to provide high quality surgery training in a rural medical center,” said Paulette S. Wehner, M.D., vice dean of graduate medical education at the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine. “The program would not have been possible without HRSA support and the hard work of countless individuals.”
The program earned initial accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) in 2022, making it the nation’s first officially designated, separately accredited rural residency training track program. The five-year training program is approved the program to accept three residents per year for a total of 15 residents.
"We are very excited to be part of the first separately accredited rural track general surgery residency program in the nation. Rural hospitals like Logan Regional Medical Center are great places to train physicians and other health professionals. What better way to meet the challenges of getting physicians and surgeons into our rural communities than to train them there,” said David Brash, chief executive officer at Logan Regional Medical Center.
In addition to the rural general surgery residency, the Marshall Community Health Consortium, composed of the School of Medicine, Marshall Health, Cabell Huntington Hospital and Valley Health Systems, has rural programs in internal medicine and psychiatry under development and is on track to welcome its first residents into those programs in July 2026.
To learn more about residency programs at the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, visit jcesom.marshall.edu/residents-fellows or call 304-691-1824. For news and information about the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, follow us on Twitter @MUSOMWV, like us on Facebook or visit jcesom.marshall.edu.
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About the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine
The Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine is a community-based medical school established in 1977. Located in Huntington, West Virginia, the School of Medicine trains physicians, scientists and other professionals to meet the unique health care needs of rural and underserved communities. Learn more at jcesom.marshall.edu.
About Logan Regional Medical Center
A part of ScionHealth®, Logan Regional Medical Center is a 132-bed acute care facility in Logan, West Virginia that is accredited by The Joint Commission (TJC). The hospital offers a full range of health care services, which include: Da Vinci Robotic-Assisted Surgery, the recently expanded Endoscopy Unit, Cardiac Rehab, a 64-slice CT, 24-hr. Emergency Care, Intensive Care Unit, Inpatient and Outpatient Surgery, Laparoscopic Surgery, 3D Mammography, MRI, Nutrition Counseling, Physical Therapy, Radiology, an Inpatient Rehab Center, Respiratory Therapy, a Sleep Disorders Center, Speech Therapy, Respiratory Therapy, Ultrasound, Women’s Services and ongoing community education. The hospital continues to focus on improvements to enhance services and fulfill our mission of making communities healthier.
Date Posted: Tuesday, October 10, 2023
