I would like to welcome you to the Marshall Community Health Consortium Rural General Surgery Residency Program. We are incredibly proud to be the first independently accredited ACGME Rural Track Program in the nation across all specialties. Now entering our fourth matched class, our program continues to grow while remaining focused on the mission upon which it was founded: training highly skilled general surgeons who are prepared to build successful careers serving rural communities.

Our program was designed around the belief that training a rural surgeon requires both the breadth and independence of rural surgical practice and the resources, technology, and educational foundation of an academic medical center. The Rural General Surgery Residency Program integrates these experiences throughout five years of training, providing residents with comprehensive clinical exposure while progressively developing the judgment, technical skills, and autonomy necessary to practice confidently in a rural community.

The small size of our program is one of its greatest strengths. It provides residents with exceptional operative opportunities, significant one-on-one time with attending surgeons, individualized mentorship, and a close-knit group of residents and faculty invested in one another’s success.

Our rural training opportunities have continued to expand. Residents receive extensive rural surgical experience at Logan Regional Medical Center under the direction of Dr. Jodi Cisco-Goff and Dr. James Paugh. We have also added Holzer Medical Center as a rural rotation site, further broadening our residents’ exposure to the variety and complexity of surgical practice in rural Appalachia.

Importantly, we believe that practicing in a rural community should not mean training without access to modern surgical technology. All of our primary rotation sites provide access to robotic surgery, including our rural training sites, with da Vinci robotic platforms available at Logan Regional Medical Center, Holzer Medical Center, and our Huntington training sites. This allows our residents to develop advanced minimally invasive and robotic surgical skills throughout their training and prepares them to bring these techniques to the communities they will ultimately serve.

While rotating at our Huntington training sites, residents work under the direction of the full-time surgical faculty of the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine. Our residents also train alongside their peers in the Marshall University General Surgery Residency Program, our long-established and successful sister program. Residents participate together in operative experiences, didactics, conferences, simulation, and other educational activities both in person and virtually throughout residency. This structure provides the resources and academic environment of a university-based surgical program while preserving the identity, individualized training, and rural mission of our residency.

As we welcome our fourth matched class, I am particularly proud of how the program has grown while remaining true to its original purpose. Our goal is not simply to train excellent general surgeons, but to train surgeons who are comfortable with the breadth, responsibility, technology, and independence required to provide outstanding surgical care in rural America.

Thank you for taking the time to learn more about our program. I invite you to consider becoming part of the Marshall Community Health Consortium Rural General Surgery Residency Program and joining us in our mission to improve access to high-quality surgical care throughout rural Appalachia and beyond. Our program leadership and faculty are always available to answer questions and assist you throughout your interview season and future educational endeavors.