Department of Medicine Faculty & Staff

A group shoot of the people who make the department of medicine what it is today in front of the HSC Pylons.

The Department of Medicine provides primary care as well as serving as a regional referral center for highly specialized care.

All attending physicians in the Department of Medicine are full-time university faculty and are committed to educating both general internists and sub specialists. Our facilities provide a state-of-the-art environment for patient care and for physicians in training.

A major advantage of the Medicine program at West Virginia University is our flexibility. We offer programs in Categorical Internal Medicine, Primary Care Medicine, Medicine / Pediatrics, Medicine / Psychiatry, and Medicine/Neurology.

Admissions to the medicine service are equally divided between referrals from outside physicians, admissions through the West Virginia University Emergency Department (Level I Trauma Center), and outpatient clinics.

The house officer is responsible for caring for patients with a broad spectrum of illnesses, acute and chronic primary care conditions, medical emergencies, and challenging diagnostic and therapeutic problems.

Required inpatient exposure consists of rotations on general medicine, hematology/oncology, CCU, medical ICU, and neurology. All in-patients and out-patients are included in the teaching services. A medicine team is composed of a resident, interns, and sub interns, third-year students, and an attending physician. Pharmacists and physician assistants are included on the hematology/oncology service.

Most rotations and electives are at the Health Sciences Center. Residents do rotate to The Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Clarksburg for combined in-patient/out-patient experiences, and to The Health Right Clinic in Morgantown for out-patient continuity clinics.

The intern has primary responsibility for 8-10 patients on average. Our faculty members are committed to excellence in teaching. Attending rounds with the team occur daily. A night float service has been in place for many years.

The PGI year is devoted to ambulatory care, inpatient services, emergency medicine, and specialty rotations. The PGII and PGIII years involve the development of broad competence in internal medicine. This includes functioning as a supervisory resident on a ward service and increasing responsibility on both specialty consultation services and in the outpatient clinics.

Inpatient and subspecialty electives are interspersed with rotations in the intensive care unit and ambulatory care. Multiple specialty rotations are available (see "Electives"). Rotations in certain specialties include care for a small number of inpatients, inpatient and outpatient consultations, and attendance at specialty clinics and teaching conferences.

Fellowships are available in various subspecialties. Residents in the combined Medicine/Psychiatry, Medicine/Pediatrics, and Medicine/Neurology programs provide an added dimension to the department. We have an innovative, formalized, structured curriculum and rotations are predominantly based on educational needs. House staff who complete our combined programs are board eligible in both specialties in either four or five years. The breadth and depth of the combined programs make them particularly challenging and rewarding.

Letter from the Chair
Our mission in the Department of Medicine at the Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center of West Virginia University is to graduate physicians who have attained the clinical competence to provide excellent care as internists. This care includes health promotion, disease prevention, and management of acute and chronic disease. We try to impart the knowledge, attitudes, and skills to maintain a systematic and continuous process of self-learning, including critical analysis of the medical literature.

In addition to Categorical Internal Medicine we offer a number of well established and integrated combined programs, including Medicine/Pediatrics, Medicine/Psychiatry,and Medicine/Neurology. Opportunities for subspecialty training are also available in Cardiology, Nephrology, Infectious Diseases, Pulmonary and Critical Care and Digestive Diseases was added this year.

We have developed a progressive, integrated curriculum that provides structure but also flexibility, making it possible for exposure to a variety of clinical problems in both ambulatory and inpatient settings. In addition to medical patients, exposure to patients on other services in a consultative capacity occurs during several rotations. We have active bone marrow, renal transplant and dialysis programs. Research opportunities are available and a well defined residency research program has been developed.

First time takers of the ABIM have a 95.6% pass rate for the 3 years ending in 2005. During the same time we had a 94% pass rate for first time takers of the dermatology and subspecialty boards.

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