Graduate Medical Education welcomes the newest cohort of trainees

On Thursday, June 15, the West Virginia University School of Medicine will welcome its newest class of 233 resident and fellow physicians, dentists and clinical psychologists to the Graduate Medical Education program located at the Morgantown, Harpers Ferry and Parkersburg campuses. The majority will begin clinical work the first week in July.

“WVU is the oldest and largest medical education institution in the state offering specialized graduate medical training in rural, primary and specialty care,” said Manuel Vallejo, M.D., D.M.D., associate dean and designated institutional official for graduate medical education. “As a world class institution, many of the best and brightest from the state of West Virginia, the United States and all over the world choose to pursue their medical education and training in our highly desired graduate programs. After completion of our residencies and fellowships, many will practice in West Virginia serving the medical needs of our underserved state.”

The current class of medical residents are training in 73 specialties, with internal medicine starting the most trainees at 30, followed by transitional year with 13, and psychiatry and emergency medicine both with 10.  This year’s incoming graduate trainees come from 34 states and 29 countries representing 117 medical schools.

This year’s incoming residents’ average reported age is 30 years old, with the oldest at 55 years old and the youngest at 24 years old with 63% identifying as men and 37% identifying as women.

A total of 78 are from West Virginia, with 50 WVU School of Medicine graduates, 15 from Marshall University School of Medicine and 13 from the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine. Four of those from WVU participated in the accelerated WVU Mountaineer Track to Enter Residency program.

The skills learned during their years of training vary by their chosen specialty and build on the foundation given to students during their training in medical school. This year’s annual GME-sponsored New Resident Orientation conference will occur over two days on June 21 and 22 in the Okey Patteson Auditorium.

Currently, there are more than 570 residents and fellows training within the WVU Medicine- Hospital system.

To learn more about WVU’s medical residency training programs, visit the graduate medical education website at medicine.hsc.wvu.edu/gme. For news and information on the WVU School of Medicine, follow us on twitter @WVUMedSchool, like us on Facebook or visit medicine.hsc.wvu.edu.