Anthony Steratore, MD

Position: Assistant Professor, Clerkship Director, Emergency Medicine
Phone: 304-293-2436

View Anthony Steratore’s Profile

Name: Anthony Steratore

Board Certification: Emergency Medicine

Medical School: WVU SOM

Residency: WVU Department of Emergency Medicine

Faculty Rank: Assistant Professor; Clerkship Director

Special Clinical/Research Interests: I serve as the Clerkship Director for our WVU Emergency Medicine rotations, and my interests are primarily in education and advising our students.

Is there a particular population of students (e.g., ethnicity, spiritual, sexual orientation) that you would particularly like to advise?

I am excited to serve as an advisor and a resource for all students. My focus has generally been on my own specialty but I would be happy to help any student who is exploring their career interests. I spend my days working with outstanding faculty across all specialties who are passionate about what they do, and helping students find that is one of the best parts of my job.

What does a typical day in the life of an emergency physician include?

The joy of Emergency Medicine is that there is no real typical day. The only thing you can count on is surprises. Our work is done in shifts and, to put it simply, you come in when you’re scheduled and you see whoever walks-in, gets brought-in, or crashes-in. There are as many different lifestyles in our specialty as there are places to work. However, you can count on spending your time on-shift solving a variety of problems, big and small, alongside some of the fastest thinking and most fearless characters in healthcare.

What is the biggest challenge of being an emergency physician?

The best part of our specialty is fixing patients’ problems, and you face a new challenge every day. That position on the frontline and as a safety-net for anyone in need can present challenges beyond the nuts and bolts of medical knowledge or procedural skill. Sometimes, we’re presented with problems of a societal nature or forced to cope with the aftermaths of an ever-changing healthcare system. For a specialty full of people who want to fix as much as they can, this can be a sometimes sobering challenge.

How do you foresee Emergency Medicine changing over the next 20 years?

Our specialty is a young one, each year there’s a change or a challenge and it’s hard to see what the future holds. Our position on the “frontlines” of healthcare often calls us to respond to reform first and this requires flexibility. One of the biggest new issues has been controversy over some recent reports of job availability. Educational leadership across our specialty is taking these problems head-on. We’ve had some great residency graduates spread across the country in recent years and we’ve seen no shortage of demand across our own region for our specialty’s broad skill set. While there may be some growing pains, Emergency Medicine is going to continue to grow and those with a passion for this work will continue to enjoy a rewarding career as well as the opportunity for truly exceptional work-life balance.

What advice would you give a student who is considering an Emergency Medicine residency?

One of the best parts of preparing for Emergency Medicine is that it really is a jack-of-all-trades specialty. Being the best medical student you can be will make you the best EM applicant, because we have to have an understanding of every other discipline. For the same reason, spending time exploring Emergency Medicine will never be a wasted time in a student’s education. Every day we apply the basics of human function, anatomy, and clinical skills from every field to practical problems. So my biggest advice would be to come experience some of our specialty. We have flexible scheduling that can accommodate any interested student, and if nothing else, I guarantee they’ll see something interesting in an hour in the department!