A mix of clouds and sun during the morning will give way to cloudy skies this afternoon. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 71F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph..
Cloudy. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 49F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph.
Updated: March 16, 2022 @ 11:00 am
ABOVE: The Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine holds its 41st annual graduation and investiture ceremony at Mountain Health Arena in Huntington in this 2021 file photo. Over the past decade, the School of Medicine has increased 84% of residencies and fellowships for its students. RIGHT: Ten-year-old Darien Casebolt and Lake Morehouse, left, talk with surgery resident Farzad Amiri as the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine Surgery Residency Training Program and Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Tri-State Area team up for a “Kids in White Coats” event at the Marshall University Medical Center in Huntington in this 2017 file photo.
Ten-year-old Darien Casebolt and Lake Morehouse, left, talk with surgery resident Farzad Amiri as the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine Surgery Residency Training Program and Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Tri-State Area team up for a “Kids in White Coats” event at the Marshall University Medical Center in Huntington in this 2017 file photo.
Bobby L. Miller, vice dean of Medical Education, speaks during the 39th graduation and investiture of the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine on May 10, 2019, at the Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center in Huntington.
Bobby Miller, M.D., vice dean of Medical Education at Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine
Bobby Miller, M.D., vice dean of Medical Education at Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine
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ABOVE: The Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine holds its 41st annual graduation and investiture ceremony at Mountain Health Arena in Huntington in this 2021 file photo. Over the past decade, the School of Medicine has increased 84% of residencies and fellowships for its students. RIGHT: Ten-year-old Darien Casebolt and Lake Morehouse, left, talk with surgery resident Farzad Amiri as the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine Surgery Residency Training Program and Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Tri-State Area team up for a “Kids in White Coats” event at the Marshall University Medical Center in Huntington in this 2017 file photo.
Ten-year-old Darien Casebolt and Lake Morehouse, left, talk with surgery resident Farzad Amiri as the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine Surgery Residency Training Program and Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Tri-State Area team up for a “Kids in White Coats” event at the Marshall University Medical Center in Huntington in this 2017 file photo.
Bobby L. Miller, vice dean of Medical Education, speaks during the 39th graduation and investiture of the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine on May 10, 2019, at the Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center in Huntington.
HUNTINGTON — Over the past decade, Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine (MUSOM) has increased 84% of residencies and fellowships as its resident enrollment has increased 62%.
The Graduate Medical Education at MUSOM provides 13 programs to produce physicians to engage in autonomous practice, communicate effectively and prepare for working in the medical field.
After a student graduates from medical school, they cannot practice medicine until completing a residency — the shortest being three years, and some lasting up to six years.
To go into a smaller field for specialty training, such as medical care in a neonatal intensive care unit, after completing residency a graduate must do three more years of training in a fellowship.
In 2012, MUSOM had about 13 residencies and fellowships, with about 160 residents or fellows training. Today, the number has risen to 24 residencies and fellowships, with 260 residents or fellows training in the community.
As two new fellowships were added this year, Dr. Bobby Miller, MUSOM vice dean for Medical Education, said the number of residencies and fellowships gradually rises each year.
Positions like general pediatrician, family medicine doctor, general surgeon or an internal medicine doctor generally do only a residency.
Other programs included are endocrinology, GME, Med-Peds, nephrology, neurology, OB/GYN, orthopedics, psychiatry and pulmonary critical care.
The need for increasing residencies for students, according to Miller, is to allow students to stay in the community and the state. He said the limited opportunities for primary care physicians in rural West Virginia have pushed students out of the state in the past decade.
“About a third of our students stay in the state somewhere to do their residencies — that’s really important,” Miller said. “Marshall’s medical school has a primary mission of training primary care doctors to serve the state of West Virginia. That’s one of the reasons we’re here.”
Miller said the program will continue to grow to reach all students’ needs to stay in the state.
“We want to grow those numbers in the medical school and residency or postgraduate training programs because it benefits the region, the communities and the state,” Miller said.
The most popular residencies among Marshall students are internal medicine, family medicine and general surgery. Neurology and orthopedics are also frequently studied as a resident.
Miller said one of the benefits of being a student at Marshall is that the program is small.
“We’re very supportive of the students. And we also are genuinely committed to making sure they get what they want,” Miller said. “If we don’t offer a certain program and if that’s what the student wants to do, then we’re going to work very hard to get them where they need to go. We’re very student-centric here at Marshall.”
Miller was also a student at MUSOM in the mid-1990s and did a combined internal medicine pediatrics residency at Marshall, but went to Houston, Texas, to complete his fellowship.
Miller’s experience at a small residency in West Virginia and a large fellowship at Texas Children’s Hospital allows him to help the students at MUSOM.
“One of the things about Marshall is students worry when they’re going into residency that they may not see enough pathology, enough disease processes or residency here at Marshall because it is a smaller program, but we have plenty of pathology in the community,” Miller said.
Miller said the biggest difference between Huntington and a larger city is being able to feel like a close community. The “small-town boy” said he liked living in Houston for three years but knew he needed to come back home.
“As a resident here at Marshall, if something unique or rare comes up, everyone knows about it because we are a small community. I think that’s the benefit of the training programs here. We are all so close,” Miller said.
For more information regarding fellowships, visit https://jcesom.marshall.edu/residents-fellows/.
Bobby Miller, M.D., vice dean of Medical Education at Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine
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