A first of its kind rural medicine program at Marshall University has received initial accreditation.
The new joint rural surgery residency program at the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine and Logan Regional Medical Center earned initial accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.
The new residency pioneers a training model designed to address specific benchmarks unique to surgeons practicing in a rural setting. It was developed in part with a $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The Marshall Community Health Consortium partnered with Logan Regional Medical Center to develop curriculum, recruit faculty and address the clinical and learning environment needs required to obtain accreditation.
As a rural program, residents have to spend at least 50 percent of their five-year program in Logan.
The Association of American Medical Colleges expects a shortage of between 23,100 and 31,600 general surgeons by 2025.
The rural surgery residency program will officially launch and welcome its first residents in July 2023.