Home | Excellence in Surgical Care | Outstanding Clinical Facilities | Leaders in Education
Living in Morgantown
The West Virginia University Department of Surgery is committed to education as the means by which the fields of medicine and surgery will continue to grow and thrive, with the goal of improving our ability to serve our patients. We take pride in the high caliber of the surgeons who come out of our programs, and in all of their successes, in work or in life.
Residency
The Surgery Residency Program is a source of great excitement and pride at WVU. The department has refocused its emphasis on education and training of the surgical resident, initiating many changes to meet this mission. Our goal is to develop not only a competent surgeon but also a compassionate and knowledgeable physician. We seek to guide residents through their training to allow them to excel not only in their technical skills in the operating room, but also in their relationships with faculty, patients, and families. e recruit and graduate three general surgery residents per year. Our numbers recently increased when we were granted one additional preliminary intern position by the RRC. Approximately 60 percent of our graduating residents pursue additional training in subspecialty fellowships, usually matching into their top-choice program.
Working within the guidelines of an 80-hour duty week, the clinical experience of our residents has increased. Average total residency cases exceed 1,000, with an excellent mix of operative procedures and no classification deficiencies.
The department has designated Wednesday mornings as protected education time; residents are relieved of their clinical duties to participate in teaching conferences, didactic sessions, and interactive ABSITE Reviews. The ABSITE Review has been subdivided to parallel the new format of the exam for the junior and senior residents. We have also established a minimum standard score for the ABSITE exam, Those falling under that mark are assigned a faculty mentor and entered into a structured study program, '"
The residency program also now participates in the ACS online program, .which offers residents the most current information on pertinent topics on a weekly basis, and gives them online access to the ACS surgery textbook
Residents are encouraged to participate in clinical and basic science investigative efforts. A weekly research meeting is held on Fridays. Participation in local and regional research competition occurs annually, with WVU residents often taking home a top prize. Residents often make presentations at national meetings, such as the ACS, AAS, AVAS, and AUA.
Changes from the ACGME have also had impact on our program. We now participate in the ACGME Case Log System, which allows residents the opportunity to record their cases in an online computer database. To assure that we are accomplishing the core competencies set forth by the ACGME, we have revised our evaluation forms. To assure compliance with the new duty-hours regulations, we have implemented a night float system. We also review the residents' hours weekly at a conference to identify any potential hours violation so that adjustments can be made.
Recent Graduates of WVU Surgery Residency Program
2000
William Cook, Cardiothoracic Surgery Fellowship, NC
Kimberly Scriven, Private Practice, Bellefontaine, OH
Ponnandai Somasundar, Surgical Oncology Fellowship, Providence, RI
Ganga Prabhakar, Cardiothoracic Fellowship, West Virginia University
2001
Michael Wingate, Private Practice, Thomasville, NC
Riaz Cassim, Colorectal Fellow, University of Texas Southwestern
David Hall, Urology, Private Practice, Morgantown, WV
Peter Wearden, Cardiothoracic Fellowship, University of Pittsburgh
Ashish Hamat, Urology, Private Practice, Houston, TX
Wael Tamim, Private Practice, Fort Lauderdale, FL
2002
Matthew Allaway, Urology, Private Practice, Cumberland, MD
Sajjad Rizvi, Cardiothoracic Fellowship, University of Kentucky
Eric Klein, Urology, Private Practice, Cleveland, OH
Hossai Omar, Private Practice
Mateo Dayo, Private Practice, Ocala, FL
2003
Marissa Howard-McNatt, Breast Fellowship, Massachusetts General Hospital
James Longhi, Minimally Invasive Fellowship, Penn State
Frank Schiebel, Private Practice, Elkhart, IN
Syed Zaman, Cardiothoracic Fellowship, Loyola, Chicago
2004
Umar Choudry, Plastic Surgery Fellowship, Mayo Clinic
Sajit Bux, Urology, Private Practice, Dekalb, IL
Jonathan Hakim, Urology, Private Practice, Pittsburgh, PA
Roberto Gonzales-Cruz, Plastic Surgery Fellowship, University of Louisville
Vasil Parousis, Urology, Private Practice, Cumberland, MD
Muhammad Nuri, Cardiothoracic Fellowship, Hershey Medical Center
Richard Miller, Advanced Thoracic Fellowship, Mayo Clinic
2005
Ly Phan, Private Practice, Cleveland, OH
Julio Davalos, Urology, Private Practice, Charleston, WV
Hany Tadros, Hand Fellowship, University of Pittsburgh
Ming Zhang, Private Practice, Pensacola, FL
General Surgery Clerkship
As part of its commitment to surgical education, the Surgery Department offers 8-week clerkships to third-year medical students and sub-internships of two to four weeks to fourth-year medical students.
The third-year clerkship involves a four-week rotation on the General Surgery/Surgical Oncology service and shorter rotations chosen from the Urology, Vascular/Transplant, Cardiothoracic, Trauma, ENT, Orthopaedics, Neurosurgery, Plastic Surgery, and/or Pediatric Surgery services.
Third-year clerkships include daily morning lectures by faculty surgeons on a broad range of surgical topics, and participation in Wednesday morning conferences and multidisciplinary meetings, such as the Breast Care Conference and Tumor Board. Clerks also are responsible for their own patients, making rounds with the team, and keeping others updated on their patients' status. One student is on call each day of the clerkship, carrying a trauma pager so that they are available to respond immediately when a patient comes to the Emergency Department, getting involved in a patient's care from the beginning.
On weekdays, clerks generally second-assist on more complex operating-room cases for which a resident is also present, or first-assist on more minor cases. When not in the OR, third-year clerks assist faculty and residents in outpatient clinics, often acting as the first provider to interview and examine a patient.
The fourth-year sub-internship is designed for students who are considering a career in surgery. Fourth-year students take on tasks similar to those of surgical interns, including the performance, under supervision, of more complex procedures, such as central line placement. They are more frequently able to first-assist during minor operations and may also participate in the third-year didactic program.
Clinical Faculty
Clinical Faculty members are community physicians who attend Department of Surgery conferences in person or via teleconferencing, and who participate in medical student and surgical resident education. Clinical faculty members make an important contribution to the educational and clinical care missions of the department.
Leonard F. Allen, IV, Charleston, WV
Donald McDowell, Morgantown, WV
Hugo Andreini, Wheeling, WV
Douglas McKinney, Bridgeport, WV
Gaspar Barcinas, Bridgeport, WV
David McLellan, Fairmont, WV
John Battin, Morgantown, WV
Catalino Mendoza, Clarksburg, WV
George Beneke, Huntington, WV
Rocco Morabito, Huntington, WV
Michael Boustany, Charleston, WV
Saad Mossalati, Clarksburg, WV
Timothy Bowers, Martinsburg, WV
Gordon Murray, Morgantown, WV
James Carrier, Martinsburg, WV
Carlos Naranjo, Clarksburg, WV
Ronald Cercone, Wexford, PA
R. Samuel Oliver, Charleston, WV
Edwin Cohen, Martinsburg, WV
E. Phillip Polack, Wheeling, WV
Stacey Copeland, Charleston, WV
Ahmad Rahbar, Wheeling, WV
Thomas Covey, Morgantown, WV
David Ranson, South Charleston, WV
Kathleen Cronin, Martinsburg, WV
Humayun Rashid, Charleston, WV
Robert Cross, Wheeling, WV
Keith Recht, Martinsburg, WV
Jalal Fatemi, Clarksburg, WV
Ramanathan Sampath, Charleston, WV
Edmundo Figueroa, Charleston, WV
David Seidler, Charleston, WV
Carl Fischer, III, Clarksburg, WV
Jose Serrato, Charleston, WV
David Fogarty, Morgantown, WV
Howard Shackelford Jr, St. Clairsville, OH
Daniel Foster, Charleston, WV
Rajnikant Shah, Beckley, WV
Adam Gall, Jr., Charleston, WV
Suratkal Shenoy, Keyser, WV
Kourosh Ghalili, Charleston, WV
Wade Stoughton, Morgantown, WV
William Gilmore, Lake Wales, FL
Robert Strauch, Martinsburg, WV
Arnold Gruspe, Weston, WV
Rene Sullesta, Charleston, WV
David Hall, Morgantown, WV
Lawrence Tarrant, Parkersburg, WV
Roland Hamrick, Charleston, WV
Walter Taubenslag, Wheeling, WV
Sulaiman Hasan, Charleston, WV
James Tierney, Charleston, WV
James Henderson, Charleston, WV
Edward Tiley II, Charleston, WV
Jerome Johnson, Morgantown, WV
Charles Tracy, Wheeling, WV
David Kappel, Wheeling, WV
Alfredo Velasquez, Charleston, WV
Joseph Kassis, Clarksburg, WV
Timothy Weyrich, McMurray, PA
Jamal Khan, Charleston, WV
David Wise, Charleston, WV
Mohammad Kahn, Charleston, WV
Richard Kaufmann, Clarksburg, WV
Rajai Khoury, Wheeling, WV
Roger King, Morgantown, WV
Hans Lee, Charleston, WV
Kee Lee, Charleston, WV
John Mani, South Charleston, WV
Anil Makani, Petersburg, WV
Howard Malin, Martinsburg, WV
Frederick Martinez, Charleston, WV
Visiting Professors in the Department of Surgery since 2000
Speakers for these conferences have included: