Danville Regional Medical Center (DRMC) recently hosted its first residency training program graduation ceremony for eight students in its Osteopathic Graduate Medical Education Program. The program is affiliated with Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM).
The students completed their one-year traditional rotating internship, training in a wide variety of medical services, including general hospital medicine, office practice, pulmonary medicine, emergency medicine, orthopedics, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology and psychology, among others.
The philosophy of Osteopathic Medicine is to treat the person as a whole, not just symptoms or diseases. A person’s home, job and environment are taken into consideration in order to make a full assessment of their health and formulate a treatment plan.
“We are honored to be a part of the process of training new primary care physicians,” said Dr. Saria Saccocio, DRMC Chief Medical Officer. “We started our internship training program, along with our Internal Medicine and Family Medicine residency programs, in hopes that physicians who train here will want to practice here. It’s no secret there is a nationwide shortage of primary care physicians, but our main focus is making sure our community’s medical needs are taken care of,” added Dr. Saccocio.
Four of the graduates attended VCOM, while the other four students transferred from various states: Arizona, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Iowa. One graduate received his osteopathic internship program certificate with enough credits to move to his second year as an Internal Medicine resident at Danville Regional. The other seven graduates are transferring to other programs.
“It has been a great experience for our students to have somewhere to get this general training and be prepared for the next step in their process of post graduate medical education,” said Dr. Stephan Trent, DO, Director of Medical Education, DRMC Residency Program. “With the growth of our partnership with VCOM, our rotating internship program and residency programs, we are able to move forward in hopes of fulfilling the need for primary care physicians in the area.”
Danville Regional has trained third and fourth year VCOM medical students during their clinical rotations at the hospital for the past six years and now has progressed to the post-graduate physician training. VCOM and Danville Regional first announced plans in 2009 to begin medical residency programs at the hospital by July 2010. In addition to the one-year internship program, Danville Regional offers two, three-year residency programs - Internal Medicine and Family Practice.
Lauren Miller, a medical student who is finishing her fourth year at VCOM, has completed five clinical rotations at Danville Regional so far and plans to join Danville Regional’s Internal Medicine residency program in the fall.
“I’ve had a great experience during my clinical rotations at the hospital,” said Miller. “The staff members truly enjoy teaching and are passionate about their patients’ well-being. It was both fun and challenging. I’m confident in saying that Danville Regional is where I’m supposed to be.”
Two Danville Regional residents were also recently recognized by students and faculty of VCOM at the student clinician ceremony on June 8. Drs. Rachel Click and Mary Beth Russell both received awards for their exceptional work with the third year medical students during their clinical rotations.
Located in Blacksburg, Virginia, VCOM prepares osteopathic primary care physicians to serve the rural and medically underserved areas of Virginia, North Carolina and the remaining Appalachian region. VCOM was the first medical school partner of Virginia Tech, operating with a collaborative partnership in biomedical research and in student services.
Danville Regional is the leading medical center in the Dan River Region of Virginia and North Carolina, providing open heart surgery, spinal surgery and advanced cancer treatment. Approximately 140 physicians are on the medical staff. The medical center employs approximately 1,200 people. For additional information, visit http://www.danvilleregional.com.
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