HCA Healthcare LewisGale Hospital-Montgomery-VCOM Program

Program Identity & Fit

This is a small, community-based dermatology program (six residents total, two per year) affiliated with VCOM and housed within an HCA community hospital in Blacksburg, VA, with a faculty base largely composed of its own graduates practicing at a local private dermatology group (River Ridge Dermatology). Training emphasizes broad clinical dermatology - medical, surgical, dermatopathologic, and pediatric - with monthly surgical lecture participation and quarterly grand rounds through nearby Carilion Clinic, plus outsourced dermatopathology reading via PRW Laboratories in Charlottesville. Research is present through an HCA-wide infrastructure (research coordinators, access to a large patient-encounter database, HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine) but is not positioned as central to the program's identity; rather, the program foregrounds mentorship continuity, faculty stability, and a close-knit, community-practice training model rooted in the New River Valley. The program values longevity and fit within its regional community-practice culture, evidenced by faculty who trained locally and returned to teach.