Charleston Area Medical Center-CAMC Institute for Academic Medicine Program

Program Identity & Fit

CAMC's Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry Residency is a community-based, university-affiliated program in Charleston, WV, combining a large tertiary regional referral hospital with the clinical and educational infrastructure of an academic medical center (WVU Health Sciences Charleston Campus affiliation). The program trains general psychiatrists for private, public, or academic practice through both a four-year categorical track and a five-year combined internal medicine/psychiatry pathway, drawing on a broad and high-volume psychiatric patient population described by residents as unusually diverse in pathology. Research is institutionally supported through CAMC's Center for Health Services and Outcomes Research, an annual Research Day with awards across oral and poster categories, and interdisciplinary collaboration with medical students, psychology interns, and other trainees, though it functions as an available and encouraged scholarly avenue rather than a defining programmatic identity. The program emphasizes structured, bidirectional evaluation (PRITE, mock boards, faculty-resident feedback), manageable call structure, and a close-knit training culture supported by rural Appalachian community life and wellness programming.