• Twitter/Instagram: @vtcemergencymedicine
• Location: Roanoke, VA 
• Year founded: 2011
• Number of residents: 35
• Program length: 3 years

What training does your program offer that residents can‘t get anywhere else?

Experience in community, academic, and rural practices. The faculty at Carilion Clinic Emergency Medicine provide care across six emergency departments in Southwest Virginia. We have the only level 1 trauma center and pediatric emergency department (ED) in the region. Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital is the tertiary/quaternary referral hospital for a catchment area of 6,000 square miles with a population of 1.5 million. The hospital sees more than 90,000 annual ED visits and more than 2,000 annual trauma activations. A longitudinal pediatrics curriculum with pediatric ED shifts interspersed into ED rotations ensures residents are exposed to all seasonal variations of pediatric emergency care.

VTCSOM residents strike a pose before SIM lab. (Click to enlarge.)

Residents also train at two other locations: Carilion New River Valley Medical Center, a community ED that sees 40,000 patients a year, and Carilion Franklin Memorial Hospital, a rural ED with 20,000 patient visits a year.

How would you describe the culture of your program?

We are committed to using the latest technology, research, and advanced medical practices to lead the region in emergency care. The combination of serving such a large community and the program’s desire to serve has produces a passion and culture of education and learning. The feeling of family and camaraderie develops within the first year and grows.

Where do most graduating residents go after they complete the program?

Our mission has always been to provide residents with training opportunities they need to pursue the career path of their choice. Whether a resident wants to pursue a fellowship in critical care medicine, addiction medicine, wilderness medicine, ultrasound, or work in a small, rural hospital after graduation, we can prepare them for that.

Timothy J. Fortuna, DO, FACEP, is program director in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine.