VCU news

By Melissa Jones

RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia Commonwealth University and Inova Health System Foundation today (Dec. 8) announced a partnership to establish the VCU School of Medicine - Inova/Northern Virginia Division, to be based at Inova Fairfax Hospital.

According to VCU and Inova officials, a partnership of this magnitude between Inova and a Virginia medical school is the first of its kind.

The partnership, which will encompass an M.D. degree program, residency training programs, continuing medical education initiatives, clinical outcomes research and biotechnology collaboration, could begin as early as next year.

The plan’s design has medical students completing their first two years of training on VCU’s Medical College of Virginia Campus in Richmond. For both the third and fourth years of training, up to 50 medical students will be assigned to the Inova/Northern Virginia Division. VCU also is considering expanding its medical school class by 18 students per year, bringing it to 190 students.

A complete transition to full third- and fourth-year training at Inova will take two to three years. However, the VCU School of Medicine will create selected electives for fourth-year medical students that will begin at the Inova/Northern Virginia Division in the 1999-2000 academic year. In addition, third-year medical students may receive a portion of their training at the Inova/Northern Virginia Division as early as 2001. Complete implementation of the plan will take five years.

"This is a major initiative. We are answering a need at both ends of the spectrum with this partnership," said Dr. Eugene P. Trani, president of VCU. "The Northern Virginia market is growing at an unprecedented rate and is in need of primary care physicians. And, for VCU students, the learning environment is greatly expanded."

VCU’s Fairfax Family Practice Residency Program has been affiliated with Inova for a number of years. With the new partnership agreement, residency training programs will be established at Inova Fairfax Hospital that may include surgery, psychiatry, internal medicine, emergency medicine, pediatrics and obstetrics and gynecology.

"We are familiar with the quality of VCU’s well-established and nationally recognized medical and science programs," said Knox Singleton, president and chief executive officer of Inova Health System Foundation. "An expansion of our relationship is only natural and we look forward to partnering with one of the region’s top academic medical centers. We’re also excited at the opportunity to help train more physicians to serve Northern Virginia and its surrounding areas, particularly in specialties that are in short supply."

VCU and Inova officials note that additional collaborations in clinical outcomes research and biotechnology initiatives will be established over the next five years. They also expect that the partnership could expand to include programs in pharmacy, dentistry and allied health professions.

VCU and Inova have begun the approval process that will allow the affiliation to move forward. This spring they will take the plan for the M.D. degree program to the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia for approval, followed by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the national accrediting body for medical schools.

The residency programs, some of which are slated to begin in July 2002, will require accreditation by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education’s Residency Review Committee. The proposal will be taken to that committee in the 2000-2001 academic year.

Plans for facility renovations and expansions as well as full-time faculty and teaching assistants on both campuses are being developed.

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