HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Two West Virginia University greats are teaming up to promote family medicine at the Family Medicine Foundation of West Virginia’s 29th Annual Jose I. Ricard, MD Family Medicine & Sports Medicine Conference.
Dr. Paul Brooks, a 1966 graduate of the WVU School of Medicine and current Family Medicine Foundation of West Virginia Board Chairman, has been named the 2015 WVU School of Medicine Distinguished Alumnus. Along with Dr. Brooks, Mountaineer football great, Noel Devine, will make his return to West Virginia to speak with health care professionals about the importance of reaching at-risk youth through athletics.
Though both men starred in very different roles at WVU and beyond, organizers said both share great love for the Mountain State and its people, and a strong desire to improve the health and lives of others.
The conference, the state’s largest continuing education meeting, will be held on Nov. 12-15 at the Pullman Plaza Hotel in Huntington, WV.
“This award recognizes Dr. Brooks for a lifetime of leadership service to health care in West Virginia,” said Clay Marsh, MD, WVU Vice President and Executive Dean for Health Sciences. “His work has benefitted not only the patients in his family medicine practice, but tens of thousands of others who have been touched by the primary care network he established in West Virginia and the medical research he led in the Ohio Valley.”
“We are proud of our Board President, for his dedication to Family Medicine and the people of West Virginia, and we are excited to bring Noel Devine back to West Virginia to tell his unique story – bringing these two WVU greats together to support and promote Family Medicine is outstanding for our Foundation,” said Matt Walker, Program Coordinator for the Family Medicine Foundation of West Virginia.
The Foundation’s annual conference hosts around 600 MD/DO physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, physical therapists, RNs, LPNs, chiropractors, athletic trainers, occupational therapists, residents, medical students, and others, offering 26.50 hours of continuing education, including a 3-hour “Drug Diversion Training and Best Practice Prescribing of Controlled Substances” workshop with Mayo Clinic pain expert, Dr. Jeannie Sperry, among other health care lectures relevant to West Virginia and the Appalachian region.
Brooks is a native West Virginian, long-time family physician, and captain in the U.S. Air Force. Devine now lives in his hometown of Fort Myers, Fla., where he hosts strength and speed camps and serves as a mentor for at-risk youth.
For more information, please visit www.fmfwv.org and www.painmodel.com or call (304) 733-6485.
