WVU medical student selected to represent the Mountain State at national conference
As Matthew Fleshman envisions his career as a rural family medicine physician, he has an underlying goal in mind: bridging West Virginia’s healthcare gaps and advocating for his patients.
A fourth-year student in the West Virginia University School of Medicine, Fleshman is gaining insight he’ll one day carry into his practice through his involvement with the West Virginia Academy of Family Physicians (WVAFP), the state’s largest medical specialty organization representing family physicians. In July, he represented West Virginia as an alternate student delegate at the national American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) FUTURE Conference in Kansas City, Missouri.
Dr. Ryan Hayes, a PGY-3 family medicine resident with the WVU Medicine Department of Family and Community Medicine and former Rural Scholars Program student, from Ripley, also attended the conference. The event brought together medical students, residents and family medicine leaders from across the country to engage in leadership development, advocacy, governance and professional networking.
“We believe Matthew’s involvement will not only benefit his professional development but also reflect positively on WVU School of Medicine's longstanding commitment to leadership, advocacy and primary care workforce development,” said Dr. Matthew A. Davis, board chair and CEO of WVAFP. “Opportunities such as this help cultivate future physician leaders who will continue to serve the people and communities of West Virginia.”
Fleshman says his involvement with WVAFP and the opportunity to attend the conference have allowed him to learn more about physician leadership and advocacy while connecting with family medicine students and physicians from across the country.
“I hope to strengthen the relationship between the WVU School of Medicine Department of Family and Community Medicine and the WVAFP while developing the skills to effectively advocate for the needs of patients and communities throughout our state,” he said. “I believe advocacy is an important way to ensure every voice is heard, especially those who may otherwise go unrepresented, and I look forward to carrying that commitment into my future career as a family physician.”
His journey into the healthcare field began at WVU where he earned a degree in exercise physiology in 2022. That path allowed him to practice hands-on clinically applicable skills that prepared him for his long-term goal of medical school.
“The exercise physiology program helped me develop effective skills not only in completing examinations but in how to interact with patients, something not all other majors provide,” Fleshman said. “The unique opportunity to work in our anatomy lab was also a strong motivator in my choice of major.”
Those experiences enriched the reasoning behind why wanted to become a physician.
“I chose to pursue a career in medicine after having grown up in a healthcare-limited area and seeing the challenges and impacts that low access to healthcare can have on local communities as a whole,” said Fleshman, a native of Hinton. “Having an understanding of these needs led me down this career path to try to help bridge some healthcare gaps that exist in our state.”
That ambition followed a direct line to his selection for the Rural Scholars Program, a unique training opportunity that focuses on developing clinical, management and leadership skills that prepare students for a successful rural/small town practice. Fleshman will join the residency class in 2027.
“I discovered my passion for family medicine during my third-year clerkships, where I realized how rewarding it is to care for the whole person rather than a single condition,” Fleshman said. “Building long-term relationships with patients, having meaningful conversations and partnering with them to improve their health confirmed that this was the right career path for me. I am especially passionate about preventive medicine and hope to use my future role as a primary care physician to improve the health of communities across West Virginia.”
-WVU-
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