I am pleased to announce that Dr. Steven Cheng has accepted the position of Program Director for the Internal Medicine Residency Program at Washington University School of Medicine/Barnes-Jewish Hospital, effective April 1, 2023. Dr. Cheng will be taking over for Dr. Dominique Cosco, our current Program Director who is transitioning to a new role as the Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education and Designated Institutional Official (DIO) for the Washington University, Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s Hospitals GME consortium.
Dr. Cheng is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Nephrology in the Department of Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine. He received his medical degree and completed his internal medicine residency at Northwestern University, followed by a nephrology fellowship at Washington University School of Medicine. He joined the faculty in the Division of Nephrology in 2006.
Since 2011, Dr. Cheng has served as the Program Director of the Nephrology Fellowship Program and has done a masterful job. During the past decade, he has helped advance the education and wellness of nephrology fellows through the design of Procedure and Night Float rotations, restructuring of clinical consult services, and creation of a new tool to improve transitions of care for dialysis patients. He has been involved in every aspect of the GME training including curriculum development, recruitment, evaluation and compliance. He has always been deeply committed to providing the highest quality educational experience for fellows, residents and medical students. Dr. Cheng is established as a national leader in graduate medical education. He has served on the Internal Medicine Board Exam Committee for the American Board of Internal Medicine and the Training Program Director’s Executive Committee of the American Society of Nephrology (ASN). He is the Chair of the Match Oversight Committee for the ASN and was appointed to the ACGME Board of Appeals for Internal Medicine/Nephrology. In November of 2022, Dr. Cheng was presented with the Distinguished Educator Award by the ASN.
Dr. Cheng has also had important leadership roles in medical student education over the past 15 years. He led a top ranked medical student nephrology course in the Legacy curriculum and played key roles in the development of the new Gateway Curriculum. He serves as Chair of the Phase 1 operations committee and is co-director of the Phase 1 Ins and Outs module. He is an outstanding clinician who is recognized for his content expertise, engaging delivery of didactic coursework and excellent bedside teaching. Dr. Cheng is the recipient of numerous teaching awards, including the Samuel Goldstein Leadership Award for Medical Student Education, the Sydney S. Pearl Clinical Teacher of the Year, the Humanism in Medicine Award, the Glenn Conroy Module Leader of the Year, and the WUSM Academy of Educators Honor Roll. The medical school classes have voted him Course Director of the Year, Lecturer of the Year, Professor of the Year, and Preclinical Teacher of the Year multiple times. In 2023, he was voted the Jane Phillips-Conroy Professor of the Year. The number of times that Dr. Cheng has been voted to receive these rewards is a remarkable testament to his passion and commitment to excellence as an educator.
Dr. Cheng is a nationally recognized educator at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Based on his significant experience leading the nephrology fellowship, his outstanding leadership in medical student education and curriculum development, and his exceptional skills as a clinician, we are confident he will be an outstanding Program Director for our Medicine Residency Program.
I also want to recognize and extend my sincere gratitude to Dr. Dominique Cosco for her exceptional leadership as the Program Director for the Internal Medicine Residency Program. Since 2019, she has done an impressive job of leading the program and has brought significant talents and tremendous enthusiasm to the Program Director position. She has worked together with the Associate Program Directors and General Medicine faculty to increase ambulatory rotations, improve schedules for the ICU rotations, enhance curriculum development, standardize the evaluation and feedback process to better address key resident competencies and promoted new wellness programs. We are very grateful to Dr. Cosco for her outstanding leadership and know she will continue to be successful in her new role as Designated Institutional Official and Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education for the School of Medicine. Drs. Cosco and Cheng will work closely together over the next few months to ensure a successful transition.
Dr. Cheng is exceptionally qualified to take on this new role. Please join me in congratulating Dr. Cheng on his new position as the new Program Director for the Internal Medicine Residency Program at Washington University School of Medicine/Barnes-Jewish Hospital.