Wade Neiman, MD
Private Practice
Clinical Assistant Professor of OB/GYN
University of Virginia
Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor of OB/GYN
Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine
Lynchburg, VA
I'm currently in Private Practice as General OB/GYN for Women's Health Services of Central Virginia and a Clinical Assistant Professor of OB/GYN at the University of Virginia. Additionally, I am an Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor of OB/GYN at the Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine and
the current Chair of District IV ACOG.
Interaction with people keeps me alive. I enjoy my patients, helping with their problems and sharing in their triumphs. Being in practice in the same place for so many years has made me a part of many life stories.
Psychiatry and OB/GYN were the two professions that I was sure I would never do when I entered medical school. My roommate from medical school (also an OB/GYN trained at Yale and currently the CEO of Cooper Surgical) and incidentally the best man at my wedding were both introduced to OB/GYN by his older brother who was 2 years ahead of us in school. We were starting class and he was finishing his rotation. He spent one of our first nights telling us how much he liked it. He is also an OB/GYN in Connecticut. Of course, we did not take his word for it. Once we got into clinical medicine, I always felt that the OB/GYNs were the happiest and most well-adjusted physician mentors and although they worked the longest hours seemed to have the best lives. Who would want anything else?
When I came to Lynchburg, VA to practice, the senior partner who recruited me, Carrol H. Lippard, was a past president of the SAAOG. He helped us get started. He told us (or rather his wife did) where to live, which social clubs to join, how a Yankee should act in the South, and, of course, not if but when I would join the SAAOG. They were a lovely couple and really I owe a lot of my personal and professional success to their early guidance.
Like ACOG involvement, SAAOG has given me the opportunity to interact with my peers from other institutions and geographies. This allows us to share ideas, opportunities, and comradery. Keeping in touch with these folks and attending the meetings gives me one of the many avenues available to keep up to date. I also feel SAAOG is unique in its role of fostering presentation for our younger faculty, residents, and students. Interacting with young physicians keeps us sharp and young at heart ourselves.
I think we need to unify our post graduate training programs. It takes many years to become an OB/GYN and even longer if your interest is subspecialized. Currently our programs don’t track residents’ interests or skills. I suspect we need to re-organize. This will of course be a daunting task and not accomplished overnight. However, I think it is necessary to continue to produce the best doctors in the world.
I would also love to see us solve the liability crisis in our specialty which is a specter that raises it ugly head every few years. There are many potential solutions that would not remove the rights of patients. Unfortunately there are few champions on either side willing to seek reasonable compromise.
I am a terrible but eager golfer. I love the outdoors but also curl up nicely with a good book on a rainy day. I am also something of an old movie buff and love the music from the 1930s and 40s. I love to take things apart and am something of a fix it junkie.
I only got one unsatisfactory grade in my educational career. I flunked singing in Kindergarten. Not to be dissuaded however, I took a liking to music and theater and in my high school and college years sang in the choir, barbershop quartet and starred in multiple school theater department musicals. I still sing in the church choir.
Wife and kids. Andrea and I are married 37 years. Two children: Erica, 34, a doctor of occupational therapy and Everett, 30, a business consultant.
