How to Find Clinical Departments and Research Areas at UVA School of Medicine

Updated

The UVA School of Medicine website organizes its clinical departments and research operations into two separate top-level sections: Clinical and Research. If you are looking for a specific specialty (e.g., Neurology, Surgery), start with the Clinical menu. If you need labs, centers, or core facilities, start with the Research menu. Both are accessible from the main navigation on med.virginia.edu.

Finding Clinical Departments

The Clinical section lists the school's clinical departments by specialty. According to the site navigation, this includes:

  • Anesthesiology
  • Dermatology
  • Emergency Medicine
  • Family Medicine
  • Medicine
  • Neurology
  • Neurosurgery
  • Obstetrics & Gynecology
  • Ophthalmology
  • Orthopaedic Surgery
  • Otolaryngology
  • Pathology
  • Pediatrics
  • Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
  • Plastic Surgery, Maxillofacial, & Oral Health
  • Psychiatry & Neurobehavioral Sciences
  • Radiation Oncology
  • Radiology & Medical Imaging
  • Surgery
  • Urology

Each department name links to its own page. Those pages carry specialty-specific information — faculty, clinical programs, and departmental news. For example, the Psychiatry & Neurobehavioral Sciences department page reflects current leadership; the site announced Nassima Ait-Daoud Tiouririne, MD, as its chair, a physician-scientist board-certified in psychiatry and addiction medicine whose research covers substance use disorder treatments including neuromodulation and pharmacotherapy.

How to use this: If your goal is clinical care or a specialty referral, use the Clinical list. If your goal is academic or research contact, go to the department page and look for faculty and research links rather than patient-care links.

Finding Research Departments, Centers, and Core Facilities

The Research section is structured around research operations rather than clinical specialties. Its navigation includes:

  • Office for Research
  • Services for Researchers
  • Research Departments
  • Research Centers
  • Research Core Facilities
  • Research News
  • Research Faculty Directory

This is the correct entry point for questions about where research happens, what shared equipment or services exist (core facilities), and who conducts research.

Using the Research Faculty Directory

The Research Faculty Directory is the site's tool for identifying individual researchers. Use it when you know a topic or name but not the department. A concrete example: if you are looking for cellular neuroscience work, the directory and department pages would lead you to the Department of Cell Biology, now chaired by Bettina Winckler, PhD, a nationally recognized leader in cellular neuroscience.

Choosing the Right Section

Your goal Section to use What you get
Find a clinical specialty or department Clinical Department list by specialty, each with its own page
Find labs, centers, or shared research facilities Research Research Departments, Centers, Core Facilities
Identify a specific researcher Research → Research Faculty Directory Faculty listings by research area
Learn departmental news or leadership Either section's department page or News Announcements such as new chairs and ceremonies

Common Points to Watch

  • Clinical and Research are not the same list. A department can appear in both contexts, but the Clinical menu is organized for patient care and specialty lookup, while the Research menu is organized for labs and facilities.
  • Department pages are the detail layer. The top-level lists only give you names; specialty-specific information lives one click deeper.
  • For education programs, use the separate Education section (MD Program, Biomedical Sciences PhD Program, Medical Scientist Training Program, Public Health Sciences Program), not Clinical or Research.