hi, i'm scheduled to start tx in early march, but feel i need to change docs. can any one recommend a doc, hepatologist, in richmond va who is affiliated with mcv?
I believe Dr. Shiffman is no longer with VCU medical center (MCV.) You will be in good hands with any of the Hepatologists there. If you decide to do the treatment under their care you will mostly be monitored by a nurse practitioner and attended to by nurses and a great support staff, always with the physician's guidance and ultimate control. What I am essentially saying is that the doctor that you choose won't be as important as just being under the care of the entire Hepatology dept. I was a patient of Dr. Shiffman's and I think I actually talked to him three times over the seven years (off and on) that I was on treatments. Trying to speak with him on the phone is like trying to reach the private line of the president of the United States. He has more "buffers" between him and his patients than a Mafia don. That being said I always knew that he was one of if not THE most up to date and well informed Hepatologists in the world and thus I never changed physicians despite his Wizard of OZ-like availability. Best of Luck.