Board Elects new President and Vice President

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 9, 2018
Contact:
Mark A. Spangler, MA
Executive Director
(304) 558-2921
Mark.A.Spangler@wv.gov

Dr. Kishore Challa Elected President of WV Board of Medicine;
Dr. Ashish Sheth Elected Vice President

Charleston, WV __ South Charleston cardiologist Dr. Kishore K. Challa today was elected to serve a two-year term as president of the West Virginia Board of Medicine, while Cross Lanes internal medicine specialist Dr. Ashish P. Sheth was elected to a two-year term as vice president.

The election took place during the regular bimonthly meeting of the WVBOM in Charleston. Challa and Sheth officially begin their new duties on Tuesday. Dr. Rahul Gupta, state health officer and commissioner of the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health, serves as board secretary.

“I am honored to accept this opportunity to lead the outstanding board members and staff of the West Virginia Board of Medicine,” Challa said. “The licensure, regulation and oversight of more than 7,000 physicians, 120 podiatric physicians and nearly 1,000 physician assistants in West Virginia is a responsibility we take very seriously, and we are most fortunate to have an organization that is up to the challenge.”

Challa succeeds Dr. Ahmed D. Faheem as president of the 16-member board. Faheem, a Beckley psychiatrist, had served as president for the past four years. Challa served as Faheem’s vice president for the past two years.

Challa, president of South Charleston Cardiology Associates, began his medical education in his native India, and then moved to the U.S. to complete a medical residency and cardiology fellowship at Coney Island Hospital in New York. After completing his training in interventional cardiology at New York Medical College, he and his family moved to Charleston in 1989.

Challa has served as the chief of staff at Thomas Memorial Hospital. He is board certified in internal medicine and cardiology, is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, and a member of the American College of Chest Physicians and the Kanawha Medical Association. In February 2013, he was presented with the Distinguished West Virginian award by Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, and in 2014 received the American Heart Association’s Heart of Gold award.

Challa also chairs the board’s Complaint Committee, and serves on the Executive/Management Committee, Legislative Committee and Personnel Committee. He was originally appointed to the board in January 2013 and reappointed by Gov. Jim Justice in October 2017.

Like Challa, Sheth began his medical education in India before completing his residency in internal medicine at Jersey Shore Medical Center. He is affiliated with Thomas Memorial Hospital, where he has served on the hospital’s Peer Review Committee since 2005. Additionally, in 2005 he served as chairman of the Department of Medicine and Family Practice. Sheth and his wife, Falguni, who is a respiratory therapist, operate the medical practice WV Primary Care. The West Virginia Board of Medicine is the state agency charged with protecting the health and safety of the public through licensure, regulation and oversight of medical doctors (MDs), podiatric physicians (DPMs), and collaborating physician assistants (PAs).

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