Don Rockey MD

He joined the Ralph H. Johnson VA Health Care System in 2013 and provides care to Veterans with a wide variety of digestive and liver disorders in Charleston and the South Carolina Low Country geographic area.

Dr. Rockey has extensive experience in gastroenterology or hepatology with the VA Health Care System, having previously served at the Fort Miley VA Medical Center in San Francisco, California and at the Durham VA Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. He has also had a number of leadership roles in prominent academic medical centers, including as the Director of the DUMC Liver Center, head of the Division of Digestive and Liver Diseases at the University of Texas Southwestern and as Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina.  He is currently the Director of the MUSC Digestive Disease Research Center and a Distinguished University Professor with active funded research portfolio’s in basic as well as clinical science.  With his extensive clinical and research experience, he is passionate about delivering the highest quality care to Veterans.  In addition, he is dedicated to bringing novel and effective treatments to Veterans with gastrointestinal and liver disease though his various clinical research studies.  

Dr. Rockey has authored and/or co-authored over 500 scientific manuscripts focused on GI and liver-related topics, including multiple seminal basic science and clinical studies published in high impact journals.  He is a committed educator, and is a particularly dedicated mentor, having mentored some 150 different trainees, ranging from undergraduate students to junior faculty members.   

Outside of work, Dr. Rockey enjoys sports, hiking, fishing, travel, art history, and family.

Dr. Rockey’s formal training is highlighted below:

Undergraduate and Medical Education

B.S., Biology.  Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VPI & SU), Blacksburg, Virginia

M.D., Medical College of Virginia (VCU), Richmond, Virginia

Postdoctoral Training

Internship/Residency

Intern (Categorical Medicine), University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)

Resident (Categorical Medicine), UCSF

Chief Medical Resident, UCSF

Fellowship

Clinical and Research Fellow, Gastroenterology, UCSF

Certifications: Internal medicine and gastroenterology