By Victoria Brito Morales, UTRGV Staff
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine Graduate Medical Education has received an $11 million grant from the Academic Quality and Workforce Division, a division of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
The program grant supports the state’s initiative to help increase the number of first-year medical residency positions, with funds allocated by the Texas Legislature every two years.
The UTRGV School of Medicine will use the grant for salaries and benefits for its approved residency positions, including:
• 23 psychiatry residency positions at various locations.
• 15 internal medicine residency positions at Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen.
• 18 family medicine residency positions at the Knapp Medical Center in Weslaco.
• 12 internal medicine residency positions for first-year residents at the Knapp Medical Center.
Dr. Nausheen Jamal, associate dean of Graduate Medical Education and associate professor of surgery at the School of Medicine, said the grants are essential not only to UTRGV, but to healthcare in the Rio Grande Valley.
“Expanding medical education in the Valley is a priority of UTRGV,” she said. “And we are thrilled that this money enables us to welcome 12 first-year residents to our brand new internal medicine residency program in the Mid-Valley.”
The UTRGV School of Medicine GME program currently has 193 residents at hospitals throughout the Valley.
The THECB awarded 95 eligible programs statewide in the amount of $156.9 million, to fund 2,093 medical residency programs for a two-year period beginning July 2020.
