Equip Harlingen grant program now accepting applications! Start Here.
News
Grant will allow UTRGV School of Medicine’s Graduate Medical Education to expand residency programs
RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – MAY 11, 2020 – 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 THECB Graduate Medical Education Expansion 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.
ABOUT UTRGV
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) was created by the Texas Legislature in 2013 as the first major public university of the 21st century in Texas. This transformative initiative provided the opportunity to expand educational opportunities in the Rio Grande Valley, including a new School of Medicine, and made it possible for residents of the region to benefit from the Permanent University Fund – a public endowment contributing support to the University of Texas System and other institutions.
UTRGV has campuses and off-campus research and teaching sites throughout the Rio Grande Valley including in Boca Chica Beach, Brownsville (formerly The University of Texas at Brownsville campus), Edinburg (formerly The University of Texas-Pan American campus), Harlingen, McAllen, Port Isabel, Rio Grande City, and South Padre Island. UTRGV, a comprehensive academic institution, enrolled its first class in the fall of 2015, and the School of Medicine welcomed its first class in the summer of 2016.
CUTLINE
In this UTRGV archive photo, UTRGV internal medicine residents (from left) Drs. Pierre M. Agnant, Nikeisha Adams, Cesar Uribe and Bernardino Villescas (senior resident) visit with a patient during their rounds at Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen. (UTRGV Archive Photo by David Pike)
MEDIA CONTACTS
UTRGV Informational Writer / 956-882-4330
UTRGV Director of News and Internal Communications / 956-665-2742