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Coming Up Short: TMA Workforce Report Underscores Access Challenges, Advocacy Wins - 04/30/2024

While the study highlights positive growth facilitated by TMA’s ongoing advocacy, it shows shortages that mirror those across the health care professional workforce and that are particularly entrenched in rural areas; it also reveals challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and by other factors, economic or otherwise, that have complicated Texas' practice environment and impacted recruitment.

Innovation for Every Age: Texas Primary Care Physicians Improve Access for Older Patients - 04/30/2024

Texas' population is aging, highlighting the importance of access to high-quality, coordinated primary care that bridges complex systems, various clinicians, and concurrent chronic conditions.

TMA Scholarship Cultivates a Diverse Workforce; Apply by May 31 - 03/25/2024

Are you sharing in the excitement of someone who's just been accepted to medical school?

Deadline: TMA Scholarship Fosters Diversity in Medicine - 02/27/2024

As Match Day nears, so does the deadline to apply for a Texas Medical Association scholarship helping to ensure the physician workforce more closely mirrors the population it serves.

A Helping Hand for Future Physicians: The Diversity in Medicine Scholarship - 12/19/2023

Medical school can be an expensive undertaking. The Diversity in Medicine Scholarship aims to make pursuing this noble profession more accessible.

Corpus Hospital Revives Emergency Medicine Residency Program - 12/15/2023

Following a grassroots advocacy effort by local physicians, CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital in Corpus Christi recently reversed its plan to close the CHRISTUS Health-Texas A&M Spohn Hospital Emergency Medicine Residency program in 2026. The program will continue at least through 2029 thanks to funding from the Nueces County Hospital District.

Corpus Hospital Closes ER Residency - 10/24/2023

Christus Spohn Hospital recently announced its plan to close its emergency medicine residency program in June 2026. This came as a shock to the medical community. The statement from Christus cited consideration of the availability of resources as the reason for the unexpected closure. Read the op-ed.

Unlocking Doors: Diversity in Medicine Scholarship Program Connects Students with Mentors - 10/21/2023

When the Texas Medical Association founded its Diversity in Medicine Scholarship Program in 1998 to diversify the physician workforce, Dr. Ramamurthy became both a contributor and a mentor to students who receive the scholarships. “When you’re mentoring students, one of the things that you want them to understand is that you’re somebody they can talk to who is not only there as a teacher, but as a friend,” she said. Other top donors to the Diversity in Medicine Scholarship serve voluntarily as mentors to student awardees. TMA encourages those arrangements because they can benefit both parties.

Inspiring Choices: Mentorship Can Boost African-American Representation in Medicine - 10/20/2023

African Americans are underrepresented in medicine. Mentorship can help them choose medical careers.

Fulfilling a Dream - 10/20/2023

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine has largely dispensed with lectures and focuses more on group learning and practical experience. This and other innovations dovetail with the school's focus on public health, which is vital in a region notorious for high poverty and chronic health problems.

Rotations, Residency Applications, Testing Fees? TMA Low-Interest Loans Can Help - 10/03/2023

As a medical student, Zachary Hamilton, MD, had no idea how he was going to pay for his fourth-year residency applications and travel expenses to interviews. Then he heard about and applied for a TMA low-interest educational loan.

TMA Border Health Conference Tackles Medicine’s Most Pressing Issues - 08/28/2023

As physician advocates, policymakers, and community leaders gathered in Harlingen for the Texas Medical Association’s annual Border Health Conference, the wide-ranging agenda included many of medicine’s priority issues along the Texas-Mexico border.

Furthering Medical Education in Texas - 07/17/2023

Medical education in Texas is moving in the right direction. The Texas Medical Association has been a major partner in advancing medical education initiatives. This special symposium issue on medical education examines residency training costs, the Next Accreditation System, graduate medical education in rural Texas, Texas' physician workforce needs, the current state of education reform, and efforts to retain medical graduates in Texas.

Stable or Critical? Emergency Medicine Has Become Less Popular on Match Day. Why? - 07/10/2023

After four decades of steady demand on Match Days, emergency medicine has turned in lower-than-expected performances in the last two years. What has caused this change and what does it mean?

New Laws Reshape Texas Health Care Landscape - 06/29/2023

New laws are about to transform health care in Texas, addressing long-term issues like surprise medical billing, raising the tobacco-use age, and improving Medicaid. The 2020-21 state budget also includes vital funding increases for women’s health programs, graduate medical education (GME), and community mental health services

Help Wanted: Texas’ physician growth strong, but recruitment, diversity still needed - 06/21/2023

Texas' physician workforce has enjoyed strong growth, but there still aren't enough doctors to go around and more diversity is needed.

House of Delegates Tackles Health Care Workforce Shortages - 05/25/2023

As Texas continues to face health care workforce shortages, particularly in rural areas, the Texas Medical Association House of Delegates responded to those concerns with new policies aimed at bolstering the ranks of medical students, residents, physicians, and bedside nurses at its annual TexMed conference last week.

More Than a Match: UTRGV Medical Students Overcome Pandemic Pressures to Earn Residency Spots - 04/30/2023

Forty-five students in the fourth graduating class of The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine, along with their family members, friends, and UTRGV officials, gathered at the school’s performing arts center in Edinburg for Match Day. That's the day in March when medical students across the U.S. discover where they will train as resident physicians.

Learning Through a Value Lens: Texas Medical Students Learn Value-Based Care Tenets - 04/30/2023

The national Students and Trainees Advocating for Resource Stewardship (STARS) program seeks to catalyze physicians' uptake of value-based care, starting with medical students, whom it anticipates will have long, impactful careers.

U.S. Main Residency Match Posts Another Year of Record-High Positions - 03/27/2023

If the 2023 Main Residency Match was a patient, you’d have to say that the vital signs were strong.

Lege Poised to Boost GME Funding; TMA Urges Rural Workforce Investment - 03/22/2023

With a record-high budget at its disposal, the Texas Legislature seems poised to increase funding for graduate medical education in the 2024-25 biennium, fulfilling one of the Texas Medical Association’s legislative priorities. But physicians say more must be done to address the state’s physician workforce shortage, especially in primary care and in rural and underserved areas.

Growing Representation: TMA's Diversity in Medicine Scholarship Cultivates a Representative Workforce - 12/04/2022

The Texas Medical Association's recently renamed Diversity in Medicine Scholarship program aims to boost underrepresented applicants to Texas medical schools, physicians caring for medically underserved populations, and diversity within the physician workforce.

A Revolving Door: Persistent Staffing Shortages Plague Practices - 12/04/2022

Many medical practices that are struggling with staffing have found stopgap solutions, such as offering hiring wages and reconsidering their divisions of labor, but these may not be sustainable in the long term.

Help, Not Discipline: TMB Program Guides Physicians Through Impairment - 11/01/2022

The Texas Physician Health Program helps physicians work through mental health crises and avoid discipline by the Texas Medical Board.

Compact for Care: Texas Joins Interstate Agreement for Out-of-State Licensure - 10/13/2022

The rise of telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic has spurred a change in state law that will not only help make certain telemedicine services permanent but also give out-of-state physicians an easier pathway to join the Texas workforce.