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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?


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.


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.


Texas’ Shifting Demographics Prompt Scholarship Program Change - 09/26/2022

Acknowledging a state now filled with people of different cultures and experiences, the Texas Medical Association has renamed its minority scholarship the TMA Diversity in Medicine Scholarship.


Strength in Numbers: Women Physicians Seek to Change the Culture of Medicine - 09/22/2022

In Texas, women accounted for 36% of active physicians as of September, just under the national rate of 37% and more than double their share 25 years ago. They now outnumber men among Texas medical school enrollees, suggesting they may account for most of the physician workforce in future decades.


TMA Scholarships Help Ensure a More Diversified Physician Workforce - 08/22/2022

Shaige Werth, one of 15 first-year medical students who received a $10,000 scholarship from the Texas Medical Association to pursue their dream becoming a physician, said the TMA Minority Scholarship program is a major step toward a more diverse physician workforce.


Texas Physician Growth Remains Strong, But Robust Recruitment Still Needed - 08/22/2022

Texas has made great strides in recruiting new physicians to the state and keeping them, but it still has a long way to go to catch up with physician-patient ratios seen in other states, according to Texas Medical Association research.


Pinch Points: Health Care Isn’t Immune to a Tight Labor Market - 06/29/2022

Health care isn’t immune to a tight labor market, but employee retention efforts can help.


Racism: A Very Important Health Problem - 01/14/2022

“Americans should not be surprised that it took the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, under the knee of a white police officer to take the COVID-19 pandemic off the lead of every newscast, off the top of every mind, and off the tip of every tongue. Our great country was born with a big problem with racism. Today – 155 years after the end of the Civil War, 65 years after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus, 28 years after Rodney King implored us to “all get along” – our great country still has a big problem with racism..."


An Overworked Force: Texas Grapples With Medical Staffing Shortage Amid COVID-19 Surge - 12/14/2021

Texas grapples with a medical staffing shortage amid a renewed COVID-19 surge.


Newly Licensed Physicians Hit Another All-Time High in Texas - 09/21/2021

Texas has done an excellent job of attracting new physicians over the last two decades, with recent data showing physician growth outstrips population growth.


Continue GME Expansion to Meet State’s Physician Workforce Needs, TMA Tells CMS - 07/02/2021

After more than two and a half decades, Congress has – by a modest amount – expanded the number of graduate medical education (GME) positions funded by Medicare. A recent Texas Medical Association letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) called on the agency to implement the change while keeping Texas and future GME expansion in mind.


Physicians Are Right to Avoid Wasting Vaccine - 02/04/2021

Statement by Texas Medical Association (TMA) President Diana L. Fite, MD, and Harris County Medical Society President Gary J. Sheppard, MD, about situations physicians and health care workers might face when trying to administer all COVID-19 vaccine without wasting it. This issue emerged after Houston authorities leveled accusations against a local physician.


Support State Graduate Medical Education Funding - 02/01/2021

Having an adequate number of graduate medical education (GME) positions is fundamental in preparing physicians needed for Texas. The state’s medical schools are doing their part to educate more physicians. If there are not enough GME positions to train graduates in a medical specialty, those physicians can be expected to leave the state for training elsewhere, and many who leave will not return to practice in the state.


Five Simple Things You Can Do for Your Practice - 01/14/2021

The only way for you to effect "real change" is through the legislative process. Here are five simple things you can do for your practice starting today - right at your desk.


Priority: Primary Care - 11/30/2020

The Texas Medical Association and other corners of organized medicine know primary care is part of the bedrock of a sturdy health care system. So medicine – including the Texas Primary Care Consortium (TPCC), of which TMA is a member, and the Texas Academy of Family Physicians (TAFP) – is engaging policymakers to not only help the state’s primary care system survive the pandemic, but also enable it to thrive for the long haul.


Growing Residents: Texas Med Schools Find Ways to Create More GME Slots - 10/21/2020

Texas’ plan to grow and keep more physicians in state is coming to fruition, but it will require constant nurturing to reach harvest. The latest crop will come out of a collaboration between one of the state’s newest medical schools, in Fort Worth, and Baylor Scott and White All Saints Medical Center. The program will create as many as 150 new residency positions in the Dallas-Fort Worth area through 2027. Collaborations between medical schools and health care institutions will add to those numbers in coming years.