Workforce

Texas’ plan to grow and keep more physicians in state is coming to fruition, but it will require constant nurturing to reach harvest.

The Texas Medical Association and California Medical Association applauded a bipartisan group of U.S. senators for introducing a bill that addresses physician shortages and improves access to care, particularly in children’s hospitals and nonprofit hospitals.

Texas continues to rank among the most successful states in retaining physicians from its medical schools and residency programs, beating out 47 other states, data from 2019 show.

Four Texas medical schools, hospitals, and nonprofit organizations received about $250,000 each to develop new first-year graduate medical education (GME) programs in the state.

Medical education made some gains in the 2019 legislative session, including the statutory approval of two new medical schools – the University of Houston College of Medicine in Houston and Sam Houston State University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Conroe, both of which will open in 2020.

The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler has been awarded a three-year federal grant of $750,000 to develop a residency program in rural northeast Texas. UTHealth Tyler will use the funds to develop a rural training track in psychiatry.

Vivian H. Porche, MD, has been mentoring young African American students since the 1990s, but only a handful followed in her footsteps to become a physician. One of those rare successes came last month when Victoria Beamer, MD, walked across the stage and earned her degree at Wake Forest Medical School in North Carolina.

Gov. Greg Abbott signed House Bill 826 by Rep. John Zerwas, MD (R-Richmond), which creates the University of Houston College of Medicine, into law Thursday, after it was unanimously approved by the Senate. The new medical school, which will be the 13th in Texas, will welcome its inaugural class in the fall of 2020.

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine will stop considering race or ethnicity when selecting candidates for admission, part of an agreement with the U.S. Education Department’s civil rights office.

Think of the nation’s 186 medical schools as a club that just about every institution of higher learning wants to join.

Texas physicians are pushing lawmakers on the importance of ensuring enough residency slots exist to train doctors who study in Texas and of preventing gun violence.

In the Capitol this week, Lubbock internist Cynthia Jumper, MD, urged budget-writing lawmakers to adequately fund graduate medical education so Texas won’t lose ground in physicians per capita.

As the number of hospital-employed physicians continues to rise in the United States, a new survey shows physicians are major drivers of revenue for those facilities.

For the first time in 14 years, more women than men enrolled in Texas’ medical schools in fall 2017, an increase that reflects first-year enrollment figures nationwide.

By 2020, Texas will be opening three new medical schools. Will there be enough residency positions for all the new students

A lack of standardization on APRN clinical training has the Texas Medical Association pushing the state to take a closer look.

Read the Legislative Affairs story in Texas Medicine.