{"id":2709,"date":"2015-01-21T10:22:21","date_gmt":"2015-01-21T16:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kbicblog.com\/blog\/academic-medicine\/?p=2709"},"modified":"2016-10-06T14:17:10","modified_gmt":"2016-10-06T19:17:10","slug":"kayebassman-leads-search-for-new-utrgv-medical-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kbicblog.com\/academic-medicine\/kayebassman-leads-search-for-new-utrgv-medical-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Kaye\/Bassman Academic Medicine Practice leads the search for New UTRGV Medical School"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kaye\/Bassman Academic Medicine Practice leads the search effort for the placement of the inaugural South Texas Diabetes & Obesity Institute. Dr. Sarah Williams-Blangero, the institute\u2019s first director came from Texas Biomedical Research Institute where she most recently served as the Chair, Department of Genetics as well as the Deputy Director, Southwest National Primate Research Center. Dr. Williams-Blangero built a team of 22+ PhD and Masters level scientists who will make a significant positive impact on health issues locally, regionally and worldwide the education of medical students as well as their own research.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n

UTRGV medical school continues progressing<\/a><\/h2>\n

Originally Posted: January 4, 2015 by ExpressNews.com\u00a0<\/a>– Aaron Nelsen<\/p>\n

HARLINGEN \u2014 These are heady times in the Rio Grande Valley medical community. With the building of a new medical program underway, professionals in that field here have been busily stitching together the blueprint for a rigorous education that also reflects the specific health concerns of the border region.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur focus is to get credentialed,\u201d said Dr. Francisco Fernandez, the founding dean of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine. \u201cWithout that, everything else is just talk.\u201d<\/p>\n

While attention has centered on accreditation \u2014 an application was submitted to the Liaison Committee for Medical Education last month \u2014 the announcement of the South Texas Diabetes & Obesity Institute in October offers a window into the unique opportunities the medical school could provide.<\/p>\n

The institute is designed to advance research of diabetes and obesity at the genetic level, and in a region where nearly 30 percent of the population suffers from diabetes and $720 million is spent every year on diabetes-related problems, the institute could prove a testing ground for diabetes treatment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe calls have already been coming in from Mexico, Dubai and beyond, interested in what we\u2019re doing,\u201d Fernandez said. \u201cIf you can make this work here, is it generalizable for the problems of diabetes statewide, and countrywide and global?\u201d<\/p>\n

The institute got a boost in mid-December, when H-E-B gave $1 million to UTRGV to help establish an endowed chair, said Dr. Sarah Williams-Blangero, the institute\u2019s first director.<\/p>\n

Within a few weeks, the institute will boast two dozen researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio and the Texas Biomedical Research Institute, where Williams-Blangero had been chairwoman of the genetics department. Institute research staff will transfer ongoing projects to the Valley and dedicate a portion of their time to teaching.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe research would be conducted with and have relevance for the local population,\u201d Williams-Blangero said. \u201cIt will be a nice, full circle in terms of research, research outcomes and applying those research outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those research projects will provide training opportunities for students to work with researchers as well as to pursue their own research interests, especially in the genetics of common complex diseases and familial factors that influence susceptibility to disease and intervention studies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a really exciting time,\u201d Williams-Blangero said. \u201cThis medical school has a chance to be on the cutting edge.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2013, the Legislature created UTRGV, which merged resources and assets of the University of Texas at Brownsville and the University of Texas Pan American in Edinburg. The move was widely praised because it gave a single regional university access to the Permanent University Fund for the first time, and it made the development of a medical school possible.<\/p>\n

While the new university presents educational opportunities that have the potential to transform the local workforce, disparities for students on the border remain a significant obstacle for education attainment, said Dr. Nolan Perez, a gastroenterologist in Harlingen and a member of the UTRGV School of Medicine advisory committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s critically important that we develop curriculum alignment with what we\u2019re doing in the public schools,\u201d Perez said. \u201cTrust me, the UT system is going to create a top-notch, clinically sound, research-intensive medical school. What a travesty it would be if we did not create a robust pipeline of local students.\u201d<\/p>\n

The medical school will admit at most 50 students, but first it must pass a preliminary review before it can even begin recruiting students in 2015, let alone matriculate them in the summer of 2016. For more than a decade, third- and fourth-year medical students have completed a portion of their clinical training in the Valley through the Regional Academic Health Center in Harlingen, part of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make sure we have the ability, if we train someone here, to offer postgraduate training,\u201d Fernandez said. \u201cBecause studies have shown if somebody does their medical training and residency in the same place, nearly three-quarters of them will stay.\u201d<\/p>\n

But before then, the school must establish a curriculum for several core areas of medicine and recruit faculty and department heads for internal medicine, surgery, family medicine, obstetrics and gynecology.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the one hand, somebody could say, ‘Oh my god, you didn\u2019t run away from that job?\u2019\u201d Fernandez quipped. \u201cAt the same time, the challenges are such an amazing collection of opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

anelsen@express-news.net<\/p>\n

Aaron Nelsen
\nRio Grande Valley Bureau | San Antonio Express-News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kaye\/Bassman Academic Medicine Practice leads the search effort for the placement of the inaugural South Texas Diabetes & Obesity Institute. Dr. Sarah Williams-Blangero, the institute\u2019s first director came from Texas Biomedical Research Institute where she most recently served as the Chair, Department of Genetics as well as the Deputy Director, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":2710,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[446,576],"tags":[84,345,371,194,85,369,372,97,335,370],"class_list":["post-2709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-press","category-industry-news","tag-academic-medicine","tag-executive-leadership","tag-harlingen","tag-kaye-bassman","tag-kbic","tag-sarah-williams-blangero","tag-south-texas-diabetes-obesity-institute","tag-texas","tag-university-of-texas-rio-grande-valley","tag-utrgv","column","threecol","has-thumbnail"],"yoast_head":"\nKaye\/Bassman Academic Medicine Practice leads the search 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