School of Medicine gains 56 residents

On July 1, 56 new medical residents will be placed within six residency programs and community outreach opportunities at the UTRGV School of Medicine.

“We are very excited to have new residents coming and new programs starting,” said Steven Lieberman, UTRGV School of Medicine interim dean. “We are especially excited with the individuals who matched with us. These are very high-quality applicants. … We just cannot wait until the new residents get here.”

The School of Medicine added three new residency programs this year: preventive medicine, a family residency program at Knapp Medical Center in Weslaco and psychiatry.

“Each specialty has a specific number of years of training,” Lieberman said. “For instance, family medicine is three years, internal medicine is three years, obstetrics and gynecology is four years, general surgery is five years, preventive medicine is two years and psychiatry is four years. So, those are the specialties that we have now.”

Match Day, held March 17 this year, normally takes place on the third Friday of March, according to the UTRGV website.

During Match Day, the UTRGV School of Medicine received:

–two residents to the preventive medicine program

–six residents to the psychiatry program

–four residents to the obstetrics and gynecology program

–six residents to the family medicine at Knapp Medical Center

–four residents to the general surgery program at Doctors Hospital at Renaissance in Edinburg

–six residents each for the family medicine programs at McAllen Medical Center and Doctors Hospital at Renaissance

–22 residents for the internal medicine programs at Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen and at Doctors Hospital at Renaissance.

“Residency training is primarily hospital based. … They also do outpatient work and that will be at a variety of locations around the Valley,” Lieberman said.

The new residents will begin their orientation June 22 and 23.

Andrey Shalomov, a new UTRGV resident in the psychiatry program, said he is impressed with the postgraduate training that the university offers.

“It is an amazingly setup program,” said Shalomov, who graduated from the American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine. “I am really impressed that they have new equipment that will transfer to the next generations. … The simulation model that they have in the building is brand new. This is something that I haven’t seen before. I was really impressed with the program and the design of it. It is a very community-involved program.”

Lieberman said the match process, which lasts five days, included applications and interviews that the residents are required to pass.

“Once medical students decide what medical field they want to go into and they send out applications, they are invited to interviews at programs that they are interested in,” he said. “Following the interviews, students have a list of programs where they have been interviewed and then, [residents] rank [the programs] from their highest to lowest priority, and the programs list the applicants that they interviewed from their highest to lowest priority.

“All of this goes to the computer and the computer creates the match list and the student always gets the highest-ranked choice on their list to which they were accepted. … The match process lasts five days. On [March 13], students who didn’t match are notified and they go through a special rematch process over the next few days, where there are many matches to fill and connect unmatched students to unfilled training programs.”

Lieberman said this year, UTRGV’s residency programs filled on the primary match.

Asked if the School of Medicine will add new programs for next year, Lieberman replied: “We are working on at least one more program. … We are looking to start a neurology program for next summer of 2018.”

Arden Dingle, a professor and director of the psychiatry residency program, said this program will focus on teaching residents about the range of skills and knowledge that psychiatrists need.

“The psychiatry program is very interested in producing high-quality general psychiatrists who can work with a variety of populations who have different needs and problems in different settings,” Dingle said. “It is a program that is very interested in teaching residents about health disparities, the social determinants of health and sort of the associated medical problems. It is interested in teaching people about the range of skills and knowledge that psychiatrists need.”

Shalomov said he was surprised and happy to get into the psychiatry residency program.

“I was so amazed,” he said. “I was so happy and so glad. It is a dream that came true. This is something that I wanted and I worked really hard for it. It is a great opportunity to do your research.”

Dingle said the six psychiatry medical residents will train in different sites throughout the Valley.

“Residents are going to work at the Rio Grande State Center in Harlingen,” she said.  “They are going to work at the Tropical Texas Behavioral Health center … [which] has multiple locations in Edinburg, Weslaco, Harlingen and Brownsville. They are going to work at the … Veterans Administration, which has a location in McAllen and one in Harlingen. And, they are going to work at Valley Baptist Medical Center, which is in Cameron County. So, those are the main sites.”

Lieberman said the 56 new residents will be part of UTRGV’s effort to improve health care in the Valley.

“We are delighted at the caliber of the residents who are starting here this summer,” he said. “We think that they will be part of our effort to improve access to [health] care in the Valley. Residency training is a clinical part of medical education. It’s really during residency where you learn how to practice your specialty and it’s well recognized that when people do their residencies, they are very likely to stay and go into practice with their careers. So, growing the residency programs in the Valley is really important for increasing the number of doctors we have in the Valley in all specialties.”

As previously reported by The Rider, last year the School of Medicine welcomed 42 medical residents.