VOLUME 35, ISSUE 2

If you have not been involved in resident education in the past several years, you may be surprised to find out some changes that have recently occurred or are in the works for the near future. Texas has seen a recent expansion of medical schools within the state and the concern for the lack of expansion of GME opportunities to match this has been an issue that many have noted. The expansion of residency programs by increasing class size of the existing programs as well as establishing brand new programs tends to be significantly slower and more methodical than the expansion of medical school positions. However, there seems to be some movement in the direction of increasing GME programs around the state.

Most recently, Houston Methodist Hospital has established a residency training program that had its first class of residents join them at the beginning of the past academic year. This hospital has other well established graduate medical education programs and has been affiliated with and hosted rotating residents for many years, so the academic environment is well established. The Houston Methodist Hospital anesthesiology residency program’s faculty is comprised primarily of members of the U. S. Anesthesia Partners (USAP) group.

Other sites in Texas also have plans for new residency programs in anesthesiology, including The University of Texas at Tyler Health Science Center and Baylor Scott & White All Saints Hospital in Fort Worth. Although neither site has officially entered the National Residency Matching Program to begin filling residency positions, both are laying the foundation for residency classes to begin within the next 1-2 years. The Tyler program will be affiliated with the new University of Texas Medical School that will begin soon in Tyler. Baylor Scott & White All Saints Hospital has affiliated with the Burnett School of Medicine at Texas Christian University as its academic partner for its graduate medical education programs. Both of these new residency programs are going to be part of the Northstar Anesthesia group and their members will serve as the primary faculty for the programs.

Several other programs have been approved for small increases in their residency class sizes. This growth in graduate medical education training in anesthesiology is modest and the overall growth in training programs is still lagging behind the increase in medical school graduates, but it is promising to see some increase in the number of anesthesiologists being trained, as market forces suggest that there is a shortage at the present time.

In related news, the residency program at Baylor Scott & White in Temple (formerly Scott & White Hospital) is in the process of changing academic partners. Texas A&M School of Medicine students will finish out their almost 50-year history of partnership with the Baylor Scott & White Medical Center-Temple and the Olin E. Teague Veteran’s Affairs Hospital in the upcoming academic year. Meanwhile, Baylor College of Medicine will install a four-year campus at the Temple site that will begin in coming weeks, as the first class has their white coat ceremony. Soon after that, the transition of the graduate medical education programs to Baylor College of Medicine-Temple academic partnership is expected. Faculty members at Baylor Scott & White Medical Center-Temple are currently in the process of establishing faculty appointments through Baylor College of Medicine.

The education landscape is ever changing and it is exciting to see these new changes as they occur. It will certainly be interesting to see how these new developments impact the educational and workforce landscapes in coming years.