UTRGV School of Medicine

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine is the realization of the decades-long effort of community leaders and other supporters to establish a medical school in the Valley to provide health care to a region that historically has been burdened by health disparities.

In 1997, the Texas Legislature approved Senate Bill 606, which allowed The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA)—now known at UT Health San Antonio—to open a Regional Academic Health Center (RAHC) to train physicians who would practice medicine in the Valley. UTHSCSA opened its Medical Education Division in 2002 in Harlingen and its Medical Research Division in 2006 in Edinburg. In 2009, the Texas Legislature approved for The University of Texas System Board of Regents to create a medical school, using the resources from the RAHC, for the Valley in the future.

Three years later, The UT System Board of Regents approved the creation of a new university and medical school in the Rio Grande Valley, using resources from two universities within the UT System—The University of Texas at Brownsville/Texas Southmost College and The University of Texas-Pan American—and the RAHC.

In June 2013, The Texas Legislature approved the creation of The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and its School of Medicine. Two years later, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine welcomed its first 42 medical residents in six hospital-based training programs. The UTRGV School of Medicine received preliminary accreditation from the LCME in October 2015, which allowed the School of Medicine to recruit for its first class.

The UTRGV School of Medicine welcomed its charter class of 55 medical students in the summer of 2016.

The UTRGV School of Medicine now has more than 200 medical students and over 150 medical residents and fellows serving in nine hospital-based training programs throughout the Valley, with more training programs on the horizon.

Vision

To transform the health of the Rio Grande Valley and beyond.

Mission

We will transform the health of the Rio Grande Valley and beyond by providing advanced academic medicine through these five pillars:

• Innovative Education
• Life Changing Research and Discoveries
• High Quality Patient Centered Care
• Serving our community
• Sustainability and a Culture of Entrepreneurship

Values

The School of Medicine values include the following,

• Open Communication & Transparency: Share information openly across all levels (of the school) to engrain a collaborative and trustworthy environment.
• Community Focus: Commitment to improving health outcomes and reducing health disparities of at-risk populations through community and population-based interventions.
• Cultural Awareness: Integration of knowledge, awareness, and empathy to successfully work with the diverse and unique needs of any community
• Empathy & Compassion: Care for and understand others to provide support and achieve positive outcomes.
• Good Stewardship: Selfless service (for the common good) to promote accountability and a culture of responsibility.
• Innovation & Transformation: Embrace change and promote creativity to shape the future of academic medicine.
• Integrity: Act with honor, honesty, and truthfulness. Know and do the right thing in all undertakings, learning, discovery, patient care, service, and entrepreneurship.
• Respect, Collegiality & Inclusive Citizenship: Treat people with respect and kindness to create a community of inclusivity, cooperation, and connectedness.

These core values, established by the planning teams, will be shared with the Ad hoc Committee on Culture. These further align with UTRGV values that are heavily rooted in the the Rio Grande Valley.

They include:

• Hard Work: we expect to work hard for what we achieve.
• Family: we respect and honor our families.
• Opportunity, Not Entitlement: we don’t believe anyone owes us anything, we do believe we can be successful.
• Gratitude, not Grievance: we are grateful for the opportunities we have and intend to take full advantage of them.