WHAT:
Introduction of Rajesh Tampi, M.D., director of the general adult psychiatry residency program at the Regional Academic Health Center (RAHC), and Marian Moca, M.D., director of the child and adolescent fellowship program at the RAHC; both are faculty in the School of Medicine of The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
WHEN:
2 p.m. Monday, Nov. 11
WHERE:
Regional Academic Health Center, Medical Education Division, 2102 Treasure Hills Blvd., Harlingen, TX 78550
WHO:
Kenneth I. Shine, M.D., consultant and recently retired executive vice chancellor of The University of Texas System; Leonel Vela, M.D., M.P.H., regional dean of the RAHC in the School of Medicine; M. Philip Luber, M.D., associate dean for graduate medical education and interim chairman of psychiatry, School of Medicine; Manny Vela, chief executive officer of Valley Baptist Health System
BACKGROUND:
Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr and Willacy counties continue to be mental health HPSAs (Health Professional Shortage Areas), according to an updated designation list published this summer by the U.S. Bureau of Health Professions. There is more demand in those counties than the available mental health professionals can address.
Only 37 psychiatrists practiced in the four counties during 2011, serving a population in excess of 1.3 million people, according to data from the Texas Department of State Health Services. Before Dr. Moca’s arrival, no fellowship-trained child and adolescent psychiatrist practiced in Cameron County, home to 425,000.
The RAHC is part of the comprehensive University of Texas institution being established in the Valley and is currently under the auspices of the School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, one of the country’s leading health sciences universities, ranks in the top 3 percent of all institutions worldwide receiving National Institutes of Health funding. The university’s schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, health professions and graduate biomedical sciences have produced more than 29,000 graduates. The $765.2 million operating budget supports eight campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg. For more information on the many ways “We make lives better®,” visit www.uthscsa.edu.