SAN ANTONIO (April 21, 2009) — The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) has awarded The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio School of Medicine the best accreditation status (Continued Accreditation) for a maximum cycle length of five years, Glenn A. Halff, M.D., acting dean of the School of Medicine, announced.
“This is terrific news, and it is a great compliment to Dr. Lois Bready, the designated institutional official for graduate medical education in the School of Medicine, and the residency program leaders in each department,” Dr. Halff said.
This is the second five-year institutional accreditation cycle in a row for the School of Medicine. The reaccreditation followed a highly positive site visit by ACGME reviewers in August 2008. The Continued Accreditation designation includes the School of Medicine’s internal medicine residency program offered at the Regional Academic Health Center in Harlingen, and the family medicine residency program in McAllen.
In fiscal 2008, the School of Medicine trained 740 interns, residents and fellows in more than 50 programs representing all the specialties in medicine, including anesthesiology, cardiovascular disease, endocrinology/diabetes and metabolism, family and community medicine, geriatric medicine, internal medicine, hematology and oncology, neurosurgery, obstetrics and gynecology, ophthalmology, orthopaedic surgery, general surgery, pain medicine, pediatrics, thoracic surgery and many others.
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio is the leading research institution in South Texas and one of the major health sciences universities in the world. With an operating budget of $668 million, the Health Science Center is the chief catalyst for the $16.3 billion biosciences and health care sector in San Antonio’s economy. The Health Science Center has had an estimated $36 billion impact on the region since inception and has expanded to six campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg. More than 24,000 graduates (physicians, dentists, nurses, scientists and other health professionals) serve in their fields, including many in Texas. Health Science Center faculty are international leaders in cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, aging, stroke prevention, kidney disease, orthopaedics, research imaging, transplant surgery, psychiatry and clinical neurosciences, pain management, genetics, nursing, dentistry and many other fields. For more information, visit www.uthscsa.edu.