About the SOM
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine (UTRGV SOM) offers an innovative learning experience designed to instill students with scientific, clinical and research expertise while fostering their professional development in alignment with the highest professional and ethical standards.
The talents and dedication of our faculty, residents, staff, and students enable UTRGV SOM to excel in implementing its four missions of education, research, clinical care and community outreach. The collective range of skills required to be effective is remarkably broad, and includes modern educational methods in the classroom, clinic, and online research skill, research infrastructure, clinical expertise, clinical management and community relations. Our goal is to attract a group of diverse students, faculty and staff from the Valley, the state, and the country.
Characterized by an integrated foundational science and clinical medicine curriculum, the UTRGV School of Medicine utilizes advanced technological resources, including a 15, 000 ft. state of the art Simulation Hospital and one of the largest collections of anatomical plastinates in the United States to optimize the health outcomes of the Rio Grande Valley. Our goal is to prepare our graduates to be competent and compassionate physicians who are patient advocates, community-focused, culturally aware, collaborative leaders, problem solvers, and life-long learners.
History
Community leaders of the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) and the UT Systems began conceptualizing the need for a school of medicine in the RGV in the 1980s. The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine. In 1997, the Texas Legislature approved Senate Bill 606, which allowed The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA), now known as 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, combining 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. In April 2015, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board approved a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree for the school. The UTRGV SOM received preliminary accreditation from the LCME in October 2015, which allowed for the recruitment of its first class. In the summer of 2016, UTRGV SOM welcomed its charter class of 55 medical students. Our school now has more than 150 medical students, and more than 137 medical residents serving in hospital-based training programs throughout the Valley.
Mission
The mission of The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine (UTRGV SOM) is to educate a diverse group of dedicated students who will become physicians and will serve across all specialties of medicine; to bring hope to patients by advancing medical knowledge through research; to integrate education and research to advance the quality and accessibility of patient care in an integrated manner; and to engage with the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) communities to benefit Texas and the world.
Vision
To be a leader in the creation of a diverse and representative workforce for the RGV; to inspire biomedical innovation and deliver patient-centered healthcare to optimize patient and community outcomes for the Rio Grande Valley.