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.