Support for Valley med school is good tonic for what ails us

We welcome news that the University of Texas System Board of Regents has started investing in a full-fledged medical school in the Rio Grande Valley.

A $30 million South Texas investment plan the regents approved Thursday includes $10 million for a teaching simulation program, $4 million for a biomedical research program and $1.5 million to expand residency opportunities in the area.

This investment will build upon the base established with the UT Regional Academic Health Center that the Legislature created in 1997 and has been preparing medical interns since 2006.

It also is a step toward filling several glaring needs for South Texas and the state as a whole. Currently, the closest medical school to the Valley is in San Antonio, some 300 miles away. This contributes to a deficiency in academic opportunities for South Texas students, who must leave the area if they wish to become doctors.

That deficiency extends to the availability of doctors for South Texas residents, since studies show that doctors tend to stay in the areas where they went to school or served their internships. It’s likely a major reason that the Valley’s access to doctors — 104 for every 100,000 residents — is less than half the national average of 220 doctors per 100,000 residents. Statewide, the average is 160 per 100,000 people, and the ratios only get worse as population of Texas, and the Valley, continue to grow faster than the rest of the country.

Obviously we need more medical professionals, especially if the federalized healthcare law enacted in 2010 takes effect.

Producing doctors is just part of university-related medical centers’ functions; they also provide valuable research. Officials at UT and the medical community say they hope a South Texas medical school can become a leading center for research into diabetes, obesity and other conditions that are prevalent among South Texas residents and Hispanics in general.

Lawmakers voted in 2009 to allow the future establishment of a full-fledged health science system. Once the UT Health Science Center-South Texas is established, it would take over operations of the RAHC, which currently is under the direction of the UTHSC-San Antonio.

The health centers usually include a medical school, a teaching hospital and other supporting programs such as nursing and pharmacy schools.

Both UT-Brownsville and UT-Pan American in Edinburg already have established nursing programs, but a complete medical center is still years away. The 2009 legislation prohibits the use of state funds to build a teaching hospital, and any state expenditures at all before Aug. 31, 2015. The hospital must be established through a partnership with an existing, private hospital.

This week’s allocation from the regents is just a drop in the bucket; establishing a complete medical center eventually could cost more than $150 million. But it’s a start, and it indicates that the UT System is ready to do its part to help get the center established. There is a lot of work to do — partnerships with local medical institutions need to be established and programs created that can be presented to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and accrediting agencies for approval.

People who remember the long, difficult process that brought the RAHC to the Valley might have had their doubts about whether the promise of a South Texas medical school might become a reality. And if that dream is realized, it is still years away. The regents’ latest action, however, especially at a time of limited resources, gives us reason to hope.