The University of Texas Health Center at Tyler :: Family Medicine Residency Program

Family Medicine Residency Program

The Family Medicine Residency Program is fully accredited for three years of residency training. It is a "stand alone" program, with no other primary care residents competing for educational opportunities and teachable moments. The Health Science Center is ’University administered’ but ’Community oriented’, which means that a wealth of clinical experience is supported by a solid academic foundation.

High quality residents attract high quality faculty and vice versa. A number of the faculty members at UTHSCT are nationally recognized and widely published. And they are still committed to resident education! The structure for most teaching encounters is one resident paired up with one faculty member. The focal point of the residency, the Family Practice Center, has at least two family physicians available at all times as preceptors. The program stays on the leading edge of teaching technologies. A web based Blackboard allows access to the rotation syllabus and assignments at any time. Content includes interactive Flash and Quicktime video as well as focused links to evidence based guidelines and pertinent studies. The Hospital will have wireless access by early 2005 and all residents are issued PDAs the most recent ones being WiFi capable.

Core and elective rotations outside of the Health Science Center expand the program’s total teaching beds to nearly 1,000. Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Obstetrics, and Trauma Surgery are the highlights of these experiences. The medical staffs of Trinity Mother Frances Hospital and East Texas Medical Center have welcomed the residents and their families as colleagues to the Tyler private practice community.

The residency program is structured to take the recent medical graduate and produce a licensable physician in one year. This is accomplished through excellent intern rotations and a focused intern call experience. As an intern, all call at the Health Science Center is done in the emergency room. This provides the intern with over 650 emergent patient encounters in their first year. These encounters develop the interns history, physical exam, assessment and planning skills to an exceptional level. Multiple labs, tests, and procedures must be fused into determining the final diagnosis. Residents are comfortable working in the emergency room setting at the end of the intern year and many moonlight in their second year. The upper level experience is designed to expand the residents vertical competency into the multiple aspects of Family Medicine. Call drops to one a month by the third year allowing the resident to pursue self-focused training and more moonlighting opportunities.