A FM kid turns 1!

Josie (& Family!) blow out the candle

My girls looking at a HUGE redfish in the aquarium

Abbye & Dani

(children of Dr. Nash (L) and Dr. Alonso (R))

Dr. Montiel in the background

The big event was held at Moody Gardens and I think everyone had a blast. Many thanks to Dr. Montiel for inviting us to the party. :-)

Welcome, Class of 2011!!!

Michael Crawford – University of Texas Medical Branch – Galveston
Richard Donaldson – W. Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine
Cesar Gerez - Universidad Autonoma de Tamaulipas, Tampico Mexico
Eduardo Guerra Valencia - Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Peru
Toni Hernandez – University of Texas Medical Branch – Galveston
Jose Rodriguez – Universidad de Oriente, Venezuela
Lisset Parets - Saint George's University, Grenada
Bhanu Yadiki - Jss Medical College, India

Match Results Show Resurgence

According to AAFP, the 2008 Match results show a resurgence in interest in Family Medicine.

Although helpful, the increase still falls short of estimated manpower needs for 2020.

The fill rate for FM was 91% this year, which explains what the Scramble pool liked like to me... more US grads unmatched than I expected.

Read the full story on the AAFP website here.

filled!

We have filled our incoming class for 2008!!

I'd like to thank the applicants who made the trek to Galveston to interview. We have selected our final candidate and as soon as I have a chance to notify each of those who interviewed, I will post our new class here. We had 830-some-odd applications through ERAS for our two positions, so it was an extremely competitive field. That is not counting the emailed applications, phone calls and attempted faxes that we received. True to our word, we screened only those applications submitted through ERAS. Unfortunately, many people did no research to know that we would not accept email applications and I found myself deleting massive amounts of email several times a day just to keep my email working.

The Scramble (or re-Match as some now like to call it) is always a challenge. It's a much higher stakes, higher stress level process for all involved than the regular interview season, and that's saying something.

My staff did a wonderful job answering the phones, often redirecting frustrated applicants to ERAS submission and offering helpful advice. They screened calls directed at me so that I was able to focus on the business at hand, which was screening applications, selecting and interviewing appropriate applicants and making tough decisions. I'd like to thank them as well. If you tried and weren't able to get through to me directly, please know that my staff did pass on all messages from faculty members and medical schools and all applications referrenced in those messages were personally screened by me.

I also need to thank the faculty and residents who participated in the selection, pre-screening and interview process. In particular my residents found Scramble stressful and I was proud of the way they handled it. We would not have been as successful as we were in selecting our final two members of the class without the residents' help.

We have a great group of residents here at UTMB-FMR, and I'm confident our incoming class will continue the tradition.

Criteria

Please review our criteria for applicants here.

I WILL NOT REVIEW APPLICATIONS SENT BY EMAIL OR FAX. You MUST apply through ERAS.

Additionally, you must have graduated from medical school 2003 or more recently. Your medical school must be on the approved list for the Texas Medical Board, which you can review here. Click on the link "Substantial Equivalence".

We have one remaining position and will be interviewing selected applicants today and tomorrow.

1 spot left

We have screened all applications submitted through ERAS for the Scramble. We have interviews scheduled with selected applicants today, tomorrow and Thursday. We have filled one position and have one remaining.

Because we require an in-person interview, there were several excellent applicants who are geographically challenged to get here in our timeframe. I am holding those applications for now and if we do not fill our remaining position with any of the applicants currently scheduled for interview, we will be contacting additional applicants to set up interviews.

Thank you all for your interest in our program, and I wish you the best of luck with the Scramble.

Scrambling for 2

We will be scrambling for two additional residents for the coming year.

We are accepting applications only through ERAS, so please do not call, fax or email. Just send your application through ERAS.

You can find our criteria here.

We do require an in-person interview, so you must be able/willing to travel to Galveston this week.

We will contact successful applicants as we screen your application.

Chief Residents 2008-09

I am pleased to announce our new Chief Residents for 2008-09!!!

Dr. Donna Simmons (L) and Dr. Adriana Gomez (R)

Welcome, and I look forward to working closely with you over the next year.

schedule oddities

Bear with me, this is complicated...

The FMR tries to maintain our schedule in accordance with the Dean's calendar for the medical students, as do most of the other GME programs at UTMB. We do this for many reasons, one of which is coordination. The more of us who are on the same schedule, the simpler it is to manage rotation orientations and that sort of thing. Periodically, the medical school alters the schedule by a week at the beginning of the academic year. This is one of those years.

Block 13 of AY2007-08 ends on June 22. Block 1 of AY2008-09 will not begin until June 30.

Graduating resident contracts end June 30. As has been our custom, R3s will be scheduled for their mandatory university checkout routine during that extra week. You may also use up any comp time you've accrued and/or take vacation days, once your checkout obligations are met.

Linda is in the process of investigating our options for the current R1s and R2s. If you are on the FM Hospital service, block 13 will be 5 weeks long for you, and you will remain on the hospital service. This may also be the case for certain other rotations - likely MICU, Newborn Nursery, ER, etc. We will let you know as soon as we know. For some, we will schedule you for R2/R3 Orientation activities during that week. Likely that will be no more than 3 days (hopefully just 2), so that may turn out to be a good time to take some comp or vacation days as well. Stay tuned for updates as more information becomes available. See Linda if you have individual questions.

Attention R1s!

R1s who are interested in the Rural Training Track and/or Ball High Prenatal Clinic for next academic year need to submit:

Rural Training Track - updated/current CV, copy of your ITE scores, and letter or email outlining the reason(s) for your interest in the program. We will be scheduling interviews with the RTT faculty in the very near future. As a reminder, the RTT faculty choose the residents who will participate in the RTT. Current R2s will automatically be enrolled for PGY3 unless I hear differently from you... Jaime and Rene. Submit documents to the Program Director.

Ball High Prenatal Clinic - email or letter (to me) outlining the reason(s) for your interest in participating. Generally speaking, this opportunity is appropriate for residents who have a higher than average interest in including maternity care as part of their future practice.

Deadline is Friday, March 14 at 5pm.

A new addition to the family!

Congratulations to Dr. Liliana Andrade and family on their new addition:

Andres Eduardo was born on 02/26/08 at 12:46 pm. He weighted 6 lb and 2 Oz. and his length was 18 1/2 inches.