UTMB Graduate Medical Education Alters Residency Funding

In a wide reaching change, UTMB Graduate Medical Education (GME) has indicated that there will be changes in funding for new residents throughout the institution beginning in the 2015-2016 academic year. It is very important for UTMB MS4 medical students to understand these new rules, especially if they fail to initially match into a dermatology residency and plan reapplying. Starting in the 2015-2016 academic year, specific UTMB departments (rather than GME) will be required to fund residents who have exhausted their initial residency funding. Initial residency funding is determined by the type of specialty initially matched into by an applicant. For example, a person matching into a categorical internal medicine, family medicine, or pediatric residency will be given 3 years of funding because training is typically completed in three years for primary care residencies. If an applicant has already completed a residency in pediatrics, family medicine or internal medicine and then matches into a PGY2 dermatology position at UTMB, the UTMB dermatology department will be responsible for funding the second residency. Current yearly training and benefits for residents cost approximately $88,000 at UTMB. These financial considerations make the selection of “prior-residency” physicians much less likely in the future. A medical student who wishes to avoid using up a year of funding should take a transitional or preliminary PGY1 year. Another alternative for a medical student considering a dermatology residency would be to match into a general surgery residency for their PGY1 year, because since surgery is a 5 year residency program, there would still be 4 years of potential funding left if they were able to match into a dermatology residency later. UTMB’s GRE change is similar to existing policies at most other residency training programs across the United States.