UTMB GME Requires Departmental Financial Supplement for Residents Exceeding Initial Residency Funding Determination

The UTMB GME Office has started requiring departments on campus to partially fund residents that exceed their initial residency funding. Determination of initial residency funding is usually determined on match day. If a dermatology applicant matches into a preliminary medicine year and does not obtain a dermatology position at the same time, initial residency funding is  automatically set at 3 years (the time required to complete internal medicine residency). It cannot be reset. If this applicant re-applies to dermatology in the PGY1 year and matches, at UTMB the dermatology department is required to fund $8000 during the PGY4 year of dermatology residency. Since many departments across the nation do not have extra funds available to support the additional year of resident funding, this financial limitation may well result in far fewer dermatology re-applicants obtaining dermatology residency positions even after completing non-ACGME clinical dermatology fellowships. Two ways to avoid this funding issue are for dermatology applicants to initially match into a transitional PGY1 year (it will not start the clock for initial residency funding determination) or to match into a specialty with more than three years of initial residency funding that will also count toward the required PGY1 year for dermatology (such as general surgery). Philanthropic organizations could potentially come to the aid of dermatology departments and fund departments that want to train residents who will run out of their initial residency funding during dermatology residency or those who have already completed a residency in another specialty (most commonly, internal medicine).