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Neurosurgical training expected to help alleviate national shortage of specialists
HOUSTON—(Feb. 26, 2008)—Neurosurgery residents will walk through the
doors of The University of Texas Medical School at Houston this summer
for the first time in the history of The University of Texas Health
Science Center at Houston.
“There’s
a dire shortage of neurosurgeons throughout the country,” said Dong
Kim, M.D., chairman of the school’s Department of Neurosurgery and
director of the Mischer Neuroscience Institute at Memorial Hermann –
Texas Medical Center. “We have the expert faculty to support a
residency, and we are the market leader in Houston in cranial
neurosurgery. This brings us national recognition as one of only a few
medical schools in the country with a neurosurgery residency.”
According to a study published in the February 2005 issue of the Journal of Neurology,
the nation is experiencing “a severe decline in the number of active
neurosurgeons and a static supply of residents.” There are
approximately 60 board-certified or board-eligible neurosurgeons in
Harris County, according to the Harris County Medical Society and the
American Association of Neurological Surgeons.
The new
residency, one of UT Houston’s 58 residencies and fellowships
accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education,
will be directed by Dennis Vollmer, M.D., professor of neurosurgery.
“This
will enhance the level of academic involvement of the medical school
and the department and will probably stimulate strength in neurosurgery
care and foster research,” said Vollmer, who added that 1 percent of
practicing physicians are neurosurgeons.
The first residents,
from four to six, will begin their seven-year residency July 11. They
will train at the UT Physicians Neurosurgery Clinic, Memorial
Hermann—Texas Medical Center, Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital and
The Methodist Hospital.
Kim, Vollmer and Patricia Butler,
professor and associate dean of educational programs at the medical
school, have been working together toward accreditation since last
summer, even before Kim joined the UT Houston faculty Oct. 1, 2007.
“As the program director, Dr. Vollmer brings a wealth of experience and
is widely recognized nationally as a neurosurgical educator,” Kim said.
UT
Houston is ranked 26th of 376 sponsoring institutions in the number of
residents trained, ahead of medical schools at universities including
Duke, Stanford and Yale, Butler said.
To qualify for the
neurosurgery residency, the school had to demonstrate that it has
sufficient faculty, clinical resources, procedures, infrastructure and
funding for the positions. Collaboration with other departments such as
neurology was also important, Butler said.
“This is wonderful
news for neurology, neurosurgery and all other clinical departments,”
said James Grotta, M.D., professor and chairman of the Department of
Neurology and co-director of the Mischer Neuroscience Institute at
Memorial Hermann - TMC. “The presence of neurosurgery residents will
substantially increase the academic and teaching activities in
neurosurgery from which we can all learn.”
Kim said the residency program “legitimizes our neurosurgery program and will lead to more research.”
“This now gives us a residency in every field,” he added.
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