For immediate release: Oct. 4, 2007
GALVESTON, Texas - The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston has been certified to begin a residency program in emergency medicine.

Dr. Thomas A. Blackwell, associate dean of Graduate Medicine Education, said the program eventually would help alleviate a shortage of physicians trained in emergency medicine.

The program, Blackwell said, will begin with eight trainees next year and increase to 24 over the next three years.  

Noting that UTMB is a Level I trauma center, Blackwell said the program would enhance UTMB's ability to attract young doctors.

"I think that's it going to be a very high quality training program," Blackwell said. "I think that we'll be able to attract good students to enter our program and I think that it will make, over time, an impact on the number of board certified emergency physicians available in the state of Texas."

Dr. Brian S. Zachariah, who will be the program's director, stressed the importance of the training, noting that it is important for physicians trained in emergency medicine to work in emergency rooms.

Zachariah, who is also director of the Emergency Medical Group, said that emergency medicine physicians often work in a fast-paced environment that requires doctors to have superb analytical skills, make informed decisions and rapidly figure out what is wrong with a patient.

"We're under a lot more time pressure," Zachariah said. "A regular doctor may have days, weeks, months, years to try to figure out what's wrong with you. We may only have an hour or two to figure out, maybe not completely what's wrong with you, but if what's wrong with you is really dangerous or not."

Having more physicians trained in this field will benefit many Texans, Zachariah said.

"You would not go to see a surgeon who was not board certified in surgery," Zachariah said. "You would not go see a cardiologist who was not certified in cardiology. So why in fact would you settle on an emergency department where the people there were not board certified."

The residency program was approved by Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, the group responsible for accrediting post-graduate medical training programs in the United States.

The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
Public Affairs Office
301 University Boulevard, Suite 3.102
Galveston, Texas 77555-0144
www.utmb.edu