UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas will soon train doctors 200 miles away in Austin - and eventually give the University of Texas System an increased medical presence in the state capital.
Under an agreement reached Monday, UT Southwestern will gain about 170 medical residents at two Austin hospitals that belong to the Seton Family of Hospitals. The total could rise to 300 or more residents in the next three to five years, a Seton spokesman said.
Currently, UT Southwestern trains 1,260 residents and fellows annually in Dallas, mainly at Parkland Hospital, Children's Medical Center and the Veteran's Affairs Medical Center. Residents have finished medical school and practice under supervision of fully licensed doctors.
The agreement will add more "reach, depth, experience and prestige to our institution," UT Southwestern president Daniel Podolsky said.
The 170 or so residents are now with UT Medical Branch, the system's medical campus in Galveston.
"To have a robust residency program, we knew we needed a good medical school affiliation," Seton spokesman Greg Hartman said. "We were very interested in working with the UT System."
It's also a strategic move for the UT System. While the flagship UT campus is in Austin - as is a law school - the UT System has no medical school there.
Meanwhile, the Texas A&M System is also beefing up its medical efforts in the Austin area. The Texas A&M Health Science Center, based in College Station, will open the first building of its Round Rock campus in December.
UT System officials said Monday that there are no current plans to build a medical school in Austin associated with UT Southwestern.
But the new agreement "increases the potential for the development of a medical campus, which might be an independent campus or associated with one or more campuses within the UT System," spokesman Anthony deBruyn said.
