UTRGV del Valle medical students will receive specialization programs

The UTRGV Medical School in Edinburgh prepares a specialist program in the field of medicine.

According to a 2018 study by the Rio Grande Development Council, of the 1,000 patients referred to a specialist, 80 to 90 percent did not see a specialist.

For this reason, on Friday, March 15, more than 200 medical students received news about the university where they will be able to study the specialty.

This is the case for Samuel Alvarez, a student who will know where he will study as a medical major for the next four years.

The program will also benefit at least 200 other UTRGV medical students who will do the same.

For his part, Alvarez will study psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco, Fresno —

Alvarez commented, “Mental health is something that is not talked about a lot, especially in Spanish society, so I think that having a psychiatrist who speaks Spanish, and shares our culture, is very important.”

Alvarez is the first in his family to graduate from college and study medicine. “It is a great achievement, not only for me but for my parents who are first-generation immigrants,” Alvarez added.

Samuel Alvarez's parents are in Dallas. The Pope was unable to attend because he had to work, and his mother is retired.

According to Michael Hooker, chancellor of the UTRGV School of Medicine, there is a shortage of specialist doctors in the valley.

“When you look at the per capita number of doctors in the lower part of the country, especially in the Valley, we are missing a lot of specialties here,” Hooker said.

While for Alvarez, the love and how they endured it throughout school was a support, which actually helped him continue later.

This Friday's ceremony was held at several other universities in the United States at the same time: 11 a.m. Central time.

Medical students enter a highly competitive process, where students rank specialties and put the information into an algorithm through a national program that uses that information to assign the student to the medical school with their specialty.