Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine will add pulmonary and critical care to its list of specialties.
There are already fellowships in child and adolescent psychiatry, endocrinology and cardiology.
Pulmonary and critical care have been filled and Regional Dean Dr. Timothy Benton said they anticipate two each coming in July.
Cardiology matched two last year and they started last July and has already matched two more this year, so there will be four in that program.
A critical care specialist works in the intensive care unit of a hospital, so the training for that is to prepare them for that sort of workload. People with all manner of ailments and diseases wind up in intensive care. The fellowship trains doctors to a next level that is more intense like managing severe illness with ventilators.
“(The patients are) just really critically ill where there’s going to be sepsis, severe infection management … or post cardiac surgeries. People that are really really intensely sick,” Benton said.
The fellowships are also a way to get people to stay in the Permian Basin after their training.
“There’s a greater percentage chance of people staying in a region where they complete their training and a high percentage of internal medicine residents across the nation go on into fellowships. … I think offering those end-level training programs in our community offers a chance for retention in our community. … These training programs in and of themselves, multiply the workforce, so there’ll be two more cardiologists each year to help out the local cardiologists. When it becomes full, there will be six of them in the community. When pulmonary becomes full, there’ll be four critical cares so there’s more workforce just by having the training,” Benton said.
He added that these programs offer a chance for succession planning so the foundation for the future of the community can be built.
The benefit of undergoing fellowship training is that it narrows down family medicine, for example, into a particular area where there can be a high level of focus and expertise, he said.
Fellows could potentially come from the Permian Basin or elsewhere because anyone, anywhere can apply.
“We have had some ability to retain some of our residents from our own program, particularly in the cardiology program. We’ve been fortunate over the years to have trained a couple of residents who went off to other critical care fellowships, but have come back and are in our community and participating in this training program. So some of our faculty in critical care program are original residents and graduates as well. There is opportunity for retention,” Benton said.
Students have said they like the medical school program in Odessa because it’s smaller.
“Smaller programs have less competition and more ability to get hands-on experience,” Benton said. “The best learning occurs in the application of your knowledge.”
On adding new fellowships, Benton said anytime opportunity knocks, he’s interested in exploring it.
“Today, we don’t have a particular blueprint for a next fellowship. I think it’s important that we build these and get them on the right path,” Benton said. “But there’s obviously broader need in our community for fellowships and for subspecialty training and subspecialty care need. I would like to explore that.”
The initial startup funding for the fellowships was through foundation and community support.
“Often, training programs are supported by hospitals and in time, in partnership with the local hospitals we would hope that there would be support. But also, these, particularly in fellowships, these are board-certified physicians. They’ve already completed internal medicine residency training so there’s opportunity for them to practice and generate revenue as well,” Benton said.
To be board eligible, you have to complete a residency program satisfactorily.
“That gives you your ticket, so to speak, to sit for the exam. Then you pass the exam and you become board certified,” Benton said.
This is different from licensing or taking your MCAT.
“There’s another set of exams that we take during medical school to become licensed,” he said.
The exams vary by specialty.
“But some of them are a day long or two days long. Some are written exam and oral exam. In particular, obstetrics and gynecology does orals as well as written,” Benton said.
He added that you have to maintain your board certification so you have to take the exam again over your career. Time between exams depends on the specialty.
“For me in family medicine, it’s every 10 years,” Benton said.
