A 30-year agreement, established in 2005, between the Seton Family of Hospitals and the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston provides the foundation for the Graduate Medical Education program at Seton. Read below to see how graduate medical education began here in Austin.
Established in 1884, University Medical Center at Brackenridge is the oldest public hospital in Texas. The first rotating intern started in 1931. The first resident started in 1932. The training program grew with interns and residents providing care to patients seen in the Brackenridge inpatient units and outpatient clinics under the supervision of the UMC Brackenridge general and specialty medical staff. UMC Brackenridge entered the National Residency Matching Plan in July 1953.
In the late 1960s, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) indicated that graduate medical education (GME) programs needed full-time program directors as a requirement for accreditation. In Austin, with the graduate medical education program needing more discipline in the care of the indigent population, physician leaders investigated ways of sponsoring GME. After visiting a Pensacola, Florida, graduate medical education program, members of the Travis County Medical Society founded the Central Texas Medical Foundation (CTMF) in 1972.
The Austin Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Family Medicine and Transitional Year Programs entered the Match in 1975. CTMF also had a three-year, freestanding program in General Surgery until 1975, when it became an affiliated program with St. Joseph's Hospital in Houston. In 1980, these two programs became an integrated General Surgery program.
Obstetrics and Gynecology training also began in 1972 and was affiliated with the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) from 1972 until 1979 and with The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston from 1980 until 1990. In 1990, the CTMF Obstetrics and Gynecology training program was integrated with the program at St. Joseph's Hospital in Houston. The Obstetrics and Gynecology training program also offers a fellowship for Family Medicine Physicians. CTMF also had a Pathology training program in the 1970's and early 80's but it was discontinued.
In 1996, the Seton Healthcare Network took over management of University Medical Center at Brackenridge and the Children's Hospital of Austin in a long-term contract with the City of Austin. In 1998, sponsorship of the not-for-profit CTMF was also transferred from the Travis County Medical Society to SETON.
In October 2000, the Central Texas Medical Foundation became Austin Medical Education Programs. Its new name more clearly identifies its purpose. It is Austin's only graduate medical education program.
In 2005 UTMB assumed sponsorship and management of all five graduate medical education programs at University Medical Center at Brackenridge transitioning over the next three years. These include obstetrics/gynecology, internal medicine, family practice, pediatrics and psychiatry.
Seton is proud to have four hospitals – the only hospitals in Central Texas - that have earned the