An artist rendering of the new School of Osteopathic Medicine on the San Antonio campus of the University of the Incarnate Word.
Kennedy Circle, San Antonio, TX 78235
The Office of the State Demographer projects that Texas will have 37 million people by 2040, a nearly 50% increase from 25 million people in 2010, and in January, 2013, the Texas Medical Board reported a total of 52,707 licensed physicians in the state (49,045 M.D., 3,662 D.O.). The number of Texas primary care physicians as of 2010 was 70.0 per 100,000 population – a ranking of 47th out of 50 states, and 23% lower than the national average of 91.2 per 100,000. Such data suggest that Texas’ population growth is outpacing physician supply, and that the number of primary care physicians per capita in Texas has been lower than the national number for several years. If Bexar County is removed from South Texas counts, the South Texas region has by far the lowest number of primary care physicians per capita, at 43 per 100,000, compared to 72 in the Metroplex and 78 in Central TX. Furthermore, only 10% of physicians in Texas are Hispanic, whereas 40% of Texans are Hispanic.
In December, 2016, CGC and UIW closed on a $6M NMTC financing for the new School of Osteopathic Medicine, utilizing allocation provided by Enhanced Capital and NMTC equity provided by Wells Fargo. With its new School of Osteopathic Medicine, UIW is taking the first step towards its long-range goal to increase the number of osteopathic physicians by at least 145 per year to meet the regional population’s health care needs. The new medical school’s curriculum will be based on the recommendations of the Carnegie Foundation’s Educating Physicians for the 21st Century report, which outlined four goals for medical education: standardization of learning outcomes and individualization of the learning process; integration of formal knowledge and clinical experience; development of habits of inquiry and innovation; and, focus on professional identity formation. UIW will enroll 150 students per class, and graduates of the four-year program will receive the “doctor of osteopathic medicine” (D.O.).