UM Residency Program Approved for Palm Beach County

11/6/2007

The University of Miami Miller School of Medicine has received approval for Palm Beach Countys first medical residency program, at JFK Medical Center in Atlantis and the West Palm Beach VA Medical Center.

The announcement of UM's new internal-medicine residency came during a news conference Friday at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach. Miller School Dean Pascal J. Goldschmidt, M.D., told the gathering that graduate medical education raises the level of care for everyone. "South Florida and in particular Palm Beach County will become a medical destination," Dean Goldschmidt said. "No longer will someone have to jump on a plane to access care somewhere else, because now the best medicine will be right in your backyard. You deserve it, and it's the right thing to do."

The UM Miller School of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University Internal Medicine Residency Program will welcome its first residents in July of next year, following the recent approval by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. But that first class is only the beginning.

"Over time we will expand and support our partner Boca Raton Community Hospital as they build their new building, and we will expand to additional hospitals as training programs that support our FAU medical campus are added," said Jeanette Mladenovic, M.D., senior associate dean for graduate medical education at the Miller School of Medicine. "We hope to eventually see more than 300 residents training throughout Palm Beach County."

Creating new residency programs has long been seen as the best possible solution to the expected physician shortage. "This is being looked at as a major step in reducing the deficit of physicians in this county as it has been proven that almost half of physicians who do their graduate training in an area stay and practice in that area," said Charles Posternack, M.D., JFK residency program director.

In the coming years, additional residency programs are expected to include general surgery, pediatrics and obstetrics and gynecology.