Family Medicine Residency Program

A message from Heidi Pareja, MD
Program Director, Family Medicine Residency Program

Welcome to the Family Medicine Residency Program of the South Texas Health System GME Consortium. We are a new ACGME-accredited community-based program located in Hidalgo County in the beautiful Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. Our program accepts 10 residents per year for our total complement of 30 residents.

We welcomed our inaugural class on July 1, 2024, and we invite you to consider paving the way for our program, which offers the experience of delivering primary care and improving the health of the medically underserved.

The mission of our program is to educate a diverse group of family medicine residents to attain the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to become master adaptive learners who focus on excellence in delivery of safe, equitable, holistic, empathic, comprehensive and high-value care to patients of all ages in an underserved community.

Residents rotate at South Texas Health System McAllen, South Texas Health System Children’s and South Texas Health System Heart, three facilities recognized for quality of care and patient safety excellence. Each facility gives residents the opportunity to train in a safe clinical learning environment committed to delivering high-quality and compassionate healthcare.

Our continuity clinic, Family Health Center of Mission, provides high-quality, comprehensive, patient-centered primary care to the underserved community along the South Texas border.

Highlights of our program include:

• We teach Lifestyle Medicine in our program.
• We prepare residents to make evidence-based, lifestyle behavior interventions through the Lifestyle Medicine Residency curriculum. 
  • Comprehensive, applicable and flexible curriculum.   
  • Upon completion of both the educational and practicum components of the curriculum, residents qualify to sit for the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine certification exam. 
  • Currently offered in >300 residency programs and fellowships across the United States and Canada.
• Working with diverse colleagues, health professionals and leaders to provide coordinated team-based care to patients of all ages.
• A diverse group of residents, including the underrepresented in medicine, who are passionate about primary care and improving the health of the medically underserved.
• A humanistic, inclusive and safe clinical learning environment committed to education and well-being of the healthcare team.
• Faculty who are role models for excellence, compassion, professionalism, teamwork, evidence-based medicine, scholarship and joy in the practice of medicine.
• Integrated behavioral health care at the primary continuity clinic to improve patient outcomes.
• The diversity and health disparities seen in the region provide residents with a wide volume and variety of clinical and educational experiences.
• A comprehensive curriculum that prepares residents to pass their board certification exam and be ready for independent clinical practice of family medicine.

We are very enthusiastic and eager to train family medicine residents to advocate for equitable, high-quality, affordable and high-value care and improve health outcomes of the patients and communities they serve.

Thank you for your interest in our program.