FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information, contact:

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center

Communications and Marketing

Anne W. Manning – (901) 448-4072

Sheila Champlin – (901) 448-4957

 

 

University of Tennessee College of Medicine Gains

 

Emergency Medicine Residency

 

-- First class of residents to begin training in July

______________________________________________________________

 

Memphis, Tenn. (February 26, 2008) – David Seaberg, MD, dean of the College of Medicine, Chattanooga campus at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) announced today that the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and its Emergency Medicine Residency Review committee have approved the addition of an Emergency Medicine Residency program.  This is the first Emergency Medicine Residency program on any of the three UTHSC College of Medicine (COM) campuses, located in Memphis, Knoxville and Chattanooga.

The three-year program, which begins in July, will accept six residents each year, a total of 18 residents a year when the program reaches its maturity.  The program will be based at the Erlanger Baroness campus in Chattanooga and will be led by James Creel, MD, program director and chief of emergency medicine at Erlanger.

 “We are honored to announce the addition of the Emergency Medicine Residency program at UTCOM Chattanooga,” stated Dr. Seaberg.  “The program is not only essential in providing University of Tennessee medical students with the opportunity to pursue emergency medicine training, but it is also important to have trained, board-certified emergency physicians available to staff the emergency departments across the state.

“This approval is another step in the growth of our academic medical center and will help improve the care of our patients in the Chattanooga area,” Dean Seaberg added.

“This new training  program is a real plus for UT and serves to spotlight the achievement of the Chattanooga campus,” UTHSC Executive Dean Steve Schwab observed.  All three UTHSC College of Medicine campuses report to Dr. Schwab in his capacity as executive dean.

Erlanger President and CEO James Brexler commented, “The continued expansion of the University of Tennessee College of Medicine at Erlanger is good news for this region.”

            “This program is a great addition to UTCOM Chattanooga and Erlanger,” noted Dr. Creel.  “It is a program that will continue to give back to the city, the state, and the region by sending out well-trained board-certified emergency medicine physicians to area emergency rooms when they’ve completed their training.”

            UTCOM Chattanooga, established in 1974 as the Clinical Education Center of Chattanooga, is affiliated with Erlanger Health System, one of the Southeast’s premier academic medical centers and a recognized leader in healthcare and technology.

As the flagship statewide academic health system, the UT Health Science Center is focused on a four-tier mission of education, research, clinical care and public service, all in support of a single goal: to improve the health of Tennesseans.  Offering a broad range of postgraduate training opportunities, the main campus is located in Memphis and includes six colleges – Allied Health Sciences, Dentistry, Graduate Health Sciences, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy.  UTHSC has additional College of Medicine and College of Pharmacy campus locations in Knoxville and a College of Medicine campus in Chattanooga.  For more information, visit www.uthsc.edu

###