TYLER, Texas — Editor's Note: The above video aired on Feb. 21, 2024.
The UT Tyler School of Medicine received $400,000 from an anonymous donor to fund a fellowship for hospice and palliative medicine with the intention of keeping more physicians in East Texas.
The university said in a statement the donation will support promoting the fellowship and cover additional costs for fellows like books and moving expenses to bring in more physicians in the region.
Once a doctor graduates from medical school and residency, a fellowship allows them to receive additional specialization and differentiate them from other candidates. A fellowship can determine where the physician stays for the rest of their practice, according to UT Tyler.
Dr. Brigham C. Willis, UT Tyler School of Medicine founding dean, said the fellowship will include chronic disease management, end of life issues, quality of life improvement and more topics to train well-rounded, humanistic physicians.
“This generous donation to our hospice and palliative medicine fellowship program signifies a significant step forward in our mission to provide exceptional health care services to the East Texas community,” Willis said. “This support will not only benefit our fellows but also the patients and families they serve.”
Dr. Laura Ferguson, hospice and palliative medicine fellowship program director, said caring for people is at the heart of medicine.
“Having compassion means you see someone’s suffering, you feel their suffering and then you ask, how can I help ease their suffering. This gift will enable us to meet East Texans’ health care needs and support their families, for now and the years to come," Ferguson said.
Hospice-and-palliative-medicine-trained physicians see patients who have incurable disease, which includes those who are elderly. Census data in 2022 showed the median age of the populations of the Tyler and Longview metropolitan statistical areas were higher than the statewide average, the UT Tyler statement read.
This fellowship will partner with the Hospice of East Texas and Texas Palliative Care to give fellows hands-on experience, according to the university.