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VA Increasing Its Role In GME By Adding Resident Positions


Michael Kussman, MD
Acting Under Secretary
for Health Department of Veterans Affairs

"VA already is the largest provider of health care training in the United States."

I am pleased to announce that the Department of Veterans Affairs will increase our support for medical education in the 2007-2008 academic year. In July, we will create 341 new positions for advanced residency training, and over the next five years we will add a total of 2,000 positions.

Adding these resident positions will enhance our ability to provide world-class care to veterans, help reduce our waiting times, and make our care more accessible by increasing the number of physicians in our facilities. It will also allow us to enhance the role we play in the nation's graduate medical education programs.

Currently, 130 VA medical facilities are affiliated with 107 of the nation's 126 medical schools. Last year, VA trained more than 100,000 students, including 33,598 medical residents; 18,728 medical students, and 46,567 associated health trainees.

Our close relationship with the nation's medical schools gives veterans access to the latest research and the top practitioners in the nation. We hope that the new resident positions will encourage innovations in education that will improve patient care, enable physicians in different disciplines to work together, and incorporate state of the art clinical care models, including our renowned quality and patient safety programs and our-award winning electronic medical record system.