Pete Mendoza
UTRGV School of Podiatric Medicine in Harlingen Texas
The School of Podiatric Medicine is developing its infrastructure and how it teaches students to be the best version of themselves with challenging and innovative research.
According to the American Association of Colleges of Podiatric Medicine, podiatric medicine is the study of diagnosing and treating conditions and diseases of the foot, ankle and related structures of the leg.
Associate Dean of Academic Affairs for the UTRGV School of Podiatric Medicine Dr. Guadalupe Javier Cavazos Jr. said the school had to go through multiple approvals.
“The idea of the School of Podiatric Medicine, at least at UTRGV, started back in probably 2018, where UTRGV requested the UT Planning Authority an opportunity to have a School of Podiatric Medicine,” Cavazos said. “So, there [were] about three steps and it took between 2020 to 2022 to finally say, ‘We’re ready to roll with our first class in ‘22.’”
The UTRGV Podiatric School of Medicine is the first and only podiatry school in Texas and the first state-funded school out of 11 podiatry schools in the nation.
Cavazos said, since the school is being started from scratch, countless preparations have been made to ensure the success of the school including hiring faculty, recruiting students, developing curriculums and more.
“It is fully operational,” he said. “[Students] are doing all their classes; they are doing all their labs. We have sufficient faculty to provide the education for them. We have good space. We have very innovative stuff that we do here that is probably not done in other schools of podiatric medicine.”
Cavazos mentioned the school tries to stay ahead of the game by not only teaching their students about podiatric medicine but also all the other medical basics. The school prioritizes research as much as possible, having students start research in their first year of the course.
The doctor said the school wants to challenge their students as much as possible, so by the time their students graduate, they will be top residents in residency programs. The only issue may be not many people and students know what podiatric medicine is.
“There’s obviously still a lot of growth and development that’s required so that we can be as best as we can be but it’s all moving forward,” Cavazos said.
For more information on podiatric medicine visit utrgv.edu/school-of-podiatric-medicine/.
This is Pete Mendoza for Vaquero Radio.
