Representatives of Texas A&M University School of Medicine met with San Saba city and county leaders at a luncheon Monday afternoon held at The Pecan House Grill to express appreciation for the assistance provided by our community for their rural medicine program. The Dean of the Medical School,Amy Waer MD, was joined by other members of A&M’s rural program: Kia Parsi MD, Curtis Donaldson, and Cassie Shelton. Folks representing the City of San Saba included Mayor Ken Jordan and his wife, Kenda; City Manager Scott Edmonson; Head of City Services Scott Glaze; Chief of Police John Bauer; and City Secretary Sabrina Maultsby. The County was represented by Judge Jody Fauley and his wife, Corina, as well as County Commissioner Bob Whitten. Medical personnel included Local Health Authority Dr. Craig Whiting, EMS directors Dana Allison and Patrick Cobb, as well as representatives from the Hendrick clinic Amanda Goodson and Krista Baty. There were multiple representatives from San Saba Independent School District including Leanne Johnson, Joshua Ham, Andreas Aguirre, and Robbie Haynes.
Dean Waer outlined some of the growing areas of the school’s educational programs including new medical campuses being opened to accommodate specialties in medical engineering (Houston campus) and military medicine (San Antonio campus). These complement existing campuses in College Station, Dallas, and Temple. She emphasized, nonetheless, that the first mission of A&M’s College of Medicine is to train physicians to serve in primary care roles (family medicine, general internal medicine, psychiatry). For this reason, and to make sure that rural Texas has an adequate supply of primary care physicians, A&M is developing the rural health rotation that will eventually allow all of the 250 students in each medical school class to spend time in rural communities, like San Saba. Additionally, the program hopes to grow interest among rural school students in pursuing medicine as a career. TheA&M medical students rotating in our community have the opportunity to interact with SSISD students.
In this pilot project, two students from A&M have spent time in San Saba during this school year rotating through the Baylor Scott & White Clinic, Everett’s Pharmacy, Hamilton EMS, San Saba Nursing & Rehab, and spending time with high school students in SSISD. The San Saba community has been very supportive of this program and looks forward to partnering with Texas A&M to demonstrate the value and benefits of life in rural Texas.