Join RRNET: The Residency Research Network of Texas

The Residency Research Network of Texas, or RRNeT, was formed in 1997 in South Texas, one of the most medically underserved areas in the United States. Plagued by continuing poverty, exploding population, and low physician-to-population ratio, this region required an influx of health care services and research to understand its unique health care needs.

The Residency Research Network of South Texas, RRNeST, proposed to expand regional clinical research efforts. With funding from the Health Services and Resources Administration, we linked four community family medicine residency programs with research faculty in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. This collaboration provided hands-on research training and experience to family medicine faculty and residents as they studied important health concerns in their practices. At its inception, RRNeST included two residency programs in San Antonio, residencies in Corpus Christi, Harlingen and McAllen, plus one private practice in Laredo.

In 2004, RRNeST opened its doors to other Texas family medicine residency programs, enlarging the community of collaborators, diversifying the patient populations and expanding the list of researchable questions. Now known as RRNeT – the Residency Research Network of Texas – our nine residency programs spread from Dallas, Fort Worth and Garland in the North to Austin and San Antonio in the Center, and Corpus Christi, Harlingen, and McAllen in the South. RRNeT represents 90 family physician faculty and 260 family medicine residents who see 250,000 patients per year. Fifteen percent of our patients are African-American, 62 percent are Latino, and 21 percent are non-Hispanic White.

In 10 years, RRNeT has examined several issues: barriers to care for diabetes, alternative medicine use, medication adherence, firearm safety, adolescent preventive care, health behaviors and pain management. We seek to improve health care and access to minority populations, with the intent to eliminate health disparities that affect our communities. RRNeT findings have been published in seven journal articles and abstracts. RRNeT faculty have presented data at more than 15 national conferences, where they have won five research awards.

Participation in RRNeT provides several benefits to family medicine residency programs. Members get hands-on research experience, participating in research at all stages: idea generation, project development, data collection, interpretation of findings, presentation at national conferences and publication in professional journals. The network creates a community of scholars with similar interests in primary care research. Residency program faculty or residents initiate research ideas; they are not dictated by the university or pharmaceutical companies. The link to an academic university provides access to statisticians and experts in research methodology. RRNeT participation also satisfies Residency Review Committee requirements for scholarship. Faculty are actively involved in research, each project provides opportunities for resident involvement and the work produces a portfolio of published research. Finally, the research benefits residency programs by answering clinical questions that arise from practice; findings inform our clinical work and curricula.

Interested in joining RRNeT?

Visit our Web site at http://familymed.uthscsa.edu/rrnet/default.cfm or contact us at (210) 358-3885.