The University of Texas at El Paso plans to explore new ways to make medical school more affordable and diverse with the help of a recently awarded $1.5 million grant.

The funding comes from a $4 million grant through the University of Texas System Board of Regents for the Transformation in Medical Evaluation initiative. The grant will serve as a two-year pilot program to address challenges in high medical school costs and low Hispanic medical school enrollment.

Steven Lieberman, vice dean of academic affairs at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, said that Hispanics and African-Americans make up more than one-fourth of the U.S. population but only 7 percent of practicing physicians. Officials said the grants aims to provide more opportunities for Hispanic students to go to medical school.

Donna Ekal, associate provost for undergraduate studies at UTEP, said that during the next two years UTEP staff working under the grant will come up with ideas to eliminate repetitive undergraduate and medical school courses, without reducing the quality of education. The goal is to reduce about one or two years from the current eight years of undergraduate and medical school higher education.

"By shortening that time, that's one less year of cost to students," she said. 

Ekal said the pilot program will be conducted through a collaboration among the University of Texas at Brownsville, the University of Texas-Pan American, the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. She said if one of the University of Texas system schools can find a way to make the initiative work, then it could improve the experience of medical school across the state. 

"I'm so excited. I think this could be a real game changer," she said. 

Caylor Ballinger may be reached at cballinger@elpasotimes.com; 546-6133.