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UTB-CBIRD Report: “At The Crossroads” Economic Development 134
Action Initiatives 1
The U.S./Mexico border has one of the fastest growing populations in the nation
and regional healthcare delivery is severely constrained by a longstanding
scarcity of physicians, dentists, nurses, and allied healthcare providers. The
regions’ transit (e.g., Winter Texans and Mexicans) and resident population
presents unique healthcare problems such as binational and bicultural
challenges to wellness education, teenage pregnancy, diabetes, drug resistant
TB, and cross-border bio-terrorism. However, the population mix also provides a
“unique living laboratory environment” for problem-centered R&D and for
binational healthcare education and training programs that focus on the unique
healthcare needs of the Lower Rio Grande Valley.
There is a lack of worldclass research on border healthcare problems and such
research activities could establish a new vision of healthcare business and
manufacturing growth for the Valley. Perhaps more than any other region of the
U.S. the Lower Rio Grande Valley needs to embrace a multi-disciplinary approach
to healthcare. Teams of doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals
need to treat the “Border Patient” in terms of:
⇒ The importance of different cultural and ethnic backgrounds on
healthcare challenges and cures as well as “Wellness Education” and
preventative healthcare
⇒ Environmental challenges on the border and how they impact regional
public health – including water use in arid lands, pollution, and
healthcare issues specific to colonials
⇒ Healthcare attitudes and beliefs related to mental health and
psychological issues specific to border regions
⇒ Healthcare concerns specific to the elderly a fast growing segment of
the border population
⇒ Healthcare concerns specific to the young – teenage pregnancy,
substance abuse, alcoholism
⇒ Sexual transmitted diseases, e.g., HIV/AIDS where the fastest growing
group is heterosexual females which had an increase of 433% during
2000-2001, it is predicted that there will be a 500% increase in AIDs
patients in the border region over the next 60 years
⇒ Research on diseases that are most prevalent in the border region such
as Diabetes and Drug resistant TB
Regional Healthcare
The Lower Rio Grande Valley needs to better link and leverage regional assets on
both sides of the border to meet border healthcare challenges and concerns and
to link with the regional healthcare clusters including education and training,
business retention and development, and other border-specific issues. Regional
Healthcare Focus Group 2 Participants noted the following:
“We are fractionalizing Border healthcare, preventive care, and healthcare
delivery. There are too many restrictions and too much compartmentalization.
There is a general lack of collaborative efforts by all healthcare providers in the
LRG Valley. The State’s medical plan needs to be revamped currently it has
1 These action initiatives are based on discussions at the Future of the Region, Regional Forum –
Lower Rio Grande Valley Council of Governments – Healthcare Issues Focus Group. Conference Co-
Hosts: Texas Center for Border Economic and Enterprise Development, The University of Texas at
Brownsville and Texas Southmost College; Texas State Technical College; and Lower Rio Grande
Valley Development Council, Harlingen Texas, June 25, 2002.
2 Ibid.
Una Region -- Un Futuro
The Border Region needs
centers of research
excellence that focus on
border healthcare
challenges. The region
will not have excellence
in healthcare unless it
has excellence in
research within the
region (not located in
Houston or San Antonio)
and in medical areas
that target border
healthcare needs.