The 75th Texas Legistlature enacted Senate Bill 606, which authorized The University of Texas System to establish and operate a Regional Academic Health Center (RAHC) to serve the four counties of the Lower Rio Grande Valley (Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr and Willacy). The Legistlature appropriated $30 million of Tuition Revenue Bond Proceeds for construction of the RAHC facilities. At its November 1998 meeting, the U.T. System Board of Regents established a Lower Rio Grande Valley-wide RAHC comprised of three major divisions- the Medical Education Division, the Medical Research Division and the Public Health Division.
Four sites (Brownsville, Edinburg, Harlingen and McAllen) were selected for the location of these various divisions of the RAHC. Medical Education Divisions were designated for Harlingen and McAllen. The Medical Research Divison was designated for Edinburg, and the Public Health Division was designated for Brownsville. Additionally, the Board of Regents designated The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA) to oversee and operate the Medical Education and Medical Research Divisions; the Public Health Division was designated as a branch of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston's School of Public Health.
Harlingen was selected through the RFP process as the site for the Medical Education Division which includes a facility for undergraduate and graduate medical education programs. This facility houses the educational programs and support for 24 third-year and 24 fourth-year UTHSCSA medical students, as well as the UTHSCSA residency in Internal Medicine under the sponsorship of Valley Baptist Medical Center (VBMC). The facility for the Harlingen Medical Education Division (H-RAHC) was constructed using $25 million of the $30 million of Tuition Revenue Bond Proceeds appropriated by the Legistlature for the RAHC. In December 2007 the second facility was dedicated ath the Harlingen RAHC campus - the Academic and Clinical Research building. This facility houses the RAHC clinical research center and also the South Texas VA Health Care CEnter.
The UT Board of Regents designed $20M from the Permanent University Fund (PUF) for the construction of the initial medical research facility of the Medical Research Division (E-RAHC). This research campus of the RAHC is located in Edinburg, adjacent to The University of Texas-Pan American, and will serve the four counties of the Lower Rio Grande Valley.
The flagship RAHC building was constructed on an 18.609-acre tract of land donated and deed to the UT-System by VBMC. An additional 7.6 acre tract was donated by VBMC for future use by the RAHC. Funds for the purchase of the twelve acre tract where the first phase of the Medical Research Division were gifted to the U.T. System by the City of Edinburg.