| Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center | |
|---|---|
| Motto | From here, it's possible. |
| Established | May 1979 [1] |
| Type | State university |
| Endowment | $24,827,592[2] |
| Chancellor | Kent Hance |
| President | Tedd Mitchell, MD |
| Dean | Paul P. Brooke, Jr., PhD (Allied Health Sciences); Douglas Stocco, PhD (Biomedical Sciences); Steven L. Berk, MD (Medicine); Jose Manuel de la Rosa, MD (Foster School of Medicine); Yondell Masten, RNC, PhD, WHNP, CNS, Interim (Nursing); Arthur A. Nelson, Jr., RPh, PhD (Pharmacy) |
| Students | 4,089 [3] |
| Location | Abilene, Amarillo, Dallas, El Paso, Lubbock, Midland/Odessa, Texas, U.S. |
| Campus | Urban |
| Affiliations | Texas Tech University System |
| Website | http://www.ttuhsc.edu |
The Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) offers programs in Allied Health Sciences, Biomedical Sciences, Medicine, Nursing, and Pharmacy. TTUHSC's main campus is in Lubbock, but campuses are also located in Abilene, Amarillo, Dallas, El Paso and the Permian Basin. Aside from its teaching and research activities, it provides medical services to more than 100 counties, a geographic region larger than most states, as well as to all Texas Department of Corrections facilities in the western portion of Texas. TTUHSC is a separate but equal institution from Texas Tech University, and both universities are part of the Texas Tech University System.
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The Texas Tech University School of Medicine was created by the 61st Texas Legislature in May 1969 as a multi-campus institution with Lubbock as the administrative center and with regional campuses at Amarillo, El Paso, and the Permian Basin. In 1979, the charter was expanded to become the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, leading the way for establishment of the Schools of Nursing, Allied Health Sciences, and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. In 1993, the Legislature authorized the establishment of a School of Pharmacy in Amarillo. Allied Health Sciences programs also were expanded to Amarillo and the Permian Basin. In fall 2007, the School of Pharmacy expanded to Abilene. The Paul L. Foster School of Medicine in El Paso received preliminary accreditation in February 2008 and opened in 2009. Today, TTUHSC is home to seven schools with more than 6,000 employees and 3,200 students.
TTUHSC operates on a mission toward excellence in research, providing top-notch educational opportunities and delivery of quality patient care. From urban to rural areas, TTUHSC and its host communities, foster a mutually beneficial relationship that ultimately improves quality of life for everyone. A primary effort is made to achieve a balanced group of students with qualified minority students, diverse age groups, and heterogeneous backgrounds in educational and life experiences. A special effort is made to recruit applicants from West Texas and from rural and border communities.[4]
The Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences is located in Lubbock and was part of the School of Medicine until 1994. The school is dedicated to training biomedical scientists.
The Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences offers master’s and doctoral degrees in five areas of study – cell and molecular biology; biochemistry and molecular genetics; microbiology and immunology; pharmaceutical sciences; pharmacology and neuroscience; and physiology. Master’s degrees are also offered in health services research and biotechnology.[5]
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Allied Health Sciences trains allied health professionals.
The school began in 1983 and currently has campuses in Amarillo, Lubbock, and the Permian Basin. More than 1,100 students are currently enrolled in 18 different degree programs at the doctoral, master’s and baccalaureate degree levels.
The school offered the first Doctor of Audiology program west of the Mississippi, and the first Master of Science in molecular pathology in the country. The School of Allied Health Sciences’ goal has been "to increase academic opportunities for the people of West Texas by offering quality education that meets the needs of [the] region and to turn out graduates who may choose to stay in this area and contribute to the quality of health and life in West Texas."[6]
The Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine in Lubbock has awarded more than 3,000 Doctor of Medicine degrees since its first graduating class in 1974[7][8]. The school was commissioned to train physicians to help meet the health care needs of residents of West Texas, which now number more than 2.5 million. When the school was conceived, West Texas had one physician to every 1,300 residents. Now with the school’s presence throughout West Texas, the ratio has been cut nearly in half with one physician to every 750 residents.
Texas Tech Physicians, the largest group practice in West Texas, serves more than 224,000 patients annually.
Third and fourth year medical students attend their first two years in Lubbock and the last two years studying in either Amarillo, Odessa or Lubbock.
A major initiative for the school is to "recruit creative, innovative research faculty, and to develop graduate students and postdoctoral fellows for lifelong careers in medical research." [9]
In 2009, TTUHSC opened the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine in El Paso. The school is the first, full-fledged medical school on the U.S./Mexico border, which provides education, opportunities for research and health care for El Paso’s underserved residents. The inaugural class of 40 students was recently joined in 2010 by a class of 60 students. The school’s geographic location allows students to participate in a variety of clinical patient care learning experiences that include not only traditional medicine, but also international, bi-national, bi-cultural and border health medicine.
The mission of the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center at El Paso is "to provide exceptional opportunities for students, trainees, and physicians; to advance knowledge through innovative scholarship and research in medicine with a focus on international health and health care disparities; and to provide exemplary patient care and service to the entire El Paso Community and beyond." [10]
The school is named for the First Lady of Texas Anita Thigpen Perry, an advocate for nursing and other health issues. The school has campuses in Lubbock, Permian Basin, Highland Lakes, El Paso, and Abilene; and it educates more than 1,000 students each year. Bachelors, masters, and doctoral degrees in nursing are issued by the school. The School of Nursing offers the only Doctor of Nursing Practice program in West Texas. The school has created alternative pathways to nursing education to complement its traditional educational opportunities including online coursework for a registered nurse to obtain a Bachelor of Science in Nursing.[11]
In October 2011, the Hunt Family Foundation donated $10 million to the Texas Tech University System to develop a fully accredited nursing school in El Paso, Texas, separate from the Anita Thigpen Perry School of Nursing. The namesake of the Gayle Greve Hunt School of Nursing is the wife of Woody L. Hunt, chairman of the Hunt Family Foundation and CEO of the Hunt Companies, headquartered in El Paso. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and the Texas Board of Nursing both agreed to grant initial approval to the school and started admitting students in September 2011.[12]
The School of Pharmacy’s administrative hub is located in Amarillo and the school has regional campus sites in Lubbock, Dallas and Abilene. The school has two Dallas-area regional sites: one located on the grounds of the North Texas Veterans Administration Medical Center and the second located within the central Dallas medical district.
Lubbock faculty and residents also operate the TTUHSC Pharmacy, which provides medications and biologicals to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Montford Unit Regional Medical Facility; the TTUHSC International Pain Institute; the Garrison Geriatric Education and Care Center; and TTUHSC clinics in Lubbock, Odessa and El Paso. The TTUHSC Pharmacy also provides telepharmacy services to the rural communities of Turkey and Earth, Texas. The first telepharmacy prescription dispensed in Texas occurred September 18, 2002, between the TTUHSC Pharmacy and the Turkey Medical Clinic.[13]
The Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center has as its major objectives the provision of quality education and the development of academic, research, patient care, and community service programs to meet the health care needs of the 108 counties of West Texas, which comprise 48% of the land mass and 12.5% of the population of the total state. This 131,000-square-mile (340,000 km2) service area and population of 2.6 million has been, and remains highly underserved by health care access. The lack of a single locus of population density has resulted in the regionalization of medical and health care education and patient care on four geographically separated campuses that are able to provide more localized access to West Texas residents.
The presence of TTUHSC has impacted the access to health care in West Texas. Over 20% of the physicians currently practicing in West Texas are TTUHSC medical school or residency graduates. The schools of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences impact West Texas, with most of their graduates remaining in West Texas to pursue their chosen profession. Over 80% of School of Pharmacy graduates have chosen to practice in Texas.[1]
The TTUHSC Office of Alumni Relations hosts the event, which brings students, families, faculty and administration together to welcome a new class of future colleagues. The tradition provides each student entering medical school with their first set of green scrubs. The color green represents the quest for the green velvet hood the students will receive once they earn the title of Doctor of Medicine
Priscilla Carter-Snodgrass, M.D., (School of Medicine Class of 1988) and her husband, Brad Snodgrass, M.D., (School of Medicine Class of 1988) began the tradition in 2003, by annually presenting green scrubs to first-year medical students at the School of Medicine's Scrub Party. The event was hosted at the Snodgrass home and later it expanded and was held on the TTUHSC campus.
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