| The University of Texas Medical Branch |
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|---|---|
| Motto | Latin: Disciplina praesidium civitatis (Education, the Guardian of Society) |
| Established | 1891 |
| Type | Academic Health Center |
| President | David L. Callender, MD, MBA, FACS |
| Admin. staff | 12,000 |
| Undergraduates | 2,255 |
| Postgraduates | 900 |
| Location | Galveston, Texas, USA |
| Campus | Urban, 350 acres (1.4 km2) |
| Colors | Red, white, and gray[1] |
| Website | www.utmb.edu |
The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) is a component of the University of Texas System located in Galveston, Texas, United States, about 50 miles (80 km) southeast of Downtown Houston. It is a health care complex spanning 85 acres (344,000 m2), with seven hospitals, 13,000 employees and an assortment of specialized clinics, centers and institutes, including a medical school. The medical school is the oldest one west of the Mississippi River.
It was established in 1891 with one building and fewer than 50 students. Today UTMB's campus has grown to more than 70 buildings and an enrollment of more than 2,500 students. The 84-acre (340,000 m2) campus includes four schools, three institutes for advanced study, a major medical library, seven hospitals (including an affiliated Shriners Burns Hospital), a network of clinics that provide a full range of primary and specialized medical care, and numerous research facilities.
Since its founding, UTMB has served indigent or poor populaces, such as prisoners, the homeless, and single mothers, including patients with ailments that are very expensive to treat (such as burns). It is one of only a handful of hospitals in southeastern Texas that does so. UTMB's Emergency Room at John Sealy Hospital is certified as a Level I Trauma Center and serves as the lead trauma facility for the nine-county region in southeast Texas. It is one of only three Level I Trauma centers in the Greater Houston area.[2]
The UTMB campus includes a Shriners Hospitals for Children and a prison hospital that serves 80% of the Texas prison inmate population [1]. In addition, because of its level of specialized care, UTMB serves many indigent patients from across the state. The university spends upwards of $500 million annually providing such care.
In 2003 UTMB received funding to construct a $150 million Galveston National Biocontainment Laboratory on its campus, one of only two in the United States and the only one on a university campus. It houses several Biosafety Level 4 research laboratories, where studies on highly infectious materials can be carried out safely.[3]
It has schools of medicine, nursing, allied health professions, and a graduate school of biomedical sciences, as well as an institute for medical humanities.
UTMB also has a major contract with the Texas Department of Corrections to provide medical care to inmates at all TDC sites in the eastern portion of Texas. UTMB also has similar contracts with local governments needing inmate medical care.
UTMB is currently in the process of recovering from the effects of Hurricane Ike.[4][5] Employees returned to work in early October, 2008.[6]
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The location of the Medical Department of the University of Texas was decided between Galveston and Houston in a popular vote in 1881, but its opening was delayed due to the construction of the main university campus in Austin, Texas. The need for medical training in Texas was great: in 1891, 80% of doctors in the state had under a year of formal training in medicine, and so the "Texas Medical College" was formed in Galveston with the idea that it would become the medical department once state funding began.
The original building, now called Old Red, was begun on 1890 under the supervision of the Galveston architect Nicholas J. Clayton. Clayton toured several medical colleges in the North and East before drawing up his plans for the building. The medical school campus also included the John Sealy Hospital, which provided charity care for any who claimed Galveston residence.
Upon opening, the Red Building had been starkly underfurnished, a problem which was not fully remedied until after the Hurricane of 1900, when the state rallied around the ravaged city. Dr. Thompson, professor of surgery, said that "the regents were so generous in repairing the damage to the building and restoring the equipment, that we were actually in better shape at the end of the year 1901 than we had been before." In addition, the damage to the roof of Old Red allowed for the addition of sky lights, which had always been wanted for the dissection room.
Ewing Hall is named for Maurice Ewing, a notable alum.
From its modest beginnings in the 1890s as the first state medical school in Texas, the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) has developed into a sophisticated health science complex for the state of Texas. UTMB is a large health sciences center, with the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, the School of Medicine, the School of Nursing,the School of Health Professions, the Institute for Human Infections and Immunity, the Institute for the Medical Humanities, an affiliated Shriners Burns Hospital, the Sealy Center for Molecular Medicine, the Sealy Center for Structural Biology, the Center for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases, the Center for Addiction Research, the Educational Cancer Center, the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Women’s Health, the Insyitute for Translational Sciences [2], the Galveston National Laboratory (GNL), the Sealy Center for Cancer Cell Biology, the Sealy Center for Environmental Health and Medicine, the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Tropical Diseases, the Stark Diabetes Center, the Center for Biomedical Engineering, the Center for Environmental Toxicology, the Sealy Center on Aging, the George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, and the Sealy Center for Vaccine Development. UTMB operates an extensive clinical care enterprise with a wide variety of specialty programs.
UTMB occupies 85 acres (340,000 m2) at the eastern end of Galveston Island. The medical complex consists of 54 major buildings, including six on-site hospitals, the affiliated Shriners Burns Hospital, classroom buildings, specialty centers, extensive research laboratories (385,327 square feet), one of the nation’s largest and most comprehensive medical libraries, recreational facilities, dormitories, and administrative offices. The research facilities include the only full-sized biosafety level 4 laboratory associated with a medical school in the U.S., completed in 2003. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) selected UTMB as the site of a $150 million national biocontainment lab, one of two large-scale national research facilities focusing on new and emerging disease threats, which opened in August 2008.
UTMB’s annual budget of approximately $1.4 billion includes grants, awards, and contracts from federal and private sources totaling more than $150 million, in addition to institutional allocations for research.
In 1996, UTMB purchased the adjacent 128 year old St. Mary's Hospital, the first catholic hospital in Texas.[7] The building was converted into the Rebecca Sealy Psychiatric Hospital.
The UTMB became a member of the Houston-based Texas Medical Center in 2010.[8][9][10]
UTMB includes four schools:
Sources of Financial Support
Every effort is made to provide financial support for GSBS students. Students may qualify for predoctoral fellowships from the graduate school with an initial stipend of at least $27,000 (2010–2011), and paid health insurance for those pursuing a Ph.D. degree. These stipends are awarded according to merit and the recommendation of the program faculty. Tuition and fees for first-year BBSC students will be paid by the GSBS and the mentor will fund tuition fees in years thereafter. Financial support may be available from other sources for students engaged in research or teaching projects. James W. McLaughlin Fellowships are awarded primarily to advanced students concentrating in the areas of infection and immunity and include additional benefits for dependents, travel, and research supplies. Research grant support is normally available only to students who have decided on laboratories in which they wish to work and have chosen research projects. A number of NIH-funded training grants also provide stipend support to Ph.D. students on a competitive basis.
Hurricane Ike caused significant flood damage to nearly every building on campus, including the John Sealy Hospital. However, UTMB has about $1.4 billion to restore, harden and expand its campus. Much of the money was approved by the 81st Texas Legislative session, $450 million comes from FEMA, $130 million from insurance, $200 million from the Sealy and Smith Foundation, and $50 million from the Social Service Block Grant Funds.[11] Reconstruction is actively underway as well as hardening of the campus to protect buildings and resources from future storms. It should be noted that UTMB restored its educational programs within weeks after the Hurricane Ike and the research endeavor came back steadily thereafter. In 2011 the foundation committed $170 million towards the construction of a new Jennie Sealy Hospital on the UTMB campus, an amount that represents the largest single gift ever to a Texas health institution.[12]
UTMB has two heliports: the Ewing Hall Heliport (FAA LID: 9TS7) and the Emergency Room Heliport (FAA LID: 9TA7).
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