The Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) offers programs in Allied Health Sciences, Biomedical Sciences, Medicine, Nursing, and Pharmacy. TTUHSC is a multi-campus institution based in Lubbock with additional campuses located in Abilene, Amarillo, Dallas, El Paso and the Permian Basin. TTUHSC serves more than 100 counties in the western portion of Texas. The university is a separate institution from Texas Tech University, and both universities are part of the Texas Tech University System.
History
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, which grew to include 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. TTUHSC currently employs more than 6,000 people, and more than 4,400 students are enrolled in the university.
One of TTUHSC's founding missions is still a focus today, which is making a special effort to recruit applicants from West Texas and from rural and border communities that will serve these communities after their education.
Schools
Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
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 â€" cell and molecular biology; biochemistry and molecular genetics; immunology and infectious diseases; pharmaceutical sciences; pharmacology and neuroscience; and physiology. Master’s degrees are also offered in health services research and biotechnology.
School of Allied Health Sciences
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. These programs include areas of study, such as athletic training, audiology, clinical management, medical laboratory science, molecular pathology, physical and occupational therapy, physician assistant, rehabilitation, and speech and language pathology.
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."
School of Medicine
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. The school was commissioned to train physicians to help meet the health care needs of residents of West Texas, a population which is now more than 2.5 million. When the school opened, West Texas had one physician for every 1,300 residents. Currently, the ratio is about one physician for every 750 residents. Students spend their first two years of study in Lubbock and their last two years studying in Amarillo, Odessa or Lubbock. A self-proclaimed 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."
Anita Thigpen Perry School of Nursing
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.
School of Pharmacy
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.
- Department of Pharmacy Practice
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
- Department of Biomedical Sciences
School of Public Health
The School of Public Health was established in 2014. The school will be located on the Abilene Campus in a building to be constructed.
Campuses
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center is a multi-campus university based in Lubbock, Texas. The university has campuses in Abilene, Amarillo, Dallas, El Paso, and Midlandâ€"Odessa. TTUHSC also offers programs through distance learning. The Lubbock campus is the largest physical campus by enrollment. Not including distance education, the Lubbock campus is largest by enrollment, and larger than the other five campuses combined.
When TTUHSC was founded in 1969, the university had campuses in Amarillo, El Paso, Lubbock, and Midlandâ€"Odessa. In 1997, the Dallas campus opened. In 2007, the Abilene campus opened. The El Paso campus saw separate schools of medicine and nursing opened in 2009 and 2011 respectively. In 2014, both schools were spun off from the TTUHSC to form the separate university: Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center at El Paso (TTUHSC El Paso). While TTUHSC El Paso offers masters programs in Biomedical Sciences, TTUHSC continues to offer doctoral programs in Biomedical Sciences in El Paso.
Institutes & Centers
- F. Marie Hall Institute for Rural and Community Health
- Garrison Institute on Aging (GIA)
- The Institute of Environmental and Human Health (TIEHH)
- Laura W. Bush Institute for Women's Health (LWBIWH)
- Center of Excellence for Geriatric Scholarship, Training, and Faculty Development
- Center of Excellence in Evidence-Based Practice (CEEBP)
- Center for Innovation in Nursing Education (CINE)
- Center for International and Multicultural Affairs (CIMA)
- Center for Membrane Protein Research
- Center for Rehabilitation Research
- Pediatric Pharmacology Research and Development Center
- School of Medicine Cancer Center
- School of Pharmacy Cancer Biology Center (CBC)
- South Plains Alcohol and Addiction Research Center (SPAARC)
- University Medical Center Southwest Cancer Treatment Center
- Vascular Drug Research Center
- West Texas Influenza Center
Objectives
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 (340,000Â 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.
Traditions
White Coat Ceremony
- Usually held in August, a new group of first-year medical students participate in the White Coat Ceremony each year. This event is a rite of passage for first-year medical students as they don their coats and take a Hippocratic oath affirming their commitment to the highest standards of ethics and patient care. At the TTUHSC School of Medicine in Lubbock, the ceremony is held at the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center.
Scrub Party
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.
People
Alumni
- Donna Campbell, member of the Texas Senate, is an emergency room physician from New Braunfels. She graduated from Texas Tech with her M.D. in 1989.
- Bernard A. Harris, Jr., M.D. graduated from the SOM in 1982 before becoming an astronaut with NASA and has spent more than 400 hours in space.
Faculty
- Bernard T. Mittemeyer
- Tom Shires
Presidents
- David R. Smith, M.D.
- M. Roy Wilson, M.D.
- Bernhard T. Mittemeyer, M.D. (interim)
- John C. Baldwin, M.D.
- Tedd L. Mitchell, M.D.
References
External links
- Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center
- Texas Tech Physicians
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