About the Organization
Through research, education and patient care, the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center aims to promote a greater health environment for Lubbock and beyond. We strive to decrease health disparities in minority and rural populations and improve the health of the community through collaborations with area hospitals and health centers. The efforts of our faculty, staff and students influence the community, state, nation and world, and our vision of excellence lights the path for the future in the rapidly growing world of health care. Discover how we are making a difference.
The four campuses operate a total of 34 clinical departmental units and numerous clinical services and education programs which were previously unavailable in the West Texas region. In more than 35 years of educational training, the School of Medicine has graduated more than 3,000 physicians. During the past 10 years, 58 percent of those graduates have remained in Texas to complete residency training and an average of 21 percent of the School of Medicine graduates have remained at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center for their residency training.
In the past five years, an average of 46 percent of graduates have chosen to enter primary care specialties family medicine, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology and pediatrics.
On each of the four campuses, a majority of the graduates who choose to stay in West Texas chose to stay within a 75-mile radius of their campus city. The four-campus system is fulfilling the original intention of the legislation that created this medical school training physicians for West Texas.
Three elements form the basis of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicines mission teaching physicians, providing top-notch health care for the people of the South Plains and conducting research to unlock continuing medical mysteries. The Health Sciences Center faculty believes balance among these three elements will improve health care for generations of West Texans.
The School of Medicine was founded in May 1969 by the 61st Legislature of Texas to address the urgent need to train more physicians for West Texas. Many counties at that time had no practicing physicians. The original medical school design included campuses in El Paso and Amarillo with the headquarters in Lubbock.
Almost 40 years later, the school continues to grow! A campus has been added in Odessa and the El Paso campus recently received approval from the State Legislature and a $50 million gift to establish the first four-year medical school (Paul L. Foster School of Medicine) on the U.S./Mexico border. Its first class will be admitted in Fall 2009. The need to train more physicians for West Texas remains at the forefront of our work.
www.ttuhsc.edu