About our School
TTUHSC Mission
The mission of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center is to improve the health of people by providing educational opportunities for students and health care professionals, advancing knowledge through scholarship and research, and providing patient care and service.
The Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center fulfills its higher education mission by achieving the following Institutional Goals:
- Train competent health professionals and scientists
- Increase externally funded, peer-reviewed research, especially NIH-funded research, and research focused on aging, cancer, and rural health
- Improve access to quality health care for TTUHSC’s target populations
- Prepare health professions students for an increasingly diverse workforce and patient population
- Provide leadership in the development of partnerships and collaborations to improve community health
- Operate TTUHSC as an efficient and effective institution.
TTUHSC Vision
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center will be recognized nationally as a top-ranked health sciences university.
School of Medicine Mission
The TTUHSC School of Medicine saves lives, improves health, and meets evolving needs for primary and specialty care. Drawing on the expertise and insight forged on our campuses across West Texas, we train future physicians using a continuously adapting curriculum that values excellence and innovation, just as we promote research that expands knowledge and advances patient care.
We foster a culture of achievement that utilizes the unique perspectives and talents of our learners, team members, patients, and community partners. Driven by our values and pursuit of excellence, we bring together interprofessional education, interdisciplinary collaborations, research, team-based patient care, and community engagement to enrich the lives of all people.
School of Medicine Vision
To be known for excellence in teaching, patient care, and scientific contributions that enhance the health care of communities in the region.
School of Medicine Admissions Mission
To enhance the overall health and outcomes for communities in which we serve, we seek to recruit and admit individuals who have ties to West Texas or who come from or have an interest in serving rural areas, including those who are socioeconomically disadvantaged or who are first generation learners. We complete this by making use of a holistic review process for evaluating, interviewing and selecting applicants for admission to the School of Medicine.
The core foundational value of including the different cultures, lifestyles, personal beliefs and ideas of all those we serve - and serve alongside - provides a positive impact on the health of our regional, national and global societies. We achieve this by producing physicians with core values who are competent and capable of making positive impacts on the health of an ever changing demographic and the communities in which they serve.
As we pursue excellence in health care education, research and patient care, we will be ever mindful of the unity that is gained through our collective strengths.
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and Lubbock
The Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine was created by the 61st Texas Legislature in May 1969, as a multi-campus regional institution with Lubbock as the administrative center and with other regional campuses at Amarillo, El Paso, and Odessa. The lack of a single focus of population density dictated the regionalization of medical education in West Texas, which comprises 48% of the landmass of the state and encompasses 12% of its population. The School of Medicine is one of six schools in the Health Sciences Center. The other four being the Schools of Nursing, Health Professions, Pharmacy, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and the Julia Jones Matthews School of Population and Public Health. All six schools are committed to regionalized, multi-campus educational experiences.
The School of Medicine formally opened in August of 1972 with a first-year class of 36 and a third-year class of 25 students. The Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center was established in 1979, eventually ushering in the Schools of Allied Health - now known as the School of Health Professions, Nursing, Biomedical Sciences, and Pharmacy. From 1980 to 1994, the school accepted 100 first year students for a total of 400 in the student body. In 1993, class size was increased by the Texas State Legislature to 120 in each first year class beginning with the class entering in the fall of 1994. In 2000, the Legislature approved a class increase to 200; however, a smaller class size of 140 has been maintained through the entering year 2011. In 2012 the entry class size increased to 150 and remained at that size until 2014 when it increased to 180, where it remains today. Primary consideration is given to residents of Texas and the contiguous counties of New Mexico and western Oklahoma. Other out-of-state applicants may be considered on an individual basis if they have outstanding academic credentials.
The school has as its major objectives the provision of quality medical education and the development of programs to meet appropriate health care needs of the 108 counties of West Texas. The school has a full-time faculty of 476 with 22 part-time faculty and 906 volunteer faculty.
The goal of populating West Texas with physicians is currently being achieved with about 20% of the region’s doctors having been trained at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. TTUHSC is currently expanding even further, with the October 2003 legislation that approved a four-year medical school in El Paso. The goal of the School of Medicine, however, has yet to be reached. The region is still severely underserved in certain sections of the service area despite the presence of the HSC health care institutions scattered throughout the region. This is why special attention is paid to applicants who are from or may have ties to West Texas.
Lubbock offers clinical experiences at University Medical Center, Covenant Medical Center, Veterans Administration Outpatient Clinic, Garrison Geriatric Care Center, and the Montford Psychiatric Prison Hospital. In January 2004, the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Academic Classroom Building was opened in Lubbock. The facility includes two large state-of-the-art auditoriums, along with a new histology laboratory that is also designed for computer-based curriculum. In 2007, a new 150,000 square foot medical pavilion was opened housing the ambulatory clinics for six specialties with plans for continued expansion and development.
Amarillo Campus
The Amarillo campus began in 1972 with the forming of the medical school in Lubbock. Elective rotations for students were performed in space borrowed from the Northwest Texas Hospital and the VA Medical Center. In 1975, the Amarillo HSC established its own permanent location. In 1978, the first medical school class of five students entered the Amarillo campus. That number has steadily risen to 65 third- and fourth-year students in September 2006. In Amarillo, clinical education is provided in area hospitals and health care facilities. These include Northwest Texas Hospital, Baptist St. Anthony Hospital, Don and Sybil Harrington Cancer Center, the Psychiatric Pavilion, and the Veterans Administration Hospital of Amarillo.
Odessa Campus
The Odessa campus was established in 1979 and serves as a resident training facility for the Permian Basin and surrounding communities in Family and Community Medicine, General Surgery, Internal Medicine, Obstetrics/Gynecology and Geriatrics. In the Midland-Odessa area, clinical sites are Medical Center Hospital (Odessa) and Memorial Hospital (Midland).
Medical Students and the Multi-Campus System
The first two years are offered on the Lubbock campus, contiguous with Texas Tech University. The recreational and cultural resources of the University are available to the medical students. For clinical studies, each class is currently divided with approximately 45-55 students in Amarillo, 90-110 students in Lubbock, and 20-30 students at the Permian Basin Campus. Beginning in 2016 the Lubbock campus began offering third and fourth year educational experiences at both University Medical Center and Covenant Health System.
Assignments to the regional campuses are based to the extent possible on a preference form that each student will complete prior to being assigned to any of the three campuses. At the beginning of the first year, there is an active orientation program that includes time with students with representatives from the respective regional campuses to which each student has been assigned.
At each regional center, clinical students in their third-year rotate through the basic clinical clerkships in Internal Medicine, Surgery, Obstetrics/Gynecology, Psychiatry, Pediatrics, and Family Medicine. The students are provided a diverse experience in community hospitals and in the School of Medicine's ambulatory clinics. In the fourth year, students may take elective experiences at any of the regional campuses and at other institutions.
The educational program at each regional center is comparable as indicated by the number and types of patients seen by students and by student performance on measures such as National Board of Medical Examiners subject exams, oral examinations, departmental examinations, and clinical ratings by faculty.
The goals of these programs are to develop competent, compassionate, professional physicians who provide the highest quality of care for the citizens of West Texas and beyond, who participate in scholarly activity, and who provide academic and community leadership. To assure the best possible education, the School of Medicine holds all programs to high academic and professional standards. These standards include those promulgated by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and the American Board of Medical Specialties.
Graduate Medical Education (GME)
In addition to the four-year curriculum leading to the M.D. degree, the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine provides graduate training on all four campuses (Amarillo, El Paso, Lubbock, and Odessa). The specialty (residency) programs include Anesthesiology, Dermatology, Emergency Medicine, Family Medicine, General Surgery, Internal Medicine, Neurology, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Ophthalmology, Orthopedics, Otolaryngology, Pediatrics, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Psychiatry, Transitional Year, and Urology. The sub-specialty programs (fellowships) include Breast Oncology, Burn & Wound, Cardiovascular Disease, Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Gastroenterology, Geriatric Medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology, Hospice and Palliative Care, Infectious Disease, Interventional Cardiology, Mohs, Nephrology, Pain Management, Pediatric Hospitalist, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Sports Medicine, and Surgical Critical Care.
For the latest detailed information on Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center residency programs, visit: https://www.ttuhsc.edu/medicine/graduate-medical-education/programs.aspx
Accreditation
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center is accredited by the Southern Association of colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) to award baccalaureate, masters, doctoral, and professional degrees. Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center also may offer credentials such as certificates and diplomas at approved degree levels. Questions about the accreditation of Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center may be directed in writing to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges at 1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, GA 30033-4097, by calling (404) 679-4500, or by using information available on SACSCOC’s website (www.sacscoc.org).
