UNT Health Science Center and TCU will begin accepting applications for new School of Medicine Nov. 12
UNT Health Science Center and Texas Christian University recently entered a partnership for a joint School of Medicine located in Fort Worth. Students can apply to be one of the 60 inaugural students of the M.D. program starting on Nov. 12.
Prospective students will be able to apply to the TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine through the American Medical College Service application. Applications close on Dec. 15.
The new $121 million Interdisciplinary Research and Education Building (IREB), located in Fort Worth, Texas, recently had its grand opening.
The third and fourth floors of the IREB are for the School of Medicine, said Maricar Estrella, director of digital development and content strategy for the new partnership. Classes will also be held at both TCU and UNTHSC campuses which are located in Fort Worth, she said. Through the program, students will rotate through hospitals and clinics in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
The first year of tuition has been paid for by Paul Dorman, chairman and CEO of DFB Pharmaceuticals, according to a UNTHSC press release. The inaugural class of 60 students will be known as “Dorman Scholars.”
“The School of Medicine is expected to grow the workforce [by 31,000 jobs] in the Fort Worth community to address the country’s physician shortage,” Estrella said. “Fort Worth will be on the cutting edge of the movement to instruct medical students in a team model of care, which places the patient at the center of attention and enhances communication among caregivers.”
Director of Media Relations at the UNTHSC Jeff Carlton said the UNTHSC partnered with TCU to grow the number of trained doctors. He said UNTHSC graduates a larger number of primary care doctors than any other medical school in the state through the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine.
“The new School of Medicine will make us even stronger,” Carlton said. “Together with TCU, we’re going to teach and train more high-quality doctors, create more residency programs and continue graduating skilled, empathetic doctors to care for the North Texas community.”
After its first year, the program will begin accepting 60 more students each year, increasing the total enrollment to 240 students after four years. The small class size will allow the faculty and staff to tailor how students learn best and have a “one-of-a-kind experience,” Estrella said.
Estrella said the School of Medicine is unique compared to other medical schools because communication will be embedded throughout the four-year curriculum whereas other schools have a few classes on the subject, allowing graduates to have active listening skills and to be “exceptional” physician communicators.
Each student will have a physician development coach who will give students academic support through mentoring and address the student’s overall wellness, Estrella said.
“Our empathetic scholars will be compassionate, empathetic and prepared to discover the latest knowledge in medical care and have the ability to ‘walk in a patient’s shoes,’” Estrella said. “There will be limited lectures and classroom time with a focus on self-directed and team-based learning. Students will apply what they’ve learned to solve real-world health care problems.”
Applied arts and sciences junior Josh Jones said he will be applying to the School of Medicine this fall in hopes of being accepted to the inaugural class.
“Residency match data suggests a student graduating from an allopathic [M.D.] program versus osteopathic [D.O.] medical school will have a better chance of matching into an allopathic surgical subspecialty, which is what I am most interested in,” Jones said.
Assistant professor Shanna Combs said students who are accepted to the program should expect a medical education that will prepare them for medicine in the 21st century. She said medicine evolves over time, and there are many things to be learned every day.
“During their clinical training, they will follow some of their patients throughout the healthcare system,” Combs said. “By doing this, they will gain a better perspective on what it is like to navigate the whole system. I feel very fortunate to be a part of this process and to help develop a medical education program for medicine of today and of the future.”
Featured Image: The UNT Health Science Center, located in Fort Worth, is partnering with Texas Christian University for a School of Medicine. Applications for the new school open Nov. 12. Courtesy UNT Health Science Center.
You can keep growing medical schools all you want, but the number of residencies aren’t changing. We need RESIDENCIES not a big group of unemployed Doctors because a rich guy decided to open up a medical school in an area that ALREADY had one.
I appreciate the insight into a pre-medical students reasons for applying to the new program in Fort Worth. However, the comments reflect a poor understanding of osteopathic medicine. Osteopathic physicians are fully trained physicians that practice in every medical specialty, alongside their allopathic colleagues. Osteopathic physicians are able to prescribe medications, and perform surgeries. We are trained in a holistic approach, and we do consider the whole-patient. I consider this to be a benefit, and this philosophy contributed to my decision to attend an osteopathic medical school following my education at both the University of North Texas, and the UNT Health Science Center.I hope the NT Daily will work to include the insight of students and professionals in the field when publishing articles that discuss osteopathic medicine, so as not to mislead readers.
“Compared to an osteopathic school that focus on one-on-one patient care.” It sure sounds like an osteopathic medical school is much more in line with the supposed mission of the new MD school. It might behoove the quoted applicant to learn more about osteopathic philosophy before he comments on it or a UNT news source quotes him on it.
Unfortunately, I don’t believe the quoted applicant understands what DOs are, but I am so happy that the new TCU medical school will be able to work closely with UNTHSC’s DO medical students. Maybe this will help educate and promote teamwork within both medical students at UNTHSC and at TCU to work together towards a team model of care.
It is interesting to read the article and how what I said was completely misrepresented by the author.
The quote I gave was, “Being part of the initial cohort of students accepted into medical school presents with unique challenges that I think the school is recognizing by offering free tuition to the inaugural class. I am particularly interested in this medical school because of its proximity to my family and for the fact that it is an allopathic medical school. Residency match data suggests that a student graduating from allopathic (MD) program versus an Osteopathic (DO) medical school will have better chances of matching into an allopathic surgical sub-specialty, which is what I am most interested in pursuing.”
I never said anything even relatively close to, “Compared to an osteopathic school that focus on one-on-one patient care.”
Initially, I was happy to share my excitement with the NT Daily reporter who asked me for a quote, but I can now see that this article was at its best poor writing, and at worst meant to be divisive and cause problems.
To the PreMed student: Please educate yourself on what a DO is. As an MD, You will potentially be working along, or with a DO, or have a boss/attending who is a DO. No matter who or what you work for, you will be taking care of patients, which is the more important than the letters on your white coat.