Improving health and health care delivery
is at the heart of UTMB’s mission. That mission is more important than ever as we work to meet the needs
of a growing, aging, increasingly diverse population. The students we educate today are tomorrow’s answer
to the serious shortage of care providers in Texas and beyond, and the future pioneers of new and better
ways to diagnose and treat illness.
We are enrolling a record
number of students and last
year alone graduated more
than 800 doctors, nurses, other health
professionals and biomedical scientists.
Equally important, we graduate men and
women who take service to heart, excel
on national licensing exams, embrace
technology, personify collaboration, and
go on to become lifelong learners and
leaders in their chosen fields.
Our graduates also reflect the populations
we serve; in fact, UTMB’s student body
is one of the most diverse in the nation.
Many of our graduates return to medically
underserved communities to practice, and
a good percentage of our medical school
graduates enter primary care residencies
in Texas—critical at a time when health
reform calls for more prevention and the
number of primary care doctors is already
too small.
UTMB’s historic Old Red amphitheater remains a training ground for generations of Texas health professionals.
Why is the UTMB learning environment
so special? One reason is that we have
been leading the way in health sciences
education for 120 years. Another is
our outstanding educators, and our
groundbreaking (and award-winning)
curricula, which focus more on problemsolving
than on memorization and bring
students face-to-face early on with the
types of patients they will one day treat.
We also credit innovative programs of
study that are keeping pace with and
in many ways shaping the course of
health and health care delivery. These
include new advanced-degree offerings
in rehabilitation sciences, translational
medicine, nutrition and metabolism,
nursing practice, and more.
UTMB graduate students engage in field work to further their education ... and biomedical science.
Our students benefit from state-ofthe-
art training opportunities,
such as surgical simulation, which
allows multidisciplinary teams to practice
procedures in realistic, low-risk scenarios,
reducing errors and significantly improving
patient safety. Our
students also have
many specialized
tracks to choose from,
including a global
health program that
has, to date, provided
opportunities to
learn and serve
through more than
500 rotations on
five continents.
And, robust distance education programs
enable many of our students to pursue
their degrees regardless of distance or time
constraints.
Our success is also due to a hard-wired
commitment to interprofessional education,
and the all-important team thinking and
practice it makes possible down the road.
And, a host of volunteer opportunities
rounds out our programs of study for our
service-minded students.
Through the Global Health Program, UTMB students have an impact around the world.
As we look ahead to the next 120 years and
the expanding health needs of our state
and nation, we are
partnering with fellow
University of Texas
institutions to reenvision
pre-medical
and medical school
education. Our goal
is to make it more
relevant to modern
practice and reduce
the amount of time
it takes for a student
to complete training
and begin caring for patients. We have also
begun planning for enrollment growth
and are investing in facilities—such as the
new Jennie Sealy Hospital and a proposed
interprofessional education building—that
will afford future health professionals the
finest learning experiences and ensure their
continued ability to improve lives in Texas
and beyond for generations to come.
More than 34,000 graduates have passed through UTMB’s doors since its founding.