Collaboration: Enhancing
South Texas Biomedical Goals

by William L. Henrich, MD, MACP

The School of Medicine is particularly pleased to be a partner with the Bexar County Medical Society as contributors to the $14.3 billion biomedical effort in San Antonio. The School of Medicine and the Health Science Center serve as catalysts for this industry, supplying talent, recruiting outstanding new investigators to our area and being responsible for the education of more than 800 medical students and 800 residents and fellows.

As was pointed out to me in a recent meeting with the BCMS leadership, opportunities for fostering more collaborative ventures between the School of Medicine and the Bexar County Medical Society are possible.
Our location close to the population centers of northern Mexico mean that our city is a logical consideration for citizens considering medical care and continuing medical education in the United States.

In this regard, San Antonio could become a destination of choice for many if we are able to effectively market our city’s medical assets. I am interested in working closely with the BCMS to plan such a strategy – if successful, there would be benefits for the patients seeking care here and also a positive result for the city’s medical institutions.

Another reason San Antonio is such a logical place for citizens to seek care is due to our reputation as a Center of Excellence in Hispanic education. The University of Texas Health Science Center has been designated as a Hispanic Serving Institution since its inception and as a Medical Hispanic Center of Excellence since 1991.

Now about 15 percent of the medical student body and faculty are Hispanic, percentages which rank at the top of Schools of Medicine nationally. Our school is committed to diversity, and I have appointed a new taskforce to probe the steps which need to be taken to improve our ability to recruit, retain and promote success in all of our constituencies.

One step I would like to take soon is to create additional scholarships for student education to be made available to outstanding students with particularly limited financial resources.

Some students who have tremendous talent and would prefer to come to San Antonio make decisions where to enroll based on these financial considerations, and I know we can be more successful with an enhanced scholarship pool.

In all of these efforts, we seek to bring the brightest minds to San Antonio, whether as a student, a resident or fellow, or as faculty. It is through the recruitment of such talent we will see our Health Science Center, our School of Medicine, all of our medical institutions, and most importantly, our citizens benefit by virtue of new discoveries and improved therapies which will result from their contributions.

I look forward to building new possibilities to partner with the Bexar County Medical Society in this effort.

Dr. Henrich is Dean of the School of Medicine and Vice President for Medical Affairs at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

 

 

 

 

 

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