FORT WORTH – TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine department chair of Family Medicine Grant Fowler, M.D., and Kyle Simon, a first-year medical student, were guests on FWMD LIVE on November 11 discussing health care for veterans and the effects that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the veteran population in North Texas.

During the discussion they both shared information about how and where veterans can go to seek help during the pandemic and also how the U.S. health care system can improve care for our veterans.

You can watch the full discussion below.

Here is a list of resources for veterans seeking care:

Veterans: What you need to know

https://www.va.gov/coronavirus-veteran-frequently-asked-questions/

A look at a national summary of COVID-19 numbers among veterans:

https://www.accesstocare.va.gov/Healthcare/COVID19NationalSummary

Chat with the VA online:

https://www.va.gov/coronavirus-chatbot/

The Gary Sinise Foundation:

https://www.garysinisefoundation.org

Wounded Warrior Project:

https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org

National Veterans Foundation:

https://nvf.org

FORT WORTH  – TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine faculty members JoAnna Leuck, M.D., the assistant dean of curriculum and Karim Jamal, M.D., an assistant professor gave an update about COVID-19 and what physicians have learned about the virus since it emerged in the United States back in January.

During the discussion they both shared information about COVID-19 treatments, testing and what they have experienced working with COVID-19 patients in North Texas. The pair also discussed the current Flu season and the importance of getting the flu vaccine.

Here are a list of resources about COVID-19:

Center for Disease Control: COVID-19 Cases and Data: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#cases_casesinlast7days

Center for Disease Control: Differences between COVID-19 and the  Flu: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/symptoms/flu-vs-covid19.htm

Center for Disease Control: How to protect yourself from COVID-19: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/prevention.html

Center for Disease Control: Understanding antibody testing and what it means: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/testing/serology-overview.html

Center for Disease Control: Understanding how vaccines work: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/conversations/downloads/vacsafe-understand-color-office.pdf

National Institutes of Health: Information on COVID-19 treatments, prevention and research: https://bit.ly/2GPGlBQ

FORT WORTH — The TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine received the 2020 Health Professions Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, the oldest and largest diversity-focused publication in higher education.

As a recipient of the annual Health Professions HEED Award — a national honor recognizing U.S. colleges and universities that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion — TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine will be featured, along with 45 other recipients, in the December 2020 issue of INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine.

“As an institution, we work from the paradigm that academic excellence and diversity are inextricably linked,” said Lisa McBride, Ph.D., Assistant Dean of Diversity and Inclusion and Professor of Medical Education at TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine. “This recognition by INSIGHT Into Diversity is a manifestation of the commitment our Founding Dean Stuart D. Flynn, M.D. made two years ago as a new medical school—with a mission to transform health care by inspiring Empathetic Scholars™. Our strategy is to integrate diversity and inclusion in everything we do. It starts with our leadership team, our faculty, our staff  and our medical student population.”

INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine selected TCU and UNTHSC School of Medcine because of their efforts of building a diverse faculty and inclusive environment through numerous programs and initiatives for faculty, staff and students. The Fort Worth medical school joined other medical schools across the country in the Time’s UP Healthcare Initiative aimed at ending sexual harassment in health care. The medical school is also a part of the Texas Medical Schools’ Diversity and Inclusion Consortium and The CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion™, which is the largest CEO-driven business commitment to advance diversity and inclusion within the workplace.

The Fort Worth medical school was also a part of The Institute on Teaching and Mentoring, which is a four-day conference that has become the largest gathering of minority doctoral scholars in the country. The medical school also created a six-part Health Disparities Certification Series. The series offered a certificate to the school of medicine by The Center of Excellence on Health Disparities at Morehouse School of Medicine (which was established by Dr. David Satcher, the 16^th Surgeon General of the United States), that was given to faculty, staff and partnering physicians from major health systems all across North Texas.

The Fort Worth medical school’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion also launched the Mentoring Matters! networking series designed to create a community that fosters the success of diverse students and faculty in academic medicine. It included a lecture from Antonia Novello, M.D., the 14^th U.S. Surgeon General, the first woman and first Hispanic to hold this position, and many other prominent physicians from across the country.

The Fort Worth medical school created the SOM Diversity Committee is to develop programs that build and maintain a positive, supportive, and inclusive environment for the school’s faculty, staff, and student populations. Their ongoing training efforts for faculty, staff and students consists of Unconscious Bias Training for Health Professions, Exploring Blind Spots to Build Understanding (Workshop), MED Safe Zone Training and Pronoun Fluency Training.

“The HEED Award process consists of a comprehensive and rigorous application that includes questions relating to the recruitment and retention of students and employees — and best practices for both — continued leadership support for diversity, and other aspects of campus diversity and inclusion,” said Lenore Pearlstein, publisher of INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine. “We take a detailed approach to reviewing each application in deciding who will be named a HEED Award recipient. Our standards are high, and we look for institutions where diversity and inclusion are woven into the work being done every day across their campus.”

Other recipients of the 2020 Health Professions HEED Award are:

A.T. Still University

California State University, Los Angeles

Columbia University, College of Dental Medicine

Duke University School of Nursing

Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM)

Florida State University College of Medicine

Frontier Nursing University

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS)

Johns Hopkins School of Nursing

Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine

MGH Institute of Health Professions

Penn State College of Medicine and Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center

Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine

Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine

School of Nursing, University of Minnesota

Texas A&M University – College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences

Texas A&M University College of Dentistry

The Medical University of South Carolina

The Ohio State University College of Medicine

The Ohio State University College of Nursing

The Ohio State University College of Optometry

The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine

The University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix

Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine – New York

UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health

University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health

University of California, Riverside School of Medicine

University of Cincinnati College of Nursing

University of Cincinnati James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy

University of Cincinnati, College of Allied Health Sciences

University of Colorado School of Dental Medicine

University of Florida College of Dentistry

University of Louisville

University of Maryland, Baltimore, School of Nursing

University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine

University of Michigan Medical School

University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry

University of Rochester School of Nursing

University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy

University of the Incarnate Word Feik School of Pharmacy

University of Virginia School of Medicine

UT Southwestern Medical Center

Vanderbilt University School of Nursing (VUSN)

Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine

Weill Cornell Medicine

For more information about the 2020 Health Professions HEED Award, visit insightintodiversity.com.

For more information about TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine, visit https://mdschool.tcu.edu .

About the TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine

The TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine, Fort Worth’s M.D. school, opened with a class of 60 students in July 2019. TCU and UNTHSC joined together in July 2015 to form this new allopathic medical school. The School of Medicine’s focus on communication, a first-of-its-kind curriculum and the development of Empathetic Scholars^TM uniquely positions the organization to radically transform medical education, improving care for future generations. To make this new school possible, the greater North Texas community stepped up to help, providing philanthropic support. The school’s current Founding Donors include Alcon, Amon G. Carter Foundation, Baylor Scott & White, The Burnett Foundation, Cook Children’s, Texas Health Resources, Mr. H. Paul Dorman, Mr. Arnold and Mrs. Harriette Gachman, Dr. John and Mrs. Priscilla Geesbreght, Anonymous, Sid W. Richardson Foundation, Rebecca and Jon Brumley, The Morris Foundation, Martha Sue Parr Trust, Tartaglino Richards Family Foundation, and Thomas M., Helen McKee, John P. Ryan Foundation and an anonymous donor.

About INSIGHT Into Diversity

INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine is the oldest and largest diversity publication in higher education today and is well-known for its annual Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award, the only award recognizing colleges and universities for outstanding diversity and inclusion efforts across their campuses. In addition to its online job board, INSIGHT Into Diversity presents timely, thought-provoking news and feature stories on matters of diversity and inclusion across higher education and beyond. Articles include interviews with innovators and experts, as well as profiles of best practices and exemplary programs. Readers will also discover career opportunities that connect job seekers with institutions and businesses that embrace a diverse and inclusive workforce. Current, archived, and digital issues of INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine are available online at insightintodiversity.com.

FORT WORTH – Could existing treatments be repurposed to treat COVID-19 patients?

That is one of the questions that a new COVID-19 research group created by the TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine is hoping to answer.

It all began from a hypothesis that Mohanakrishnan Sathyamoorthy, M.D., the department chair of Internal Medicine at the Fort Worth medical school, started developing in early March that focused on a different aspect of treating the cytokine storm that leads to the deadly inflammation in many COVID-19 patients.

“I realized that this couldn’t be a solo project; this is a medical school level effort,” Dr. Sathyamoorthy said. “The best way to think about how we can serve our community, science and medicine at large would be to create a working group.”

Over the next few weeks, Dr. Sathyamoorthy had conversations with Stuart D. Flynn, M.D., the founding dean of the medical school, about which faculty members and physicians across the Dallas-Fort Worth area might be interested in the research.

“This is our time and opportunity here in Fort Worth and we know this,” Dean Flynn said. “We’ve set up this environment to build a much bigger attraction to industry to want to come in here and do their clinical trials. That is the ultimate goal.”

Following those conversations , Dr. Sathyamoorthy set out to recruit the top specialists in North Texas to work on the research.

“From that point, I began recruiting individuals one-on-one who could bring a level of scientific, clinical and collaborative acumen to contribute to the culture of this working group,” Dr. Sathyamoorthy said.

By mid-April, the Fort Worth Clinical Sciences Working Group was formed. It is comprised of 15 physicians in leadership roles at major North Texas hospital systems such as Baylor, Scott & White, Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital, JPS Health Network, Cook Children’s Hospital and the medical school. The physicians in the group represent a range of medical specialties that include infectious diseases, transplant immunology, cardiovascular medicine, pulmonary critical care medicine, pediatric critical care medicine and pediatric oncology and immunology.

To get the ball rolling, three of the physicians in the group took a look at Dr. Sathyamoorthy’s initial eight-page hypothesis and provided feedback. Afterwards, they created a new draft of the hypothesis and circulated among the entire group for a peer review.

Within the working group there are subgroups focused on tasks such as fundraising, an institutional review board subcommittee (IRB) and a writing group.

“Since then, we have met nearly 30 times (via Zoom) as a working group and also in subgroups that were created,” Dr. Sathyamoorthy said.

By mid-August the group had developed three new proposals around COVID-19 that they planned to study. The first is the treatment of the cytokine storm that COVID-19 causes in the human body that leads to the deadly inflammation.

A simple way of thinking about how this happens is looking at how a virus invades the human body and how the body normally responds.

“When they (cytokines) work correctly, they are working every day for us clearing organisms out of our body and we never know it,” Dean Flynn said.

In the case of COVID-19, the human body has never seen this virus before. The body begins to try and create the appropriate immune response using those typically helpful cytokines to eliminate the virus. But over time the immune response becomes unregulated and unchecked, Dr. Sathyamoorthy added.

“The cytokine storm is this horrible state that leads to unchecked and unregulated inflammation (in the human body),” Dr. Sathyamoorthy. “In some patients, there is a dysregulation of intensity of this inflammatory response and the result is you actually end up damaging your own tissue.”

In an effort to eliminate the virus, the immune response by your body can end up damaging important heart tissue and lung tissue that can ultimately lead to death in some patients.

“There’s a lot of intense effort around this and all of us keep track of the literature,” Dr. Sathyamoorthy said. “We are learning that the human genome and genetic predispositions to this inflammatory response are playing a big role among many other potential factors.”

Dean Flynn spent many years as a pathologist and cancer researcher. When he began looking at Dr. Sathyamoorthy’s hypothesis, he was intrigued by the role genetics might play in inflammatory responses presented in some COVID-19 patients.

“I’m going to bet that we are going to find some genetic differences among those who get really sick and among those who look like the same patient that doesn’t get sick that’s very intriguing,” Dean Flynn said.

If that bet holds true, it will be phenomenal news for a major collaborative partner in this research group. Illumina, a company known as a global leader in genomics, which is an industry at the intersection of biology and technology are also partnering with the school of medicine in this research effort.

“Because of what we do in the education realm in genomics they were intrigued with how we could work together,” Dean Flynn said. “They want to look at the same things we want to look at and they want to see.”

Illumina is interested in seeing if the patient base put together by the research group can find genetic differences that might start to be predictive of how COVID-19 reacts in different ethnic groups.

“They are in the world of genetic sequencing but they are also in the world of showing the value of this sequencing and we’ve opened the door for them to take advantage of this study,” Dean Flynn said.

The second area of their research looks at currently available off-the-shelf treatments that can be repurposed to treat inflammation caused by the cytokine storm. Those will be monoclonal antibodies targeting Th1 cytokines that are responsible for the cell-mediated immune response the human body produces against viruses.

“The consensus to date has been to target Th2 (cytokines) and we’re going in a different direction.” Dr. Sathyamoorthy said. “There were studies published in July in Nature medicine and Science immunology that looked at the cytokines and inflammatory profiles in patients with COVID-19 that were very sick and symptomatic. It turns out that the cytokines that we are targeting (Th1) are the cytokines that are most highly expressed in the sickest patients. All of the physicians in the working group were pretty jazzed up to see those papers posted.”

This area of the research also takes a look into clotting, which is another common symptom of COVID-19 patients.

“Patients come in with these unexplained clotting events whether it is strokes, clots in their legs or clots in their arterial circulation,” Dr. Sathyamoorthy said. “We used a hypothesis driven effort to study what treatment may have the best impact on managing that clotting.”

The final component is the creation of a city-wide biorepository proposal.

“That will be critically important to many ventures related to this project and future projects,” Dr. Sathyamoorthy said. “Creating a biorepository of prospectively labeled samples that we can come back and analyze retrospectively is a big part of our goal.”

The research group has already taken the idea to Floyd Wormley, Jr., Ph.D., the associate dean for research and graduate studies at Texas Christian University and received approval. They will be able to store some of their research specimens inside of freezers in TCU’s research labs in the future, according to Dean Flynn.

“Everyone here has had an open-door policy and wanted to help. Everyone is excited. This is cool stuff for Fort Worth,” Dean Flynn said.

The timing of the research group’s formation fits with medical school’s curriculum for its newest group of medical students. They will be learning about cytokines this Fall semester. There will be opportunities for some of the new medical students to help the group in their research efforts.

“They will get the basic information of how these cytokines work, which is a beautiful thing,” Dean Flynn said. “This whole issue of cytokines, cytokine storms and clotting – they are all intimately related.”

The value this brings to the educational experience for the medical students is two-fold. The opportunity to take small portions of the research and help out in their spare time could ultimately become a part of their four-year Scholarly Pursuit & Thesis, which is a requirement for each student.

“Boom. They’ve not only got their four-year thesis, they also are really valuable to the research group,” Dean Flynn said.

Before the group can move forward with their research and begin clinical trials, they will need to get a few things done. They are currently applying for Food and Drug Administration (FDA) exemptions to be able to repurpose currently available drugs in a new way to battle COVID-19.

“As you could imagine, there is a huge binder of things that need to be constructed to send to the FDA to see if we can get the permission to complete the study,” Dr. Sathyamoorthy said.

The group’s IRB subcommittee will also need to get approval from the IRB’s at multiple hospitals across North Texas.

“We’re working closely with Baylor’s IRB right now which is the first hospital we’re working with,” Dr. Sathyamoorthy said. “Soon, we will deploy across the other IRB’s in the city including Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital and JPS Health Network. So, getting through this part of the process takes time.”

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect people across the world, the research group is dedicated to being a part of the solution.

“To be able to leverage this type of model and template as a structure to foster the next line of hypothesis and questions that could be transformative in the future, and is already pretty awesome,” Dr. Sathyamoorthy said. “But if our hypothesis can lead to one improved life or one saved life then what we have demonstrated in Fort Worth is a model that could be adopted across so many other communities.”

Watch Video FWMD LIVE: COVID-19 Research Group

Stuart D. Flynn, M.D., the Founding Dean of the TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine and Mohanakrishnan Sathyamoorthy, M.D., the department chair of Internal Medicine at the School of Medicine shared information about the medical school’s new COVID-19 research group during a chat on FWMD LIVE on Wednesday, September 30.

During the discussion they both shared information about their new research team organized by the TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine called the Fort Worth Clinical Sciences Working Group. Both of our medical experts answered questions about what areas of COVID-19 their research will focus on, COVID-19 vaccine trials, what the research will mean for medical students and hospital systems in North Texas and much more.

FORT WORTH – The late Anne Marion and The Burnett Foundation, a charitable foundation based in Fort Worth, have made a $25 million gift to establish The Anne W. Marion Endowment in support of the operations of the TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine in perpetuity.

This transformational gift will provide funds to support students, faculty and programming for the medical school. With a mission “to transform health care by inspiring Empathetic Scholars™,” this generous gift is a catalyst that will enable the School of Medicine to be a leader in medical education, delivery of care and scholarship, and necessary skills for complex health care issues, including the challenges of providing care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

READ THE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE NEWS RELEASE

Before her passing in February, Anne Marion said, “I am inspired by the vision of the School of Medicine to transform medical education. This school is bringing considerable advances and innovations that are reshaping curriculum and preparing its graduates to better serve the community. I am pleased to make this gift.”

Mrs. Marion’s family ties to the Fort Worth community date back nearly a century. They have a long history of supporting the priorities of the city and its institutions. The Burnett Foundation has been a generous patron of the city investing significant resources to enhance the community in myriad ways. The foundation focuses on building capacity in organizations and people through the arts and humanities, education, community affairs and health and human services.

“I am beyond thrilled and grateful for this incredibly generous gift,” said Stuart D. Flynn, M.D., dean of the School of Medicine. “This historic gift will help us empower current and new generations of talented and diverse students and faculty to address the complex health care issues challenging our world. The foundation’s generosity supports our efforts to create physicians who are highly skilled and knowledgeable yet compassionate care givers.”

The TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine received preliminary accreditation by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) in 2018 and started its first class of 60 students in July 2019. This support comes at a time when the medical school is beginning preparations for the next step of LCME approval, provisional accreditation.

The gift will support the operations of the school, which offers a novel educational experience, tailored to how students learn best, capitalizing on teamwork and active application sessions and assisting students to retain the knowledge they are learning, with the patient always at the center. Unique aspects of the program include communication skills instruction throughout all four years; a curriculum that includes clinical training in a Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship, allowing students to see patients over four years, which is a major factor in the students retaining the significant empathy they all have when they start medical school; and a different classroom setting with flipped classrooms, active learning and no lectures. All students are required to complete a four-year mentored research project, and students are supported through Physician Development Coaching, an innovative program created by the School of Medicine faculty, assisting each student with career advising and importantly, also addressing their wellness.

“This new medical school is training future physicians who will not only care for patients, but will provide care, empathetic communication with patients, and the critical thinking skills to lead in an industry that is always evolving and innovating,” TCU Chancellor Victor J. Boschini, Jr. said. “This gift will contribute greatly to current and future faculty and students. I am humbled and thankful that our late colleague and dear friend Anne Marion and the Burnett Foundation embraced our goal of creating Empathetic Scholars™ with this generous gift to support the School of Medicine.”

“At a time when innovation in medical education is not only needed, but also demanded, this gift will ensure that the M.D. school continues to grow its innovative curriculum,” UNTHSC President Michael R. Williams said. “This gift recognizes the vision we had to create a new and different school. I am appreciative of this generous support and thank both Anne Marion and the Burnett Foundation.”

About the TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine

The TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine, Fort Worth’s M.D. school, opened with a class of 60 students in July 2019. TCU and UNTHSC joined together in July 2015 to form this new allopathic medical school. The School of Medicine’s focus on communication, a first-of-its-kind curriculum and the development of Empathetic Scholars^TM uniquely positions the organization to radically transform medical education, improving care for future generations. To make this new school possible, the greater North Texas community stepped up to help, providing philanthropic support. The school’s current founding donors include Alcon, Amon G. Carter Foundation, Baylor Scott & White, The Burnett Foundation, Cook Children’s, Texas Health Resources, Mr. H. Paul Dorman, Dr. John and Mrs. Priscilla Geesbreght, an Anonymous Donor, Sid W. Richardson Foundation, Rebecca and Jon Brumley, The Morris Foundation, Martha Sue Parr Trust, Tartaglino Richards Family Foundation, Harriette and Arnold Gachman, and the Thomas M., Helen McKee and John P. Ryan Foundation.

About Lead On: A Campaign for TCU

On Oct. 24, 2019, TCU launched the most ambitious philanthropic campaign in its nearly 150-year history. The $1 billion goal of Lead On: A Campaign for TCU will drive support for TCU’s people, programs and endowment. Over the past several years, TCU alumni and friends have contributed $671 million in support of the campaign. For more information visit Lead On: A Campaign for TCU.

FORT WORTH (August 21, 2020) – School of Medicine second-year medical students Quinn Losefsky, Jonas Kruse, Edmundo Esparza, Charna Kinard and special guest Lisa Martin, a writer for TCU Magazine, discussed a four-year narrative project that will follow our medical students throughout medical school.

The discussion centered around students sharing their thoughts on what is it like to have your educational life and personal life documented by media during the COVID-19 pandemic. The students also opened up and shared what their greatest challenges have been so far in medical school.

The medical students also gave details on almost a half dozen community driven initiatives in Fort Worth and the surrounding areas that they have taken a part in since the pandemic began in March.

You can learn more about those community projects using the links below.

• Here’s how to donate to the Back to School Supplies Drive: https://mdschool.tcu.edu/news-item/fort-worth-medical-students-help-area-kids-with-back-to-school-supplies-drive/
• Virtual Blood Drive: https://mdschool.tcu.edu/news-item/fort-worth-m-d-students-launch-virtual-blood-drive/
• Couch 2 Cure Virtual Bone Marrow Drive: https://mdschool.tcu.edu/news-item/help-save-a-life-from-your-couch/
• Fort Worth PPE Drive: https://mdschool.tcu.edu/news-item/fort-worth-medical-students-support-community-with-ppe-drive-for-masks-gloves-and-gowns/
• Stuart Flynn, M.D., the Founding Dean of the TCU AND UNTHSC School of Medicine featured on FOX 4’s ‘Good Day’ morning show speaking about the student community projects: https://www.fox4news.com/video/842366
• TCU Magazine Feature Story: https://magazine.tcu.edu/fall-2020/fort-worth-md-school-first-year/

HOW TO GIVE

Our Project

Please help us to welcome the Class of 2024 to the TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine.  We would love for you, our community, to play a role in welcoming these amazing students into the profession of medicine.   Our White Coat Project provides white coats for all 60 of our new M.D. students at the TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine. A gift of $100 sponsors one coat.

The white coat ceremony is an honored tradition for MD students as they enter medical school and start their careers in health care. You can make this milestone even more special by sponsoring a student’s first white coat.

Your gift would sponsor an incoming MD student — your name will be provided to the student through a message in the pocket of their new white coat.  If you would like to send a personal note to a student, please email your message to Kenton Watt at k.watt@tcu.edu and we will include this message in the white coat pocket.

Your sponsorship will have an immediate meaningful impact on the School of Medicine and the lives of our students and wonderfully reflects on our community support.

Who We Are

The TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine is redefining medical education with its many Tarrant County health care partners, abandoning an outdated lecture model and transforming the clinical experience. The MD school offers a one-of-a-kind educational experience, tailored to how students learn best, capitalizing on teamwork and application sessions to retain knowledge, with the patient at the center of all they do.

The Class of 2024 are exceptional and diverse students chosen from a highly competitive pool of over 4,300 nationwide applicants. They represent 18 states and 45 institutions of higher learning, including 12 graduate schools.

“Our goal is to train these medical students as Empathetic Scholars™ and help them become world-class physicians who will lead the profession in treating patients with compassion, empathy and respect, resulting in better outcomes and better overall community health,” says Founding Dean Dr. Stuart Flynn.

Thank you for your consideration of support to warmly welcome these remarkable future physicians into the Fort Worth community.

Our Story

The TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine, Fort Worth’s M.D. school, opened with the arrival of the inaugural class in 2019 and has just welcomed its second class. The two universities joined together in July 2015 to form this new allopathic medical school. The School of Medicine’s focus on communication, a first-of-its-kind curriculum and the development of Empathetic Scholars™ uniquely positions the school to radically transform medical education, improving health and care for future generations. To make this private MD school possible, the greater North Texas community stepped up to help, providing vital philanthropic support. The school’s current Founding Donors include: Alcon, Amon G. Carter Foundation, Baylor Scott & White, Cook Children’s, Texas Health Resources, Mr. H. Paul Dorman, Dr. John and Mrs. Priscilla Geesbreght, Anonymous-2, Sid W. Richardson Foundation, Rebecca and Jon Brumley, The Morris Foundation, Martha Sue Parr Trust, Tartaglino Richards Family Foundation, Arnold and Harriette Gachman and the Thomas M., Helen McKee, and John P. Ryan Foundation.

CLICK HERE TO GIVE TO THE WHITE COAT PROJECT