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FORT WORTH —  TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine’s FWMD LIVE chat welcomed two of America’s most prominent African-American women in activism and medicine to discuss the importance of Juneteenth and health care disparities facing African Americans.

The guest panelists were SOM visiting professor Velma P. Scantlebury, M.D., the nation’s first African-American female transplant surgeon, and Opal Lee, 94, Fort Worth’s Grandmother of Juneteenth. Her petition to U.S. lawmakers to make Juneteenth a national holiday has garnered more than 1.5 million signatures. Each year, she walks 2.5 miles, which represents the number of years it took before the Emancipation Proclamation was enforced in Texas.

They discussed the U.S. Senate’s resolution to unanimously establish June 19 Juneteenth National Independence Day as a U.S. holiday and steps African Americans can take to reduce health care disparities in their communities.

You can watch the full discussion below.

Here some links with more information on Opal Lee’s Juneteenth celebrations and information about health care disparities facing African Americans in the U.S. 

• Senate passes Juneteenth bill: https://www.cnn.com/…/juneteenth-federal…/index.html
• More Info available on Opal’s Walk Live Caravan: https://www.opalswalk2dc.com/events/juneteenthftw
• Opal’s Walk Live Caravan FOX SOUL live stream on June 19, 2021 at 10 a.m. (CST): com/foxsoul
• Southern Living profile on Ms. Opal Lee: https://www.southernliving.com/…/opal-lee-grandmother…
• Variety Magazine Changemakers Summit “Pharrell Williams chats with Opal Lee” event and registration info link (June 17-18): https://bit.ly/3zbfjfc
• Juneteenth events in Fort Worth: https://www.juneteenthftw.com
• Read more about Fred Rouse in TCU Magazine: https://magazine.tcu.edu/…/adam-mckinney-fred-rouse…/
• TCU Alumni Association and TCU Magazine will host a panel discussion titled, ‘Never Too Late to Say His Name’ with Opal Lee (Wednesday, June 30 at 1 p.m.): https://www.youtube.com/c/TCUTexasChristianUniversity/live

FORT WORTH, Texas (JUNE 22, 2021) – The Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) granted TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine Provisional Accreditation, bringing the medical school one step closer to full accreditation.

“This is a tremendous step in solidifying the medical school’s role as a critical partner in making Fort Worth and North Texas a place where medical innovation in education and health care occurs,” said Stuart D. Flynn, M.D. the medical school’s founding dean.  “We are extremely humbled and grateful that the LCME favorably assessed our training mission to graduate physicians who will deliver compassionate care and lead into the rapidly changing health care environment, despite their not being able to visit our campus in-person due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Members of the LCME voted at their meeting in mid-June to grant Provisional Accreditation to the innovative medical school that focuses on inspiring future physicians as Empathetic Scholars ®. A team of accreditors from the LCME met virtually with senior leadership, faculty and students during a virtual site visit in February before making their Provisional Accreditation decision.

The LCME awarded the school of medicine preliminary accreditation in October 2018 allowing the school to welcome its first class of 60 medical students in July 2019. The second cohort of 60 students arrived July 2020 after the school received more than 4,000 application submissions. Applications to the school of medicine doubled in 2021 to more than 8,000 applicants and the school will welcome its third group of 60 medical students on July 12.  The next step in the accreditation process is “full accreditation,” which is expected in late 2023.

H. Paul Dorman, chairman and CEO of Fort Worth-based DFB Pharmaceuticals, generously donated the cost of tuition for the first year of class for the inaugural class in 2019, who are known as the Dorman Scholars. Recently, an anonymous donor couple funded tuition for the 2021-22 academic year for the entire class of 60 students at the School of Medicine that began medical school in July 2020.

“We are extremely thankful for the support from our community members in helping us build a new model of medical education in Fort Worth,” said Dean Flynn. “Their support has given our medical students comfort in decreasing their cost to attend medical school and allows them to fully immerse themselves into their training. This is positive for our students, our community, and ultimately for the patients our graduates will serve.”

The innovative curriculum at the School of Medicine focuses both on developing Empathetic Scholars®, physicians able to “walk in a patient’s shoes with compassion” while embracing and leading major drivers in the future of medicine, including artificial intelligence, technology monitoring patient health and disease, and genomics. Each student also does a four year research thesis, nurturing life-long inquiry and learning.

To date, 120 of our students have attended classes on TCU and UNTHSC campuses and participated in patient care with our affiliates in Fort Worth and North Texas. Addressing the COVID-19 pandemic the students, faculty and staff at the medical school supported the Fort Worth-Dallas region in numerous ways including the Fort Worth PPE Drive, Virtual Blood Drive, Back-to-School Drive, children’s book reading projectand more.

The medical students were also able to administer approximately 19,000 COVID-19 vaccines to Tarrant County residents over a 12-week span during the TCU and Baylor, Scott & White COVID-19 Drive-Through Vaccination Clinic on the TCU Campus.

In February 2020, Baylor Scott & White All Saints Medical Center Fort Worth and the TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine announced their collaboration on starting a new Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)-accredited physician resident training program. The collaboration, that will eventually train more than 150 physicians annually, will not only improve health and the delivery of care in North Texas, it will also address the ever increasing physician shortage in Fort Worth and beyond.

Texas Christian University and the University of North Texas Health Science Center formed a unique private-public partnership to form this new allopathic medical school in July 2015. The medical school will prepare students to be compassionate physicians, excellent caregivers and prepared to meet the challenges of the rapid advances in medicine. By 2030, the annual economic impact of the medical school is estimated at $4 billion, and the school is expected to generate about 31,000 jobs for North Texas, according to a Tripp Umbach study.

Learn more about the TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine using the links below.

• The Class of 2023 (Dorman Scholars): Attending Medical School During a Pandemic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiodOfYSVLo&t=13s
• The Class of 2024: First-Year in Medical School Rewind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NfyM89xMUQ&t=50s

FORT WORTH –  TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine students are hoping to help women experiencing homelessness in Fort Worth with an initiative called “The Purse Project.”

“One of the reasons why it was so easy for us to be passionate about it is because we’ve all walked through life as women no matter where we come from,” said Amber Broderick, a first-year medical student at TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine. “We know what it’s like to struggle with self-confidence and it’s the little things that can make or break that.”

Broderick, along with her classmates and first-year medical students Aya Al-Adli, Emma DiFiore, Lauren Moore, Leticia Rivera and Rebecca Sobolewski came together in December 2020 to begin developing the project in collaboration with the American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA), an organization of women physicians, medical students and other people devoted to serving as a voice for women’s health and the advancement of women in medicine, according to AWMA’s website.

The medical students hope to promote self-confidence and wellness through donated purses filled with items that have also helped them throughout their daily voyage in the world as women.

“This ties into that by promoting that support within our community here in Fort Worth,” Broderick said.

The premise of the project was something Broderick had been contemplating doing prior attending the Fort Worth medical school.

“It’s something that I wanted to start when I was in community college,” Broderick said. “My best friend was going through some things at the time and she was homeless. She was in and out of the streets and I saw the impact and tool it took on her specifically as a woman. There were some essential things that she had to think about that I didn’t have to think about because I had a roof over my head.”

Broderick soon realized the difficulty in starting initiatives such as the Purse Project without support. When she started at the Fort Worth medical school in July 2020, she quickly signed up to be a community liaison for AMWA.

Her first task as a liaison was to develop an event that the AWMA organization could help support.

“We had to pitch an event each of us could do for that year,” Broderick said. “I pitched it and AMWA seemed to like it so I was on my way.”

Without hesitation, many of her classmates offered to help.

“Women’s health is something that I’ve always been really passionate about and I’ve worked a lot with unhoused women throughout my college years and providing care for women in those settings in urban and rural areas of Texas has been a huge interest of mine,” said Rebecca Sobolewski, a first-year medical student at TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine.

The group created an Amazon Wishlist with a goal of filling 150 purses to be donated to local community organizations in the Fort Worth area.

“Another thing we are trying to do is tailor the purses to the places where we are dropping them off,” Sobolewski said. “For a place like the Lullaby House, they work mostly with teenage mothers so with those we are doing the bigger bags so we can put diapers in them. For the unhoused women in camps, we are doing smaller bags because they are not able to carry around bigger bags.”

This kind of initiative allows the medical students to be part of the solution to a social determinant of health. It’s something that faculty at the Fort Worth medical school have discussed and encouraged the students to learn more about as a part of their Empathetic Scholars™ curriculum.

“I grew up in poverty so I know how it feels to not have all of these same things that are basic. There are all these factors that kind of play into where you end up on a health spectrum,” Broderick said. “It’s your socioeconomic status. It’s where you live. It’s your zoning. There’s politics and access to health care. These are the kinds of things we were having conversations about in our Clinical Skills courses.”

The Purse Project – How to Give

You can help the Purse Project reach its goal of filling 150 purses to be donated to local community organizations. You can purchase items using this Amazon Wishlist link. Venmo donations are also available.

The group plans to distribute the purses twice a year to local organizations that they’ve partnered with in Fort Worth and in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

If you have questions, you can contact the group via direct messaging on their Instagram account: @the_purse_project.

We’re seeking job candidates for the following positions:

• • None currently available. Please see more potential opportunities at TCU here. 

Please share these job postings on your social media platforms with #BurnettMedJobs

We would love for you, our community, to play a role in welcoming the Class of 2025 at the TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine. Our White Coat Project provides white coats for all 60 of our new M.D. students. A gift of $100 sponsors one coat.

Your gift would be acknowledged with a pocket card containing your name in the student’s 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 or Doug White at douglas.a.white@tcu.edu and we will include this message in the white coat pocket.

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

Please help us get the word out! Please share the White Coat Project with your social network: https://frogfunding.tcu.edu/p/whitecoat/

Watch the replay of TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine faculty member Sandeep Bansal, M.D., sharing his recipe for Saag Paneer:

Saag Paneer Recipe

Ingredients:

1 packet Trio green mix- collards Etc

200 gm cottage Paneer (cheese)

One large red Onion

One large clove of Garlic

One large Tomato

One small piece of ginger (alternative to ginger and garlic is 1 tea spoon ginger garlic paste)

2 tea spoon whole wheat flour (starch source)

2 red dry chilies, coriander seeds, red chilli powder, turmeric, salt.

Oil of your choice, butter or ghee

Instructions:

On medium flame, Sauté fry one leveled tea spoon coriander seeds. when seeds turn little dark, add diced onion. fry onions until golden brown. Add finely chopped ginger and garlic or add 1 tsf ginger garlic paste. Stir it with onions for 30 seconds. Add diced tomato. Sauté until tomatoe pieces are soft. Mash tomato in the mixture.

Add two pinches of turmeric and red chilli powder.  Stir it with the mixture for 30 seconds.

Blend steamed three trio to rough paste. Add to it two tsf whole wheat flour. Transfer this to the pan containing the fried material (onions tomatoes ginger and garlic). Add one third of the butter bar. Let the mixture simmer for 15-20 minutes. Keep stirring regularly to avoid it from sticking to the pan. Turn off the stove and add cubed cottage cheese. Leave the pan covered for 5-10 minutes. The saag paneer is ready. Relish it with naan, onion kulcha, tortila (corn), bread loaf or with rice.

FORT WORTH — A special edition of TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine’s FWMD LIVE chat was held on June 2, 2021, in collaboration with TCU Magazine to discuss the “Impact Of Giving” during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The panel of speakers featured School of Medicine Founding Donor Arnie Gachman, Chairman of Gamtex Industries; Paula Parker, Lead On: A Campaign for TCU Donor; Michelle Ramos, JD, Ph.D., Executive Director at Alternate ROOTS; and Jeremy Smith, President of the Rainwater Charitable Foundation.

The group discussed how philanthropy has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and how gift-giving remains an important part of building relationships between community members.

You can watch the full discussion below.

FORT WORTH – The TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine celebrated Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month by having several of our medical students talk about their heritage and personal experiences that led them into medicine.

Second-year medical students Faria Khimani, Sujata Ojha, Lucas Yoon and first-year medical student Yolancee Nguyen participated in the candid conversations.

Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month | Student Spotlight: Faria Khimani, MS-2

Faria Khimani, MS-2, was born and raised in Pakistan before moving to San Antonio at the age of 11.

“I think for the one or two months before we were going to move I was trying to convince my parents out of moving,” Khimani said. “But it was time to move because of the better educational opportunities.”

Faria has not traveled back to Pakistan in  more than 15 years, but hopes of visiting her home country again in the future.

“I know it’s going to be really fun but I don’t want it to be a two or three day thing,” Khimani said. “I think it deserves its own little half-month special trip back to the motherland.”

Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month | Student Spotlight: Yolancee Nguyen

Yolancee Nguyen, MS-1, was born and raised in Utah. Despite not seeing many people in medicine that shared her own heritage growing in Utah she was still able to find a spark for it

“My dad was an immigrant from Vietnam and my mom was also an immigrant from Vietnam but she is of Chinese descent,” Nguyen said. “I couldn’t find a reason why I wanted to be a part of medicine for the longest time but even though it sounds cliché I really wanted to help people.”

Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month | Student Spotlight: Sujata Ojha

Sujata Ojha, MS-2, says growing up in Nepal wasn’t the easiest thing in the world.

“Life in Nepal is very different from the life in the United States,” Ojha said. “When I was very young there was a civil war and a revolution going on in Nepal so there was quite a lot of distress in the general population so it was tough for sure.”

Ojha’s parents sought out a better education and a better future for her and her brother when they moved to the United States. She hopes that her medical education and training will allow her return to Nepal one day as a physician.

“My final goal as a physician is still to be able to go back to Nepal and provide free care and a free clinic,” Ojha said.

Dear Dr. McCarthy,

Brandon Mallory here. I hope this letter finds you well. When we were given the opportunity to write a letter to a faculty member that we were grateful to,  I could think of no one I’d rather write to than you.

I’ve never truly told you how much you have helped me on this journey of medicine that I’m on. Since I first worked for you as a scribe in my pre-medical school days, you have always exemplified what it means to be a kind and patient physician. You take the time to hear patients out and work with them through their toughest times. I know you’ve had some tough times of your own that would break down even the toughest of us. However, you never let it affect your ability to best serve the patient. It really did show me what it meant to be empathetic in medicine before I officially became an Empathetic Scholar.  Being able to see firsthand how you work and help others during their most chaotic moments is part of the reason that I want to go into emergency medicine in the future.

Since I transitioned from scribe to medical student, your support has never wavered. You have helped me with everything from extracurriculars to research contacts. You were a speaker for my interest group and have continued to share your wisdom not just with me but with all the students in our school. When I’ve had the privilege to be around you in the ED as a student, you’ve allowed me to be a part of some great medical experiences.

Beyond that, you have been played such an important role in the community for the past year when it seemed like the whole world was on fire. None of us fully anticipated the effect COVID would have on our daily lives, but you did your best to lead from the frontlines. But that’s what great leaders do. They remain calm and resolute during the times when others would shrink. And you have always given so much of yourself without expecting anything in return. Because of your example, I constantly strive to be the type of leader that everyone, whether in a medical setting or out in the community, looks up to.

I know as part of your job as an EM physician, people are always asking things from you, but don’t say “thank you” nearly as much as they should. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you for all you do for your hospital, for the school, for your family, and for me. We’re all so incredibly lucky to have you in our lives. You’re a great physician Dr. McCarthy, but even more important than that, you’re a great man. You have changed the lives of so many people in your long, long, long career (sorry I had to throw in one old age joke). But I do honestly hope one day I can have half as great an impact as you have.

Thanks again Dr. McCarthy and you’re the man!

Sincerely,

Brandon Mallory

Dear Dr. McCarthy,

As I have started approaching the half-way mark through my four years of medical school, I have been reflecting on my journey to this point and all the people who have helped me get here. It has been a long road, with many side streets and unexpected detours, and just as many kind and caring people who have help direct me back to the main route. I couldn’t help but think about the positive impact you have made on the way, and I wanted to thank you for that.

The two years I spent as a scribe in the THFW Emergency Department have probably had the most formative effect on my medical career thus far. I was able to learn more about medicine than I thought was possible without formal training, and my experiences there have forever shaped my idea of what it means to be a physician.

Working with you, I feel that I have truly understood what it means to treat everybody with kindness and a gentle, healing touch. I have countless moments catalogued in my memory of your ability to walk into any room and make the patient feel understood and cared for, regardless of their background. I remember one patient in particular who was a “frequent flier”, lived in a group home, and usually brought his baby dolls into the ED with him at least once a week. At this visit, his dolls were missing and you, genuinely concerned, asked him where they were. He told you that somebody at his group home had stolen them from him, and I was honestly surprised how upset you were about this injustice, where most people would have just written it off. I saw him with you multiple times over the two years I was a scribe, and you never treated him differently than any other patient.

I will also never forget about my experience with you as one of my interviewers at TCU and UNTHSC. It was a nice break from the rest of the MMIs since you already knew me, and we just chatted about one of the books you had recommended to me. At the end of this (very casual) interview, you told me that you were obligated to write a note on my score sheet that we knew each other personally and there could be a conflict of interest. “But,” you said very happily, “I’m going to say there is a congruence of interest, since I think you would be a perfect fit for this school.”

Needless to say, I feel that you have made a huge impact on both my personal endeavors in medical school, and my idea of who I want to be as a doctor in the future. I hope that my future patients will see a piece of the physician that you are in me, and I can’t thank you enough for that.

Sincerely,

Quinn Losefsky