UH College of Medicine will focus on primary care

Dr. Spann

University of Houston is opening new a medical school next year.



Is there a need for a medical school in Houston? How is this medical school different from others? Will it have any impact on healthcare locally or statewide?



Stephen J. Spann, M.D., M.B.A., Founding Dean of the University of Houston’s College of Medicine answered these questions and made a strong case for the new medical school during an open house hosted by India House in Houston on Oct. 16.



The medical school will focus on producing more primary care physicians. The first contingent of medical students will begin their course in August 2020. The inaugural class will have 30 students. An anonymous local donor has already given UH $3 million to cover the full tuition for the medical school’s inaugural class of students.



Texas has a low physician-to-population ratio compared to other states: 41st in active patient care physicians-to-population and 47th in active primary care physicians-to-population, according to Spann.



Today, Texas has 71 physicians per 100,000 people – which ranks us an alarming 47th out of 50 states.



Strong primary care improves health outcomes and decreases health care costs, he added.



“Our distinctive focus on preparing primary care doctors with a better understanding of community health disparities will differentiate us from all other medical schools in Texas and from most institutions across the United States,” Spann said.



The last medical school in Houston was established 47 years ago by the University of Texas Health Science Center in 1972 when the greater Houston population was 2.2 million.



In 2016, when the new medical school was proposed the population tripled to 6.5 million.



The College of Medicine grew out of the University of Houston’s desire to play a greater role in improving the overall health and health care resources of this city and this state.



“We intend to accomplish this bold undertaking by establishing a medical school that will produce a diverse group of graduates with a deep understanding of the social determinants of health and a commitment to providing compassionate, high value care to underserved populations,” Spann said.



The College of Medicine mission statement says “The University of Houston College of Medicine is accountable to society for improving the overall health and healthcare of the population of Greater Houston, Texas and beyond.”



It will be accomplished by “educating a diverse group of physicians who will provide compassionate, high value care to patients, families and communities, with a focus on primary care and other needed physician specialties; Conducting interdisciplinary research to find innovative solutions to problems in health and healthcare; Providing integrated, evidence-based, high value care delivered to patients by inter-professional teams, and Engaging, collaborating with, and empowering underserved patient populations and community partners to improve their health and healthcare.”



Spann said the college’s goal is to ensure at least 50% of graduates chose Primary Care Specialties and the admission process would favor applicants with characteristics predictive of primary care specialty choice. The curriculum will have deep exposure to primary care. More significantly, the college offers scholarships and loan programs to decrease the debt of graduates at the end of the course.



The university is not planning a teaching hospital of its own to cater to the medical college. The graduates will have the benefit of in-hospital teaching and training with HCA Houston hospital system, which has hospitals and clinics in Webster, Pasadena, Cypress, Kingwood and West Houston. These hospitals will also provide residency slot for the graduates.



If more primary care physicians provide services to the local underserved communities, it will result in overall improvement in health care in the greater Houston area, according to Spann.



When medical graduates get their education and residency in Houston, their chances of staying and practicing medicine in the Houston area is very high.



Research by the Association of American Medical Colleges has found that 68 percent of all medical residents stay in the communities where they complete their graduate medical education. The program aims to have 389 resident positions by 2025. That means that Houston and the state of Texas can expect lot of new medical doctors.



The college will be built on a 43-acre tract of undeveloped land on campus, along Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. across from MacGregor Park.



The university provides direct patient care in a clinic which opened in the main campus in April of this year. Currently, the clinic provides pediatric care, adult medicine, women’s health, behavioral health and psychiatry. The university is not planning a teaching hospital of its own to cater to the medical college. The graduates will have the benefit of in-hospital teaching and training with HCA Houston hospital system, which has hospitals and clinics in Webster, Pasadena, Cypress, Kingwood and West Houston. These hospitals will also provide residency slots for the graduates.







