MCALLEN, Texas - DHR Health and the University of Houston plan to develop a a regional campus for UH’s Tilman J. Fertitta College of Medicine on DHR land in north McAllen.
This was confirmed by Jonathan A. McCullers, UH vice president of health affairs and dean of the Fertitta College of Medicine, at a press conference held to announce a new Medical Research and Education Center at DHR.
It was also confirmed by Dr. Manish Singh, CEO of DHR Health, in an interview with the Rio Grande Guardian and Legislative Media Services.
“Right here and over the next few years, we will hire more and more faculty, and we will develop this into a regional campus of the Fertitta College of Medicine,” McCullers said, from the podium. “The vision is, one day, students will be able to come down, get their first two years in Houston, and then get the rest of their clinical training right here at DHR.
“And this (the Medical Research and Education Center) is really the first big step towards that, somewhere where we can base our faculty, somewhere we can grow and eventually have a regional dean, a regional campus, and have students who are here year round for the clinical rotations.”
In his interview with the Guardian and LMS, Singh concurred.
“This is just the beginning. This building – the $15 million – is just the beginning. You will soon see this is going to be the research hub,” Singh said.
“In the future, what we are planning to do is we are going to expand this place – actually that land (on the McAllen DHR Health South Campus) – probably for a regional campus, for a medical school, other than what we have with UTRGV here, so more (local students) can stay home, go to medical school here, stay here and practice. It will be a regional campus of the University of Houston, that is the plan, that is the vision.
In his remarks from the podium, McCullers pointed out that he is a recently new arrival at UH. He has been there 20 months.
“Why did I come to the University of Houston and the College of Medicine? Two things. The first was, this is a new College of Medicine. It was only established six years ago. And so, it's an opportunity to build, to grow, to do big, visionary things like this that aren't really possible at the older established medical schools. This is an opportunity to shape something that really is going to address the real problems that we face in medical education.”
The second reason, McCullers said, was the attraction of joining a very community-facing medical school.
“We try to teach our students to care about the underserved, to serve the underserved. We teach them value-based care, which is the highest quality care at the lowest price, and we teach them about the non-medical drivers of care, those things that prevent us from being able to deliver health care the way we want to do it.”
McCullers said there are two things to know about the Fertitta College of Medicine. “One, it's new. We're about to graduate our third class. The second thing to know about us is we're very focused on primary care, and particularly that mission for the underserved. Primary care is the way to go. We have a shortage of primary care physicians in Texas already, and I'll give you one statistic: 25% of all primary care physicians in the state of Texas are at or beyond retirement age. So, we have a cliff coming in our primary care.”
McCullers said that soon after getting to Houston he started to focus on the Valley.
“I heard about this place down in the Rio Grande Valley, Doctor's Hospital at Renaissance. What did I know about the RGV? I came from Tennessee, so I knew nothing about it. What did I know about DHR? I didn't know anything. But I said, it makes all the sense in the world for us to have a relationship. We talk about wanting to produce primary care physicians. Primary care physicians tend to go back and practice where they're from, so we would like to be in the Valley, working with DHR, training physicians who might then stay.”
McCullers encouraged those in the audience to start thinking about the pipeline that is being developed.
“You might be able to develop students from the RGV, coming to the University of Houston for their undergraduate training in the pre-professional programs, in our pre-nursing program and our pre-pharmacy program, pre-medicine, and then matriculating into our professional colleges. So, moving into the College of Medicine, and then wouldn’t it be amazing if, while they're at the College of Medicine, they can train down in the Valley and learn right there? And so, the opportunity to partner with a health system in the RGV seems like a perfect marriage.”
McCullers said he came to the Valley during his first month at UH. Dr. Singh gave him a tour of DHR’s facilities, he said.
“I was blown away. I had no idea that this was down here. It was so exciting to see it myself.”
There was applause from those in the audience when McCullers addressed a group of high school students.
“Wouldn't it be great to have these high school students here (at the Medical Research and Education Center)? Maybe some of you guys come to the pre-professional program, go to the College of Medicine, train back down here, do your residency here at DHR, and then stay in practice afterwards. That's what we're looking for right now.”
Dr. Scott Lillibridge, CEO of the DHR Health Institute for Research and Development, also spoke at the press conference. He said there is no reason DHR should not emulate the success of the world-famous Mayo Clinic.
“Let me tell you, we're here to make history today,” Lillibridge said. “Let me put this in perspective and show you how far we've come in such a short time, and why it's important. A really important clinic, the Mayo Clinic, started 160 years ago. Let me tell you about their progress versus ours. In 1864 they opened a clinic, and they began working. It went on for 60 years with partnerships with hospitals and clinics before they had their own facility. It wasn't until 1914, at that point in time, they turned the corner. They got an academic orientation, started a medical school, promoted research, and they never looked back. By 1952 physicians from Mayo Clinic won the Nobel Prize. Over the next 60 years, they pioneered the EKG CAT scans. And at this point in time, Mayo Clinic is frequently cited as the top medical institution among the worldwide institutions in North America, Europe and the Middle East.”
Lillibridge then turned his attention to DHR.
“So where do we stand? In a little over 20 years - only 20 years - we've moved from a surgery center into an integrated, comprehensive hospital system with 60 to 70 specialties and subspecialties. We have a group of research physicians that are working in league with both academia and industry, and we are positioned now at the starting point, 20 years later, as the largest independent educational graduate medical education and research enterprise in South Texas.”
But there is more, Lillibridge said.
‘We have now 15 residencies and fellowships and a strong affiliation with the University of Houston, which we're quite proud of. Starting with research: about ten or 15 years ago, we had two or three independent operators, a few small clinical trials, and we have just completed our 300th clinical trial.”
By way of example, Lillibridge said companies like Genentech, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, are on campus every day looking at DHR’s research patients. He said this is helping bring new medications, medical devices, and therapies to the Valley.”
Lillibridge said he is incredibly impressed with UH. He said they were “just the right partner” for DHR.
“The University of Houston is another organization on the move, moving fast with strengths in law, engineering, health and education. These are the cardinal things that we need to develop an economy, coupled with our clinical acumen and our skills and our clinical capacity. We are really poised to build an engine for future progress in South Texas. This will enable us to address the epidemic of chronic disease, pioneer new medications and develop new life saving medical devices. This building will supercharge this effort for our future in South Texas. So, who knows, in maybe 20 more years, maybe we'll get our own Nobel Prize here.”
Editor's Note: Rio Grande Guardian reporter Patricia Martinez contributed to this story from McAllen, Texas.
