Background and History

You are currently viewing the 2016–17 PLFSOM school catalog.

TTUHSC El Paso has played a vital role in El Paso’s health care history for over three decades. During that time it has been the academic home to many outstanding medical students, resident physicians, and faculty. The school opened its doors officially in 1973, as the Regional Academic Center in El Paso, providing clinical training to Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center medical students through a teaching affiliation with R.E. Thomason Hospital. In 2001 the El Paso campus received legislative authorization to establish a full four-year medical school and in 2003 and 2005 ground was broken for the construction of state-of–the-art research facilities and a medical education building. In February 2008, the school, now known as the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine, succeeded in being awarded preliminary accreditation by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) signifying that its educational programs fully meet the high standards required for admitting its first class of students. That class was seated in July 2009.

Today the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso Paul L. Foster School of Medicine has close to 1000 faculty and staff and is a flourishing health sciences and medical center. Clinical training sites are provided by University Medical Center (formerly R.E. Thomason Hospital), William Beaumont Army Medical Center, Providence Hospital, and the El Paso Psychiatric Center. Ambulatory experiences are available in affiliated clinics throughout the greater El Paso area, including facilities located in areas that have previously been underserved and lacking in adequate health care resources. The Paul L. Foster School of Medicine is committed to providing its students a first rate, clinically based, educational experience that is firmly grounded in the basic sciences and clinical skills that will prepare the new graduate for entry into any medical specialty of his or her choosing. A further goal of the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine is to inculcate the values and attitudes of caring and compassion for the well-being of patients and their families with a special emphasis on the unique health care needs of the U.S.-Mexico border.

In addition to the four-year curriculum leading to the M.D. degree, the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine provides extensive graduate medical education opportunities in a variety of residency programs including internal medicine, surgery, family medicine, pediatrics, emergency medicine, psychiatry, obstetrics and gynecology, and radiology. These programs, like the newly accredited medical school, all meet the exacting standards of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. Students who come to the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine can be assured of training in an environment that will enable them to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to provide the citizens of Texas and the nation with the highest quality of health care.