Med school can infuse El Paso with new doctors, research
By Stephanie Sanchez / El Paso Times
Article Launched: 02/12/2008 12:00:00 AM MST
Dr. German Hernandez and fourth-year medical student Celina Beltran examined patient Blanca Valadez on Friday at Thomason Hospital. El Paso's new four-year medical school opens up research possibilities and a chance to lure more doctors to the city. (Photos by Victor Calzada / El Paso Times)
Fourth-year medical student Rianne Page, second from right, asked a question of Dr. Mateo Pores-Aguilar, left, Friday at Thomason Hospital's oncology department. Dr. Oscar Lopez, right, and third-year medical student Chris Nadorff looked on. As an 80-year-old Hispanic man, Aramis Ayala is suffering from several diseases commonly seen along the border -- diabetes, Parkinson's disease and diabetic neuropathy.
He is among an estimated 85,000 El Pasoans living with Type 2 diabetes. In his lifetime he has seen growth in El Paso and many medical advances.
Although he knows a cure may not come in time for him, research that will be conducted at El Paso's new medical school will help future generations.
"The more places there are, the better," he said. The medical school "will help a lot of people."
Beginning in the fall of 2009 -- when the first class of 40 four-year medical students enters the school -- the newly accredited Paul L. Foster School of Medicine has an opportunity to contribute to research and health care issues at a national and international level, health officials say.
Research conducted locally may be able to help people such as Ayala.
"Hispanics are the largest minority group in the United States, however, they remain understudied," said Dr. German Hernandez, an assistant professor at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine. "If you look at large national studies, for the most part Hispanics tend to be under-represented -- even though they are the largest minority group."
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center officials last week learned they received accreditation as a four-year medical school from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, a national accrediting agency.
Texas Tech first opened its El Paso medical school branch for third- and fourth-year medical students in 1973.
In 2003, lawmakers provided money to expand the school. In 2007, $48 million was given to school officials to complete the school's curriculum and a site review by the accrediting body.
Hernandez, who works for the division of nephrology and hypertension, said because of the school's proximity to the border and predominant Hispanic population, faculty, staff and students have an opportunity to contribute to the advancement of Hispanic health research.
Dr. Manuel de la Rosa, the school's founding dean, said because diabetes affects a quarter of the local population, research on the disease will be on the school's forefront.
Environmental research, such as air and water pollution, will also be an area of focus, he said. Environmental factors, he said, can impact people's health by contributing to asthma and other health-related issues.
Research focusing on the environment, prevalent diseases, and new and emerging diseases on the border will make the medical school a prime border school, de la Rosa said.
Targeting students from the area is also a goal, he said. "We're depending on it."
Celina Beltran, a fourth-year medical student at the school and an El Paso native, said the accredited four-year school would have been ideal for her four years ago.
Leaving El Paso to get an undergraduate degree at the University of Texas at Austin, Beltran ended up returning to El Paso to get her master's degree at the University of Texas School of Public Health El Paso Regional Campus.
However, after she finished her master's degree, she said, becoming involved with border health issues and helping people in her hometown as a doctor was a priority.
She applied for medical school at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. She completed her first two years in Lubbock and moved back -- for the second time -- to do her third and fourth year at the El Paso school.
"The treatment of the patients here is multifactorial. It is not only the diagnosing and treating the patient's ailments, but it is also dealing with a lot of socioeconomic issues that a lot of the patients here in El Paso have to deal with," she said. "I think primary care doctors are really needed here in the El Paso area.
Hernandez said the number of doctors in the area is not enough to serve the population effectively.
"We don't have enough physicians," he said, adding that the recruitment of El Paso students could increase this ratio. "Those students are more likely to remain here."
Dr. Theresa Byrd, an associate professor at the University of Texas School of Public Health El Paso Regional Campus, said having El Paso students in the medical school's first class would be a great start, but the school is probably going to have to recruit students statewide to fill the class.
Under state statute, 90 percent of the medical school's class must be in-state students.
"I think Texas Tech would greatly benefit the community," Byrd said.
Byrd, who is the lead investigator on the AMIGAS project that focuses on cervical cancer among Hispanic women in El Paso, said the school's research will add a clinical aspect to research already done in the area.
Besides professional research done by schools locally, the Paso del Norte Health Foundation and the Pan American Health Organization are two additional research centers that focus on border health issues.
Ida Ortegon, a Paso del Norte Health Foundation spokesperson, said the center is "excited" about collaborating with the school.
There have been discussions about developing a partnership between the foundation and the school, but nothing is set in stone, she said.
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Tuesday, February 12, 2008
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