WHAT: “Medicine and Public Health: Can They Get Together?” — a lecture about two related, yet often disconnected, fields that affect human health
WHEN: 4 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 4
WHERE: UT Health Science Center San Antonio’s Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Campus, 7703 Floyd Curl Drive, San Antonio 78229, in Lecture Hall 3.104A (near the Briscoe Library)
WHO: Kenneth I. Shine, M.D., executive vice chancellor for health affairs of The University of Texas System, will present the lecture. Also available for interviews: Claudia Miller, M.D., M.S., professor of environmental and occupational medicine at the UT Health Science Center San Antonio
ISSUE: An historical disconnect exists between the fields of medicine and public health. Recently initiated M.D./M.P.H. programs, such as the 4-year-old program jointly offered by UT Health Science Center San Antonio School of Medicine and the UT Houston School of Public Health, address this gap and attempt to reunite the two fields. Nowhere is this more important than in South Texas and along the U.S.-Mexico border where the population is growing and needs are huge. Dr. Miller is the School of Medicine assistant dean for the M.D./M.P.H. program.
NOTES: One-on-one interviews will be available at a reception hosted by the M.D./M.P.H. program. Dr. Shine, former president of the Institute of Medicine, is nationally prominent on the topic of public health in medicine. Dr. Miller developed and supervises a program that educates medical professionals and students about border public health in Laredo and Harlingen. The program is called ‘STEER’ (for South Texas Environmental Education and Research program).
The M.D./M.P.H. program has exceeded 100 students in four years. It is the first and largest M.D./M.P.H. dual-degree program in the state of Texas and one of only a handful in the country.
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, one of the country’s leading health sciences universities, ranks in the top 3 percent of all institutions worldwide receiving National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding. Research and other sponsored program activity totaled a record $259 million in fiscal year 2009. The university’s schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, health professions and graduate biomedical sciences have produced approximately 26,000 graduates. The $739 million operating budget supports eight campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg. For more information on the many ways “We make lives better®,” visit www.uthscsa.edu.