San Antonio (Jan. 6, 2004) – Harold L. Timboe, M.D., M.P.H., assistant vice president for research administration and initiatives at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and former commander of Brooke Army Medical Center and Walter Reed Army Medical Center, soon may head a volunteer delegation of health providers assisting victims of the tsunami disaster, the Health Science Center announced today.
Dr. Timboe is expected to be designated as leader of the volunteer health services effort aboard the USNS Mercy, a U.S. Navy hospital ship that is en route to the region. The Mercy carries a basic complement of personnel to run the ship, and is able to accommodate many tertiary-care medical personnel including neurosurgeons, heart surgeons, nurses, X-ray technicians, pathologists, physical therapists, mental health physicians and others.
Francisco G. Cigarroa, M.D., president of the Health Science Center, said: “The leadership skills Dr. Timboe gained in his military and medical career make him uniquely qualified for this critically important role. This is another example of the important partnership between military medicine and the Health Science Center.”
The Navy is considering a collaboration with Project HOPE, a Virginia-based international group headed by former Health Science Center President John P. Howe III, M.D., to assemble volunteers to provide health care aboard the Mercy. The ship is expected to take two to three weeks to arrive at the tsunami disaster zone with a stop in Singapore to pick up Project HOPE volunteers, Dr. Timboe said.
Dr. Timboe, a family physician, was commanding general at Walter Reed at the time of the September 11 attack on the Pentagon, where he coordinated the rescue effort. He joined the Health Science Center executive leadership in 2002. He is a 1978 alumnus of the Health Science Center School of Medicine and was named Distinguished Alumnus of the school in 1999.