Confianza: Hispanic-Oriented Medicine Enrichment
Confianza: Hispanic-Oriented Medicine Enrichment at Texas Tech University Health Sciences
Center - Permian Basin is a federally designated Health Resources and Services Administration
funded Hispanic Center of Excellence created to:
- address the physician shortage in one of the most rural areas of the nation.
- recruit, train, and retain underrepresented in medicine (URM) students from the target area to become family medicine providers
- generate culturally mindful health care providers to cater to the underserved population of rural West Texas.
The Hispanic Center of Excellence (HCOE) aims to recruit and train URM students from the target area to become new family medicine providers in the region and/or retain them as Permian Basin (TTUHSC-PB) faculty to keep the cycle of creating the next generation of health care providers catering to the rural residents of West Texas. It builds on a decade of rural primary care and health care disparities work, including physician shortages, of West Texas and Southeast New Mexico.
Altogether - HCOE provides a pathway for classroom, clinical, community and cultural experiences through the network and strategic support partners of TTUHSC-PB. This unique blend of immersion experience includes work at rural sites (FQHC, Critical Access Hospitals); a heightened awareness of, and first-class training in, health care disparities, social determinants of health, and culturally sensitive health care; mentoring by Hispanic business and community leaders; leadership training; quality improvement; and cultural activities.
Project Goals:
- Recruit, train, and retain URM learners as rural and/or faculty primary care physicians.
- Create a continuous cycle of URM learner and faculty immersion in didactic and community-based clinical and research experiences.
- Research, develop and disseminate critical outcomes advancing URM health care-related issues.
Work Plan: the HCOE will
- identify middle school, high school, and college students from the Permian Basin for career mentoring in health care. This includes mentoring opportunities with HCOE faculty and semi-annual career fairs as well as shadowing opportunities.
- recruit URM pre-medical senior-level college students each year to participate in the Family Medicine Accelerated Track – Permian Basin (FMAT-PB) at TTUHSC-PB. This unique pipeline program shortens medical school by one year and reduces medical expenses by about 50%,
- ensure/facilitate matriculation into the Permian Basin Family Medicine residency program, including rural track sites.
- provide URM Family Medicine Residents upon graduation the opportunity to join the TTUHSC-PB faculty or start private practice at one of the regional rural sites.
The work plan outlined above, by intentional design, methodically and repetitively stimulates a social movement centered on scholarly targets and outputs by students, residents, and faculty. The makeup brings together participant students/learners at the college, medical school, and residency levels into a “hub” with a large array of community and university affiliates. The hub’s annual reiteration of quality improvement steps, building on successive years of work and starting prior to medical student arrival in grant year two, layered in a health advocacy model while the learners actively participate in pre-planned focus group discussions with COE faculty and community-based clinical experiential leaders, will stimulate a host of ideas for research. Successful progression through the planned HCOE activities on the path to creating the next generation of culturally competent primary care physicians badly needed to take care of the healthcare need in the region.
Interested in medical school?
Check out our Family Medicine Accelerated Medical Program
Our Family Medicine Accelerated Track (FMAT) is an innovative 3-year accelerated medical
school curriculum that culminates into an M.D. degree and leads to a standard 3-year
family medicine residency in Lubbock, Amarillo or the Permian Basin. Learn More
Patient-centered Health Care
Check out our Family Medicine Residency Program
Imagine a residency program that not only teaches patient-centered health care but
does it in a fun and relaxed environment. Here at Texas Tech University Health Sciences
Center of the Permian Basin, we practice what we teach. Learn More
Acknowledgment
This project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of an award totaling $3,429,99 with 0% financed with non-governmental sources. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by HRSA, HHS, or the U.S. Government. For more information, please visit HRSA.gov
Timothy Benton, MD - Principal Investigator
Adrian Billings, MD, PhD - Co-Principal Investigator
Vani Selvan, MD
Lilianna Andrade, MD
Martin Ortega, MD
Amanda Florez - Finance/Budget Manager
Rebecca Brandenburg - Student/Resident Coordinator
Margaret Robles - Community Relations Coordinator
Dijo John - Faculty Development Coordinator
Gladys Olivas - Faculty Coordinator
Got Questions?
If you are interested in participating in, or would like more information about this project, please contact us.