Burn Fellowship Facilities
ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURE & TEACHING FACILITIES
Administrative Structure
This fellowship is approved by the Graduate Medical Education Committee at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, Texas and the Texas Medical Board. The fellowship is under the umbrella of Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and run within the Department of Surgery, Divisions of Burn and Wound. All major changes to the fellowship are made by the program director in consultation and cooperation with the Associate Dean for Medical Education and the Graduate Medical Education Committee of Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.
Clinical Training
All clinical training will be conducted at two facilities.
The Timothy J. Harnar Burn Center at University Medical Center in Lubbock, Texas
The burn center was established in 1983 and has been a American Burn Association certified
burn center continually from 1992 to present. The burn center last underwent a successful
site visit for verification in 2024 and one of very few to be continually certified
for over three decades. The burn unit is a dedicated 14-bed unit with free standing
staffing and nursing oversight combined with the trauma/surgical care intensive care
unit. The unit has an internal facility for wound care including the capacity for
two tanking rooms, capabilities for very advanced intensive care management and a
dedicated area for physical and occupational therapy. In addition, the burn and wound
service has access to the whole hospital for admissions and postoperative care for
the less severely compromised patients.
The burn and wound service, on a day-to-day basis, run by an attending with expertise in this area, a first- and second-year surgery resident and two nurse practitioners with access to all support staff as needed. Residents from the orthopedic surgery and physical medicine and rehabilitation training programs rotate through as well. The service admits and sees close to 900 total burn and wound inpatients per year.
The burn and wound service runs a very active outpatient clinic with 2,200 to 2,600 contacts per year. The clinic is in the Medical Office Plaza building connected to the University Medical Center in an area adjacent to the physical and occupational outpatient therapy clinic.
The University Medical Center Health and Wellness Hospital
The University Medical Center Health and Wellness Hospital is a largely ambulatory
operative experience which houses our extensive fractional CO2 laser reconstruction
program as well as our elective surgeries. The hospital was established in 2023 and
provides patients with ambulatory care and trainees an opportunity to manage the outpatient
aspects of burn and wound surgery.
Research
In addition to the clinical areas, the Division of Burn runs a very active bench research located within the Department of Surgery in cooperation with the Department of Microbiology. Main research interests are understanding and advanced treatment of pseudomonas infections and trying to define and control biofilms in burns and chronic wounds.
In recent years we have had the addition of significant strides in modern technologies in the burn surgery space (machine learning, image processing, and other predictive modeling), innovation, and entrepreneurship, receiving NSF, regional, and local grants over six figures. Aside from emergent technologies, there are joint efforts to study the built environment, which is especially important in the care of burn surgeons. This is bolstered by select faculty who have training and industry experience in architecture. Collaboration is encouraged and has included Architecture, and the Industrial, mechanical, and computer engineering departments.