Contact: Melissa Segrest, (512) 499-4363

Date: October 20, 2004

UT System News Media Advisory

UT System Hosts Medical Education Conference

AUSTIN -- Medical educators from The University of Texas System's six health institutions, as well as state and national health educators, will meet Thursday and Friday, Oct. 21 and 22, in Austin for a conference to discuss innovations in medical education. The conference will take place at the Commons Center on UT Austin's J. J. Pickle Research Campus (10100 Burnet Road, Austin).

The focus of the conference is on undergraduate medical education, and topics to be discussed include curriculum development, cross-disciplinary education, bringing humanism into the health curriculum, faculty development and improving technologies.

"The conference will allow us to share information about major initiatives in medical education that are intended to enhance the next generation of doctors and health care providers in order to improve the health of our population," said conference chair Dr. L. Maximilian Buja, executive vice president for academic affairs at UT Health Science Center-Houston.

"These initiatives being implemented in our UT medical schools include a movement from knowledge-based education to knowledge- plus competency-based education with an emphasis on training in clinical skills and evidence-based medicine," Buja said. "The goal is to produce doctors committed to life-long learning and life-long honing of clinical skills."

The conference, sponsored by UT System, will include a discussion of the evolution of medical education by Dr. Michael E. Whitcomb, senior vice president of the Division of Medical Education with the Association of American Medical Colleges.

The UT health institutions include UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, UT Medical Branch in Galveston, UT Health Science Center-Houston, UT Health Science Center-San Antonio, UT M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and UT Health Center-Tyler.

In addition to its six health institutions, the UT System has nine academic campuses and an annual operating budget of $8.5 billion (FY 2005). Student enrollment is projected to exceed 185,000 students in the 2004 academic year. The UT System confers one-third of the state’s undergraduate degrees and educates three-fourths of the state’s health care professionals annually. With more than 87,000 employees, the UT System is one of the largest employers in the state.