January 2005
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Doctor-lawyer degree program available |
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Medina awarded Komen Foundation's top honor |
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BCM, Ben Taub celebrate 40-year partnership |
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BCM-affiliated high schools earn 'exemplary' rating |
Doctor-lawyer degree program available
Advanced degree seekers deciding between medicine and law can now experience the best of both worlds for the first time in the Southwest. Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Houston Law Center will offer an MD/JD dual degree in the fall of 2005.
"Medicine and law have been connected ever since human societies have originated as hunters and gatherers, so there is a natural affiliation between the two," said Victor R. Scarano, MD, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at BCM. "Both BCM and the University of Houston are responding to today's increasingly complex health care environment and societal need for interdisciplinary physicians who can navigate the relationship between medicine and law."
BCM and UHLC are the first institutions west of the Mississippi River to provide such a joint degree program.
"The JD/MD concurrent program shows that the UH Law Center is indisputably committed to maintaining the best and most innovative health law program in the country," said Seth J. Chandler, vice dean and co-director of the Health Law & Policy Institute at the University of Houston's Law Center.
In the six-year program, students would spend the first two years at Baylor, the next two at UH and the final two at both schools. Applicants must take both the MCAT and LSAT exams and be accepted to both schools for admission into the joint program. Wayne J. Riley, MD, MBA, vice president and vice dean of health affairs and governmental relations at BCM, estimates that between two and six students will be admitted in the first year.
Medina awarded Komen Foundation's top honor
Daniel Medina, PhD, a professor of molecular and cellular biology at Baylor College of Medicine, has been awarded the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Brinker Award for Scientific Distinction.
The award was established by the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation in 1992 to recognize leading scientists whose work significantly advances breast cancer research and clinical applications in research, screening and treatment of the disease. It is the foundation's most prestigious award.
Medina was recognized for advancements in basic research. His research focuses on pre-malignant disease of the breast and the essential biological and molecular changes that cause normal mammary cells to progress to pre-malignant and invasive cancer cells. Understanding the changes normal cells undergo on their way to becoming cancerous is critical to the development of ways to stop cancer before it spreads. Medina has authored more than 260 articles and chapters on the subject.
BCM, Ben Taub celebrate 40-year partnership
Baylor College of Medicine and Ben Taub General Hospital celebrated a 40-year partnership at a recent dedication to the hospital's new emergency center construction and renovation. Michael E. DeBakey, MD, chancellor emeritus at BCM; H. Ben Taub, great nephew of longtime indigent healthcare advocate Ben Taub; state Senator Jon Lindsay; and Harris County Commissioner El Franco Lee were guests at the dedication. It was the combined efforts of Taub and DeBakey that launched the unwavering partnership between BTGH and BCM. Both Lindsay and Lee were instrumental figures in the construction of a new Ben Taub Hospital in 1989.
The $2.5 million emergency center expansion will help staff accommodate the 108,000 emergency cases that visit the hospital annually, and add 4,200 square feet of new space and 10,370 square feet of renovated space to the emergency center.
BCM-affiliated high schools earn 'exemplary' rating
Two high schools affiliated with Baylor College of Medicine recently received an "Exemplary" rating from the Texas Education Agency -- two of the only 15 four-year high schools in Texas so honored.
The Michael E. DeBakey High School for Health Professions was the only high school in Houston to earn this level of distinction. The Science Academy of South Texas also earned Exemplary status. The criteria for the rankings include graduation rates, student retention, and achievement on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills exam.
"This is an outstanding achievement, especially since the rating criteria was significantly more rigorous this year," said Bill Thomson, PhD, professor and director of the Center for Educational Outreach at Baylor.
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