university of north texas health science center university of north texas health science center the university of north texas health science center (unthsc, unt health science center, or hsc) is a public academic health science center in fort worth, texas. it is part of the university of north texas system and was founded in 1966 as the texas college of osteopathic medicine, with its first cohort admitted in 1970. unt health science center consists of five graduate schools with a total enrollment of 2,329 students (2020–21). university of north texas health science centertypepublic medical schoolestablished1970parent institutionuniversity of north texas systemaccreditationsacsendowment$217.8 million (2020)budget$266.2 million (2021-22) presidentmichael r. williamsacademic staff284 faculty, 46 adjunctstudents2,329locationfort worth, texas, texas, u.s.32°44′55″n 97°22′10″wcampusurban, 33.5 acres (13.6 ha)websitewww.unthsc.edu unt health science center serves as home to several nih-funded research programs and currently leads all texas medical and health science centers in research growth. the health science center also houses laboratories for tech fort worth, a non-profit biochemistry incubator, as well as the atrium gallery, a non-profit public art exhibition space which holds 8-10 arts shows each year. history unt health science center was initially founded in 1970 as the texas college of osteopathic medicine (tcom). tcom was the first osteopathic medical school in texas and remained the only one in the state until 2015, when the university of the incarnate word school of osteopathic medicine was established. the college opened as a private, non-profit school for osteopathic medicine and housed on the fifth floor of the fort worth osteopathic hospital. as enrollment increased, the school's need for additional space became evident. in 1971, tcom students secured ownership of taverner bowling alley, located next door to the osteopathic hospital, and made appropriate renovations, renaming the structure the "basic science building." this building housed classrooms, basic science laboratories, and administrative offices for the medical school until demolition in 1975. in 1975, the college became a part of north texas state university, after the texas legislature overwhelmingly passed senate bill 216, making tcom a state medical school. tcom was the second public university-affiliated osteopathic medical school to be established. with university-appropriated funding, the school broke ground on several of the original buildings which now comprise the 33-acre campus. in 1990, tcom opened the dna identity laboratory, with the responsibility of assisting the state of texas in evaluating paternity cases. in 1993, the graduate school of biomedical sciences opened, and tcom was renamed the university of north texas health science center. in 1997, the unt school of health professions opened a physician assistant program. in 1999, the school of public health opened. in 2008, unthsc opened the tech fort worth acceleration lab. in 2009, the unthsc opened a doctor of physical therapy (dpt) and phd in public health studies degree program's. in 2011, the texas legislature authorized the establishment of a college of pharmacy at unthsc. as the first pharmacy school in north texas, the college matriculated its inaugural class of doctor of pharmacy (pharmd) students in 2013. in 2013, unthsc began developing an inter-professional education (ipe) program, in participation with texas christian university (tcu). in 2014, texas woman's university joined the ipe partnership. in 2015, unthsc and tcu announced the creation of a joint md school, which began matriculating students in 2018. tcu maintained accreditation as the degree-granting institution, with faculty and staff employed by the university, while under joint operation and governance with unthsc on the university's campus. on january 12, 2022, tcu and unthsc announced the end of their joint partnership of tcu and unthsc school of medicine, with tcu solely responsible for the operation and governance of the renamed tcu school of medicine. in 2022, unt health science center's physician assistant, health care management, public health, and physical therapy programs were ranked #33, #65, #90, and #97, respectively, by u.s. news & world report. in its 2023 rankings, the publication also ranks texas college of osteopathic medicine the top osteopathic medical school in the country for primary care. community and school outreach programs include fort worth's annual hispanic wellness fair and the annual cowtown marathon. hsc launched fort worth's first mobile pediatric clinic in 2013 to deliver health care to children living in underserved parts of the city. in 2020, hsc fort worth helped lead the response to the covid-19 pandemic in north texas, opening two drive-through testing centers, assisting in contact tracing, educating the public with fact-based health and safety information and working to protect underserved and at-risk communities. academics collegeaccreditation school of biomedical sciences (sbs)southern association of colleges and schools texas college of osteopathic medicine (tcom)american osteopathic association's coca school of public healthcouncil on education for public health school of health professionsamerican physical therapy association unt system college of pharmacyaccreditation council for pharmacy education unt health science center is governed by the university of north texas board of regents. through its five degree-granting schools, the health science center offers doctorate-, masters- and bachelors-level programs focusing on healthcare delivery and biomedical science. in order to promote and encourage inter-professional learning, the health science center uses an interprofessional education (ipe) model that brings together students from its various colleges and schools. doctoral degrees offered include doctor of osteopathic medicine (do), doctor of philosophy (phd), doctor of public health (drph), doctor of physical therapy (dpt), and doctor of pharmacy (pharmd). master's degrees include master of science, master of health administration, and master of physician assistant studies. in 2021, sbs received preliminary accreditation from southern association of colleges and schools commission on colleges to offer an online bachelor's degree in biomedical sciences. the initial cohort started in fall 2022, and was the first undergraduate program at unt health science center. texas college of osteopathic medicine texas college of osteopathic medicine (tcom), the first degree-granting graduate school at unt health science center, was founded in 1970. it is a public medical school and the first osteopathic medical school in texas. as a primary care-oriented school, tcom trains and graduates a large number of u.s. medical students entering general practice fields (e.g. family medicine, internal medicine, or pediatrics), and from 2018 to 2020, fifty-two percent of its graduates matriculated into these fields. at $13,079 for texas residents, tcom boasted the lowest annual tuition cost during the 2021–22 school year relative to tuition fees at all other osteopathic medical schools in the united states. annual tuition was also the cheapest for in-state medical students in comparison to annual fees at the 15 other allopathic or osteopathic medical schools in texas. in september 2018, tcom was granted a 10-year accreditation with exceptional outcome, the highest level of accreditation given by the american osteopathic association's commission on osteopathic college accreditation (coca). four other colleges of osteopathic medicine have achieved the same accreditation level in the time since. medical curriculum tcom's medical curriculum consists of two years of pre-clinical studies and two years of clinical rotations. the first year consists of introductory basic science (e.g. anatomy, biochemistry, genetics, and immunology) integrated with physiologic processes structured by body system (cardiovascular, pulmonary, hematologic, musculoskeletal, renal, neurologic, and endocrine). during this time, students also learn physical examination, doctor-patient interactions, and the principles of osteopathic, palpatory diagnosis and manipulative therapy. after learning the physiologic foundations during the first year, the second-year curriculum shifts focus to disease processes and pathology, which are also organized by body system. tcom's systems-based, two-pass preclinical curriculum, piloted by bruce dubin, do, associate dean of academic affairs, has remained the same since conception in 2010 and is now widely replicated at sister osteopathic medical schools (e.g. rvucom, kcumb-com, etc.). after the first two years, medical students are assigned a third year base site for third year clinical rotations in family medicine, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, general surgery, psychiatry, and pediatrics. while most students elect to rotate through tcom's primary teaching hospitals in the dallas-fort worth metropolitan area, students may instead choose to relocate to corpus christi, longview, conroe, or weatherford, where they spend the year clerking at satellite teaching sites. comlex board scores tcom medical students achieved the highest exam score average, relative to students from all other u.s. osteopathic medical schools, on their comlex-usa ("comprehensive osteopathic medical licensing examination of the united states") level 1 exam in 2019, 2020, and 2022. level 1, the osteopathic counterpart to nbme's usmle step 1, is the first of three exams required for board certification of osteopathic physicians from u.s. medical schools granting the doctor of osteopathic medicine degree. annual tuition fees since 2020 have covered a 6-month subscription to usmle world ("uworld") and truelearn ("combank") test bank questions. primary teaching hospitals jps health network in fort worth – the primary teaching institution of texas college of osteopathic medicine (tcom). anchored by a 578-bed acute care hospital, the network includes more than 25 community-based clinics. john peter smith hospital is home to tarrant county's first and only level i trauma center and its only psychiatric emergency services site, which is also the second-busiest psychiatric er in the country. cook children's medical center in fort worth – the primary pediatric teaching institution for tcom, this hospital is licensed for 430 beds and is one of the largest freestanding pediatric medical centers in the u.s. the hospital also has an acs verified level ii pediatric trauma center. texas health resources (thr) harris methodist hospital in fort worth – awarded the highest advanced certification by the joint commission as a comprehensive stroke center, the 726-bed hospital is also the first in the country to earn the prestigious designation as a joint commission primary heart attack center. texas health resources is the largest faith-based, nonprofit health system in north texas in terms of inpatients and outpatients served. methodist dallas medical center in dallas – home to one of dallas county's 3 level 1 trauma centers and to a level iii neonatal intensive care unit (nicu), methodist dallas is licensed for 556 beds. awarded a gold seal of approval from the joint commission, the hospital serves more than 175,000 patients per year. driscoll children's hospital in corpus christi – driscoll children's hospital is a 191-bed pediatric tertiary care center with more than 30 medical and surgical specialties offering care throughout south texas, including corpus christi, the rio grande valley, victoria, and laredo. the hospital remains the only free-standing children's hospital in south texas. in 2020, driscoll had almost 122,000 patient visits, including almost 28,000 patients seen at south texas’ first emergency room created exclusively for children. medical city fort worth and medical city dallas – medical city fort worth and medical city dallas are 2 of 10 medical city healthcare hospitals to be recognized with an "a" leapfrog hospital safety grade in 2021. the former is licensed for 348 beds; the latter, 668 beds. part of the texas stroke institute's stroke care network, the hospitals are designated comprehensive stroke centers and joint commission-certified chest pain centers. satellite campuses medical city weatherford (weatherford, tx) christus spohn hospital corpus christi - shoreline and corpus christi medical center (corpus christi, tx) hca houston healthcare conroe (conroe, tx) christus good shepherd medical center - longview (longview, tx) affiliated foreign teaching hospitals daeyang luke hospital, malawi school of medicine, mae fah luang university, thailand institute of medicine, suranaree university of technology, thailand admissions the admissions process is streamlined through texas medical & dental schools application service (tmdsas), whereby applicants are ranked by schools at which they interview and then "matched" for final placement to a single texas medical school of their highest preference. thirteen other medical schools in texas participate in tmdsas, including ut southwestern medical school and baylor college of medicine. rome rural scholars program tcom's rural osteopathic medical education ("rome") rural scholars program is an innovative educational program designed to prepare medical students for clinical practice in the rural, underserved setting. in addition to completing regular courses in preclinical medicine during their first two years of school, rome scholars have additional course requirements pertinent to their curricular focus in rural or international medicine. core clinical rotations during third year are designed to provide focused training in the rural setting through assignments at designated rural-based training sites located throughout texas or at affiliated hospitals in malawi and thailand. dual degree programs tcom also offers the following dual degree programs: b.a./d.o., d.o./m.p.h., d.o./m.s., and d.o./ph.d. through the hsc scholars in cancer research program, do/phd students are