Program History
Joint venture with the School of Medicine and the School of Pharmacy
The HOM Program created a joint venture between the School of Medicine at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and the Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech University. Students in this program receive both MD and MBA degrees within the four years of medical school.
The first graduating class of MD/MBA students completed the program in May 2001. At the time, TTUHSC School of Medicine was one of only two medical schools in the nation to offer a joint MD/MBA program.
The PharmD/MBA joint program began in May 2009. Students in this program complete both an MBA and a PharmD degree within the four years of pharmacy school. The inaugural class consists of 7 Texas Tech Pharmacy students.
Research Centers
In 1998, the Institute for Management and Leadership Research (later called Institute for Leadership Research) was handling such a tremendous volume of research that a proposal was approved to create a separate center. The new center would focus on healthcare matters and was named Center for Health Care Strategy. Dr. Blair and Dr. Savage served as directors of this center.
Due to the growing scope of research undertaken at the Center for Health Care Strategy, in 2005, the center was renamed Center for Healthcare Innovation, Education and Research (CHIER). In 2009, Dr. Timothy Huerta was named the Director of CHIER.
Recent Developments
The HOM Program has been making changes to maintain its competitive edge within the healthcare industry and the academic world.
Two awards have been established to recognize excellence in research and leadership in Health Organization Management, each with a $50,000 endowment. The first award, established in April, was named “The Professor John D. and Starr A. Blair Award in Health Organization Management Research.” This inaugural award was presented to Dr. Blair. The second award was established in October and was named “The Professor Carlton J. and Nell B. Whitehead Award for Leadership Excellence in Health Organization Management.” This inaugural award was presented to Dr. Whitehead.
Course content is changing to more closely match the industry’s needs. In addition, class schedules are becoming increasingly flexibile in order meet the needs of students. This includes more course content available on-line. These changes have allowed us to remove the previous cap on medical student enrollment. In the past, we have only accepted 8 MD/MBA students per year. This year, not only are we able to accept more MD/MBA students, but we have had the highest number of applicants totaling over 170 as of November.
Perhaps the largest change in the HOM Program is the move to a stand-alone program. The HOM program remains highly integrated with all of the Areas within the Rawls College of Business. However, this change in the structure allows the program to achieve more autonomy and flexibility as it grows in both faculty size and student numbers.