Program History
Joint venture with the School of Medicine
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 would receive both MD and MBA degrees within the four years of medical school. This was the second program of this kind in the country.
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 to offer the MD/MBA program.
Enrollment in the program was limited to 8 students per year. In 2007, due to increased flexibility in course schedules, MD students will be able to complete the MBA degree in two years instead of four. This has resulted in enrollment of MDs in the program to have no limit. The expected MD/MBA class in 2008 is 12 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. This change took place as the Center gained a new director Dr. Eric Ford.
Recent Developments
Over the last year, 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 presented to Dr. Whitehead and named in his honor as “The Professor Carlton J. and Nell B. Whitehead Award for Leadership Excellence in Health Organization Management” and was presented to Dr. Whitehead.
Course content is changing to more closely match the industry’s needs, as well as increasing the flexibility of class schedules 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 that is highly integrated with all of the Areas within the Rawls College of Business. This change in the structure of the HOM Program allows it to achieve more autonomy and flexibility as the program grows in both faculty size and student numbers.