Open letter to TCOM alumni from TCOM alumni association president

the following letter by John Wright, DO

Let us be sure that those who come after will say of us in our time, that in our time we did everything that could be done. We finished the race; we kept them free; we kept the faith.   (Ronald Reagan)

Dear TCOM alumni:

As members of the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine (TCOM) Alumni Board, we feel it is very important that you receive further information about the proposed plan of the University of North Texas (UNT) Board of Regents to create an MD school through UNT, to be placed on the campus of the University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC) in Ft. Worth. If approved, this new MD school would share (state provided) resources with TCOM. 

Your Alumni Board has voted against organizing this plan.  We have also had a vote of "no confidence" for Scott Ransom, D.O., the president of the UNTHSC for leading the push towards achieving this goal.
The American Osteopathic Association (AOA) has stopped funding administrative revenues for the Osteopathic Research Center (ORC), and the AOA House of Delegates and the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians (ACOFP) Congress of Delegates have passed resolutions against the proposal. Texas Osteopathic Medical Association (TOMA) House of Delegates have also passed  a resolution against this proposal.


There have been two meetings of the UNT Board of Regents with the MD option listed as an agenda item. Limited opportunity for an open discussion forum about this proposal was provided during these meetings.

TOMA has partnered with the TCOM Alumni and the AOA and have formed a task force to have continuing debate, dissemination of information and plan further strategy to address the proposal. We have hired a consultant lobbyist, Gib Lewis (for whom the library on the UNTHSC campus is named). We have included attachments with this information.

Currently the UNT Board of Regents plans to go to the next Texas Legislative session starting in January, 2011 to try and change the current Texas law that states (the UNT) board (of Regents) may not award an M.D. Degree. This law is found in TEXAS
Sec. 105.401, and 105.402.  (see next...)
 SUBCHAPTER H. UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER AT FORT WORTH

Sec. 105.401.  UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER AT FORT WORTH.  The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth is a coeducational institution of higher education that consists of a college of osteopathic medicine and other programs as prescribed by the board in accordance with the rules of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

Added by Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 25, Sec. 1, eff. May 2, 2001.

Sec. 105.402.  PROHIBITED DEGREES.  The board may not award an M.D. degree.

Added by Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 25, Sec. 1, eff. May 2, 2001.

All projects under phase II of the UNT overall plan depend now upon having the Texas State Legislature remove this statute. This is why we as alumni need to unite to keep the statute intact. This statute protects the osteopathic profession in Texas for future generations of new D.O.s.

The TCOM Alumni Board believes that developing and implementing an MD degree program on the TCOM campus will divert financial and human resources critical to the maintenance, improvement and continued success of TCOM. This plan will weaken the quality of TCOM graduates, and will eventually limit the number of osteopathic medical students graduating from TCOM.  No other medical school in Texas produces more graduates going into primary care than TCOM (reference: National Center for the Analysis of Healthcare Data, adopted from Texas Medical Board November 2008) which is the chartered purpose of TCOM.

It is our belief that creating a third medical school in the Metroplex would be a waste of taxpayer money and resources. UNTHSC/TCOM is a STATE medical school, funded by taxpayers of Texas, and trains physicians for ALL of Texas, not just Fort Worth, who provide access to quality health care for millions of Texans in communities all across Texas. The shortage of primary care doctors and doctors in general in Texas is a State issue, not just a Tarrant County issue.  The Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine has been recognized as the state's best medical school for training primary care physicians. Recently, the Annals of Internal Medicine released a national study that ranks medical schools based on their contributions to meeting the nation's health care needs. A "social mission" scale was used based on an analysis of graduates who practice primary care, work in medically underserved communities or are themselves minorities. TCOM was ranked the highest among all the medical schools in Texas (reference: Annals of Internal Medicine, June 15, 2010,152:804-811, The Social Mission of Medical Education: Ranking the Schools, F.
Mullan, C. Chen, G. Kolsky, M. Spangola).

Fellow Alumni, now is the time for action. We have included a web site to contact Texas state legislators. We encourage you to contact your state representative(s) and state senator to express your feelings about this important issue. The TCOM Alumni Board sincerely urges you to support preserving TCOM and the osteopathic identity of UNTHSC by your actions.

For those Alumni out of state or in the military, you could really help by writing the governor (Rick Perry), the Lt. Governor (David Dewhurst) the Speaker of the House (Joe Strauss), or even your former hometown legislator.  The links for the attachments:

Legislative Action Center - Send a letter to your Legislator NOW!
    View a simple sample letter to your Legislator
Make a Contribution to the TCOM Advocacy Fund On-line
Print a Contribution Form to Contribute to the TCOM Advocacy FundTalking Points-A Bad Prescription for Texans
Basic Steps to Starting a New Medical School
AOA Letter of Support to Keep TCOM DO
AOA/TOMA Case Statement
ACOFP letter to the UNT Board of Regents
TCOM Department of OMM letter to UNTHSC
Missouri Osteopathic Medical Association letter of Support
Tayson DeLengocky, D.O. letter of Support
A Cost Analysis of the Proposed MD Program at UNTHSC: Spending More and Getting Less
Response to Scott Ransom's August 19, 2010 Memo
Fort Worth Star Telegram Article by George Cole, D.O.

The battle over the future of TCOM will be staged in Austin during this next legislative session. Your letters of support are needed NOW to explain and educate the Legislature on this issue. Our profession is in need of your financial aid to support this battle.

The TCOM administration has not been supportive of this Board's efforts to directly contact our members and explain the urgency of this situation. Most of us are not donating to or supporting TCOM (fearing it will be used to promote the MD program), but rather giving financial support to the Task Force, TOMA TCOM Advocacy Fund. These funds are needed to continue to secure lobbying efforts to educate and convince those in the legislature to not support the MD degree proposal. Joining our fight is the former Speaker of the House Gib Lewis, for whom the library on the TCOM campus is named.

You will find there are other attachments of documentation for your review and use when contacting or speaking with your legislators, and in considering how much you would like to donate to the Task Force, TOMA TCOM Advocacy Fund. 

As TCOM alumni, we are committed to the current and future TCOM students, and the rich tradition of excellence for which the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine is known.