Background
For nearly 15 years the Office of Border Health has served as the organizational location for outreach programs administered by Texas Tech in its participation by federally-funded networks such as the Health Education Training Alliance of Texas (HETCAT) the Hispanic Center of Excellence (HCOE), and the Borderlands Health Careers Opportunity Program (HCOP). Since its creation, the Office of Border Health was charged with three specific tasks.
Of these, the most urgent is to attract young Border residents to careers in medicine and the health sciences. This initiative requires the development of active recruitment programs as well as activities that are designed to "increase the pipeline" of students who have the aptitude and interest to be successful in their pursuit of a career in medicine.
The second task is to promote community health care outreach in under-served Border communities. Indeed, the Texas Tech School of Medicine had been established over twenty years earlier in part to address the shortages of health care and health care professionals in West Texas. This outreach effort in Border communities is a logical extension of that initiative.
The third task is to provide the support and background resources for understanding and developing policies and proposals that impact Texas Tech and the health and well being of citizens of the Border. Over the years, several themes have emerged as policy issues for the Office of Border Health. These include:
- The role of the promotora de salud in meeting the health care needs and the health education of underserved populations in colonias and other rural communities;
- Developing cross-border health care systems within current funding restrictions; and
- Strategies for expanding health care education along the Border.
The Office of Border health also hosts the HCOE and HCOP grants. The Hispanic Center of Excellence (HCOE) focuses on identifying and nurturing prospective students of medicine in this area and follows them through medical school with enhancement programs and promotes competitive development for their careers in medicine.
The Borderlands Health Careers Opportunities Program (HCOP) complements the Hispanic Center of Excellence (HCOE) and supports educational pipeline programs for disadvantaged students from the US-Mexico border region to pursue a career in the health professions.