Message from the Chair
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Welcome to our departmental website. Please browse our web pages and get to know our superb faculty, residents, and staff. These are exciting times at the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center, Paul L. Foster School of Medicine - the only four year medical school on the US - Mexico border. The new medical school has an innovative new curriculum, and we continue to expand the clinical departments throughout the Institution. The Institution is recruiting high caliber researchers, especially in the areas of Cancer, Neurosciences, Diabetes and Infectious Disease research to meet the needs of our underserved, predominantly Hispanic border population. In the department of Family and Community Medicine, we are increasing the size of our faculty as we expand our clinical care operations, increase our medical student teaching commitments and expand our research division. In addition to our already strong 8-8-8 fully accredited Family Medicine Residency Program, we started an ACGME accredited Sports Medicine fellowship in July 1, 2011 with two fellows per year. We provide care for a number of underserved communities in the El Paso area which provides a rich learning environment for our learners. We are also experimenting with innovative models of clinical care at our main clinical site at the North East Family Medicine Center which is a state of the art facility with a modern EMR system. Our clinical research program has a major focus on Cancer Prevention and Control and our faculty are currently funded through both the NIH and the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT). We will continue to focus on developing programs in Cancer prevention and Control to help improve the health of our border community and the nation. The city of El Paso is a great place to live; it is nestled between the beautiful Franklin Mountains and the Rio Grande and resides at the confluence of Texas, New Mexico and Mexico. El Paso is one of the safest mid-sized cities in the United States and its residents enjoy a near perfect climate with more than 300 days of sunshine a year, numerous outdoor pursuits, as well as a vibrant city life at an affordable cost of living. |
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Chair's Bio
Dr. Gurjeet S. Shokar joined the department as a Professor and the new Chairman of the Department of Family and Community Medicine in March of 2010. He comes to us from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) where he served as Professor of Family Medicine, University of Texas Distinguished Teaching Professor, and director of the medical student education programs for the department of Family Medicine. He is a nationally recognized medical educator, an expert in web-based medical education, and has led the development of a multi-award winning web-based case development software.He is the recipient of curriculum development awards at the regional and national level, as well as multiple teaching awards, culminating in his induction into the UTMB Academy of Master Teachers in 2007. Recently, he chaired the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine national conference on medical student education, and was appointed to a national task force that developed the first ever national Family Medicine clerkship curriculum. He has remained active as a clinician and has been recognized as one of the Best Doctors in America since 2005.
Dr. Shokar grew up in England and completed medical school at Dayanand Medical College in India in 1988. He returned to England to complete residency training in Family Medicine, followed by a period of practice in Oxfordshire, England. He moved to the US in 1996 and underwent further residency training at St Joseph Hospital in Houston, Texas. He is married with three children.