The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

Galveston, Texas Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Galvesto ...

. It is part of the

University of Texas System The University of Texas System (UT System) is an American government entity of the state of Texas that includes 13 higher educational institutions throughout the state including eight universities and five independent health institutions. The UT& ...

. UTMB includes the oldest medical school in Texas, and has about 11,000 employees. In February 2019, it received an endowment of $560 million. Established in 1891 as the University of Texas Medical Department, UTMB has grown from one building, 23 students and 13 faculty members to more than 70 buildings, more than 2,500 students and more than 1,000 faculty. It has four schools, three institutes for advanced study, a comprehensive medical library, four on-site hospitals (including an affiliated Shriners Hospital for Children), a network of clinics that provide primary and specialized medical care and numerous research facilities. UTMB's primary missions are health sciences education, medical research (it is home to the

Galveston National Laboratory The Galveston National Laboratory (GNL) in Galveston, Texas, United States, is a high security National Biocontainment Laboratory housing several Biosafety level 4 research laboratories. The lab is run by the University of Texas Medical Branch ( ...

) and health care services. Its

emergency department An emergency department (ED), also known as an accident and emergency department (A&E), emergency room (ER), emergency ward (EW) or casualty department, is a medical treatment facility specializing in emergency medicine, the acute care of pati ...

John Sealy Hospital __NOTOC__ John Sealy Hospital is a hospital that is a part of the University of Texas Medical Branch complex in Galveston, Texas, United States. History Sealy opened on January 10, 1890. It was founded by the widow and brother of one of the rich ...

is certified as a

Level I Trauma Center A trauma center (or trauma centre) is a hospital equipped and staffed to provide care for patients suffering from major traumatic injuries such as falls, motor vehicle collisions, or gunshot wounds. A trauma center may also refer to an emergenc ...

and serves as the lead trauma facility for a nine-county region in

Southeast Texas Southeast Texas is a cultural and geographic region in the U.S. state of Texas, bordering Southwest Louisiana and its greater Acadiana region to the east. Being a part of East Texas, the region is geographically centered on the Greater Houston ...

; it is one of only three Level I Trauma centers serving all ages in Southeast Texas. In fiscal year 2012, UTMB received 20 percent of its $1.5 billion budget from the State of Texas to help support its teaching mission, hospital operation and Level 1 Trauma Center; UTMB generates the rest of its budget through its research endeavors, clinical services and philanthropy. It provides a significant amount of charity care (almost $96 million in 2012), and treats complex cases such as transplants and burns. In 2003 UTMB received funding to construct a $150 million Galveston National Biocontainment Laboratory on its campus, one of the few non-military facilities of this level. It houses several Biosafety Level 4 research laboratories, where studies on highly infectious materials can be carried out safely. It has schools of

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...

nursing Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health ...

, allied health professions, and a

graduate school Postgraduate or graduate education refers to Academic degree, academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by higher education, post-secondary students who have earned an Undergraduate education, un ...

of biomedical sciences, as well as an institute for medical humanities. UTMB also has a major contract with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to provide medical care to inmates at all TDC sites in the eastern and southern portions of Texas. UTMB also has similar contracts with local governments needing inmate medical care. On March 10, 2022, UTMB announced that the School of Medicine would be renamed to the John Sealy School of Medicine in honor of the over $1 billion dollars donated to the university and medical school by the Sealy family and the Sealy & Smith Foundation over the last century.

History

The location of the Medical Department of the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

was decided between Galveston and

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

in a popular vote in 1881, but its opening was delayed due to the construction of the main university campus in

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

. The need for medical training in Texas was great: in 1891, 80 percent of doctors in the state had under a year of formal training in medicine, and so the "Texas Medical College" was formed in Galveston with the idea that it would become the medical department once state funding began. The original building, the

Ashbel Smith Building The Ashbel Smith Building, also known as Old Red, is a Romanesque Revival building located in Galveston, Texas. It was built in 1891 with red brick and sandstone. Nicholas J. Clayton was the architect. It was the first University of Texas Medica ...

also called Old Red, was begun in 1890 under the supervision of the Galveston architect

Nicholas J. Clayton Nicholas Joseph Clayton (November 1, 1840 in Cloyne, County Cork – December 9, 1916) was a prominent Victorian era architect in Galveston, Texas. Clayton constructed many grand religious and public buildings in Galveston including the Firs ...

. Clayton toured several medical colleges in the North and East before drawing up his plans for the building. The medical school campus also included the

, which provided charity care for any who claimed Galveston residence. Upon opening, the Red Building had been starkly underfurnished, a problem which was not fully remedied until after the

Hurricane of 1900 The 1900 Galveston hurricane, also known as the Great Galveston hurricane and the Galveston Flood, and known regionally as the Great Storm of 1900 or the 1900 Storm, is the deadliest natural disaster in United States history and the third-d ...

, when the state rallied around the ravaged city. Dr. Thompson, professor of surgery, said that "the regents were so generous in repairing the damage to the building and restoring the equipment, that we were actually in better shape at the end of the year 1901 than we had been before." In addition, the damage to the roof of Old Red allowed for the addition of skylights, which had always been wanted for the dissection room. Also in 1901, the school admitted their first woman faculty member,

Marie Charlotte Schaefer Marie Charlotte Schaefer (June 24, 1874 - May 27, 1927) was an early Texas physician and the first woman to become a faculty member of the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB). Biography Schaefer was born in San Antonio, Texas and attended ...

. In 1915 the medical branch built the first hospital dedicated to children in Texas. By 1924 UTMB had established the first department of pediatrics in the state of Texas – which was also one of the first departments of pediatrics in the United States. UTMB's annual budget of approximately $1.4 billion includes grants, awards, and contracts from federal and private sources totaling more than $150 million, in addition to institutional allocations for research. Construction on an emergency department began in 1989, and the

Sealy & Smith Foundation The Sealy & Smith Foundation is a charitable foundation incorporated in Texas and based in the island city of Galveston. It was established in 1922 by John Sealy, II and his sister Jennie Sealy Smith with a charter stating a mission to: The fo ...

spent $28 million to have it built. In 1996, UTMB purchased the adjacent 128-year-old St. Mary's Hospital, the first catholic hospital in Texas. The building was converted into the Rebecca Sealy Psychiatric Hospital. UTMB became a member of the Houston-based

Texas Medical Center The Texas Medical Center (TMC) is a medical district and neighborhood in south-central Houston, Texas, United States, immediately south of the Museum District and west of Texas State Highway 288. Over 60 medical institutions, largely concentrate ...

in 2010.

Hurricane Ike

Hurricane Ike Hurricane Ike () was a powerful tropical cyclone that swept through portions of the Greater Antilles and Northern America in September 2008, wreaking havoc on infrastructure and agriculture, particularly in Cuba and Texas. Ike took a sim ...

(2008) caused significant flood damage to nearly every building on campus, including the John Sealy Hospital. However, UTMB has about $1.4 billion to restore, harden and expand its campus. Much of the money was approved by the 81st Texas Legislative session, $450 million comes from FEMA, $130 million from insurance, $200 million from the

Sealy and Smith Foundation The Sealy & Smith Foundation is a charitable foundation incorporated in Texas and based in the island city of Galveston. It was established in 1922 by John Sealy, II and his sister Jennie Sealy Smith with a charter stating a mission to: The foun ...

, and $50 million from the Social Service Block Grant Funds. Reconstruction is actively underway as well as hardening of the campus to protect buildings and resources from future storms. UTMB restored its educational programs within weeks after the Hurricane Ike and the research endeavor came back steadily thereafter. In 2011 the foundation committed $170 million towards the construction of a new Jennie Sealy Hospital on the UTMB campus, an amount that represents the largest single gift ever to a Texas health institution.

Facilities

Hospitals and Clinics

* Jennie Sealy Hospital – a 12-story teaching hospital that is a $438 million facility featuring 310 patient rooms, including 60 dedicated ICU beds, a 28-bed day surgery unit and 20 state-of-the-art operating suites. Completed in 2016. * John Sealy Hospital – a 12-story teaching hospital housing inpatient units for pediatrics, obstetrics/gynecology, and burns patients. It is currently undergoing extensive renovation following construction of the new Jennie Sealy Hospital. * UTMB Health Clinics Building – a seven-story building housing numerous specialty and subspecialty clinics. * UTMB Pediatrics and Children's Hospital – located within John Sealy Hospital, including 50 inpatient beds, 12 PICU beds, 30 low-acuity newborn and 42

NICU A neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), also known as an intensive care nursery (ICN), is an intensive care unit (ICU) specializing in the care of ill or premature newborn infants. Neonatal refers to the first 28 days of life. Neonatal care, as kn ...

beds. The hospital treats infants, children, teens, and young adults age 0-21. * R. Waverley Smith Pavilion – formerly home to obstetrics services and the neonatal intensive care unit, the Waverley Smith Pavilion is undergoing significant renovations and has become the primary link between Jennie Sealy Hospital and the adjacent John Sealy Hospital and Clinical Sciences Wing. * Rebecca Sealy Hospital – formerly housed UTMB's day surgery and inpatient psychiatry services. Following renovations after Hurricane Ike, Rebecca Sealy is now home to administrative and educational space for the university. * Shriners Burns Hospital for Children – A 30-bed children's hospital specializing care and treatment of acute burns, patients needing plastic reconstructive or restorative surgery as a result of "healed" burns, and scarring and deformity of the face. It has an

Intensive Care Unit 220px, Intensive care unit An intensive care unit (ICU), also known as an intensive therapy unit or intensive treatment unit (ITU) or critical care unit (CCU), is a special department of a hospital or health care facility that provides intensiv ...

with 15 acute beds, a reconstruction and plastic surgery unit with 15 reconstruction beds, three operating rooms, a multi-bed recovery room, and numerous clinics. It is a Verified Burn Center by the American Burn Association. * Texas Department of Criminal Justice – Hospital Galveston – operated in collaboration with the

Texas Department of Criminal Justice The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) is a department of the government of the U.S. state of Texas. The TDCJ is responsible for statewide criminal justice for adult offenders, including managing offenders in state prisons, state jails, ...

, the prison hospital has 172 inpatient beds, a multi-service ambulatory care center, a minor operating room with a recovery room, a telemetry unit of 24 beds, a medical intensive care unit of 24 beds and a 56-bed overnight holding unit.

Schools

UTMB includes four schools: * John Sealy School of Medicine – The School of Medicine at UTMB has provided medical school or residency training to one in six Texas physicians. Opened in 1891, it has 20 departments and three institutes. * Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences – Biomedical graduate programs were started in 1952, and a separate graduate school was established in 1969, becoming the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in 1972. The GSBS and the UT Telecampus have created a concurrent enrollment program by which graduate students at UTMB can pursue both a Ph.D. and an M.B.A. in preparation for careers in biotechnology and the pharmaceutical industry, among other career opportunities. * School of Nursing - The UTMB School of Nursing offers programs such as BSN, MSN (Nurse Practitioner, Nurse Educator), PhD (Nursing Education), and DNP (Doctorate of Nursing Practice). * School of Health Professions – The School of Health Professions has eight degree-granting programs.

Science complex

From its modest beginnings in the 1890s as the first state medical school in Texas, the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) has developed into a large, sophisticated health science complex with numerous schools and institutes, including: * Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, * School of Medicine, * School of Nursing, * School of Health Professions, * Institute for Human Infections and Immunity, * Institute for the Medical Humanities, * an affiliated Shriners Burns Hospital, * Sealy Center for Molecular Medicine, * Sealy Center for Structural Biology, * Center for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases, * Center for Addiction Research, * Educational Cancer Center, * Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Women's Health, * Institute for Translational Sciences, * Galveston National Laboratory (GNL), * Sealy Center for Cancer Cell Biology, * Sealy Center for Environmental Health and Medicine, * World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Tropical Diseases, * Stark Diabetes Center, * Center for Biomedical Engineering, * Center for Environmental Toxicology, * Sealy Center on Aging, * George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, * Institute for Drug Discovery, * Sealy Center for Vaccine Development. UTMB operates an extensive clinical care enterprise with a wide variety of specialty programs.

Heliports

UTMB has two heliports: the Ewing Hall Heliport and the Emergency Department Heliport .

Notable alumni and faculty

Robin Armstrong Robin may refer to: Animals * Australasian robins, red-breasted songbirds of the family Petroicidae * Many members of the subfamily Saxicolinae (Old World chats), including: **European robin (''Erithacus rubecula'') **Bush-robin **Forest rob ...

, M.D. – Internal medicine, physician in Galveston County, and former vice chairman of the

Republican Party of Texas The Republican Party of Texas (RPT) is the affiliate of the United States Republican Party in the state of Texas. It is currently chaired by Matt Rinaldi, succeeding Allen West who resigned prior to the expiration of his term to run for governo ...

* Ernst Bertner – first president of the

Greg Bonnen James Gregory Bonnen (born June 18, 1966) is an American politician. He served as a Republican member for the 24th district of the Texas House of Representatives. Bonnen was born in Angleton, Texas. He attended Texas A&M University, where he ...

, M.D. – Neurosurgeon and UTMB assistant professor; Republican member of the

Texas House of Representatives The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Texas Legislature. It consists of 150 members who are elected from single-member districts for two-year terms. As of the 2010 United States census, each member represents abou ...

. *

Mark Frederick Boyd Mark Frederick Boyd (1889–1968) was an American physician and writer. He taught and performed research in public health. He went to work for the Rockefeller Foundation in 1921, and thereafter specialized in the study of malaria. He also wrote a ...

- Malariologist, first head of the Department of Bacteriology and Preventive Medicine *

Minnie Fisher Cunningham Minnie Fisher Cunningham (March 19, 1882 – December 9, 1964) was an American suffrage politician, who was the first executive secretary of the League of Women Voters, and worked for the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Co ...

– Suffragist, first president of the

League of Women Voters The League of Women Voters (LWV or the League) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan political organization in the United States. Founded in 1920, its ongoing major activities include registering voters, providing voter information, and advocating for vot ...

Maurice Ewing William Maurice "Doc" Ewing (May 12, 1906 – May 4, 1974) was an American geophysicist and oceanographer. Ewing has been described as a pioneering geophysicist who worked on the research of seismic reflection and refraction in ocean basi ...

– Geophysicist *

Hector P. Garcia In Greek mythology, Hector (; grc, Ἕκτωρ, Hektōr, label=none, ) is a character in Homer's Iliad. He was a Trojan prince and the greatest warrior for Troy during the Trojan War. Hector led the Trojans and their allies in the defense o ...

– Surgeon, civil rights advocate *

Bernard A. Harris, Jr. Bernard Anthony Harris Jr. (born June 26, 1956) is a former NASA astronaut. On February 9, 1995, Harris became the first African American to perform an extra-vehicular activity (spacewalk), during the second of his two Space Shuttle flights. E ...

M.D. – Astronaut * Steven Hotze M.D. – Talk Radio Host, Republican Activist * Christopher W. Lentz, M.D. –

U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sign ...

Brigadier General * Henry T. Lynch – cancer researcher *

Ronny Jackson Ronny Lynn Jackson (born May 4, 1967) is an American physician, politician, and retired United States Navy rear admiral who is the U.S. representative for . Jackson joined the White House Medical Unit in the mid-2000s under George W. Bush, a ...

M.D. - Physician to the President * Michael Obeng, M.D. - Plastic Surgeon,

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a nonprofit, tertiary, 886-bed teaching hospital and multi-specialty academic health science center located in Los Angeles, California. Part of the Cedars-Sinai Health System, the hospital employs a staff of over 2 ...

* C. J. Peters M.D. – Virology and immunology * Raynaldo Rivera Ortiz Jr. M.D. - Anesthesiologist arrested in connection to contaminated IV bags that killed a physician *

Patricia Robertson Patricia Consolatrix Hilliard Robertson (March 12, 1963 – May 24, 2001) was an American physician and a NASA astronaut. She died in a plane crash the year before she would have flown to the International Space Station. Biography She was born in ...

M.D. – Astronaut-candidate *

Sally Abston Sally Abston (1934 – 2008) was an American surgeon and scientist. She is noted as the first woman surgical resident at the University of Texas Medical Branch Galveston (UTMB), where she also worked as part of the faculty. Biography Abston w ...

, M.D. - Surgeon *

Sean Roden Sean Kevin Roden (born 1965) was a NASA flight surgeon with multiple roles for medical operations including for the International Space Station (ISS) from 2004 to 2007. Biography Roden was born April 19, 1965, in Midland, Texas, the son of ...

, M.D. – former NASA flight surgeon *

Robert Shope Robert Ellis Shope (February 21, 1929 – January 19, 2004) was an American virology, virologist, epidemiology, epidemiologist and public health expert, particularly known for his work on arbovirus, arthropod-borne viruses and emerging infectious ...

, M.D. – Arbovirologist and

emerging infectious disease An emerging infectious disease (EID) is an infectious disease whose incidence has increased recently (in the past 20 years), and could increase in the near future. The minority that are capable of developing efficient transmission between human ...

s expert * Charles Milton Strother M.D. – Neuroradiologist and Emeritus Professor of Radiology at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

. *

Luther Leonidas Terry Luther Leonidas Terry (September 15, 1911March 29, 1985) was an American physician and public health official. He was appointed the ninth Surgeon General of the United States from 1961 to 1965, and is best known for his warnings against the dan ...

– Surgeon General *

William E. Thornton William Edgar Thornton (April 14, 1929 – January 11, 2021) was an American NASA astronaut. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from University of North Carolina and a doctorate in medicine, also from UNC. He flew on ''Challeng ...

M.D. – Astronaut

Footnotes

Bibliography

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:University Of Texas Medical Branch 1891 establishments in Texas Educational institutions established in 1891 Education in Galveston County, Texas Healthcare in Galveston, Texas Education in Galveston, Texas Hospital networks in the United States Medical research institutes in Texas Nursing schools in Texas

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

Schools of public health in the United States Universities and colleges accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools

University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) is a public academic health science center in Galveston, Texas. It is part of the University of Texas System. UTMB includes the oldest medical school in Texas, and has about 11,000 employees. In Fe ...

Institutions in the Texas Medical Center Medical Branch Buildings and structures in Galveston, Texas Trauma centers