Photo: The West Tennessee Regional Forensic Center, shown here, is now operated by UTHSC.
UTHSC is operating the West Tennessee Regional Forensic Center and the Shelby County Medical Examiner’s Office, resuming a role it had ended in 2006. UTHSC provides staffing and management of the center, consultation services and operates a forensic pathology fellowship program. The center performs autopsies for all 20 counties west of the Tennessee River. The West Tennessee Regional Forensic Center is located at 637 Poplar Ave. in a $10 million facility that opened in June 2012.
Fighting Childhood Obesity
Doctors from UTHSC and Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital are joining forces against childhood obesity, which has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years. The UT-Le Bonheur Pediatric Obesity Center focuses on research and patient care to stem the tide of the rising epidemic. Dr. Joan Han, a pediatric endocrinologist and founding director of the center, came to Memphis after 10 years with the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development at the National Institutes of Health. The center will be located at Le Bonheur, which was named to
U.S. News and World Report’s 2014-15 Best Children’s Hospitals.
New Name for College
The College of Health Professions has changed its name from Allied Health Sciences. Students, faculty, staff, donors and alumni commemorated the occasion with two events in August. The college was founded in 1972 as the College of Community and Allied Health, and it was abridged to the College of Allied Health Sciences in 1985. With fall enrollment of more than 580 students, the college includes six departments: audiology and speech pathology, clinical laboratory sciences, health informatics and information management, occupational therapy, physical therapy and physician assistant studies.
Accreditation Update
The Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) has reaccredited the College of Medicine for the maximum eight-year term. Only institutions accredited by LCME may receive federal grants for education and participate in federal loan programs, and medical students must be enrolled in or have graduated from a LCME-accredited program to take national board exams or enter residency programs. Preparations for the accreditation process took nearly two years and included an extensive self-study involving more than 100 faculty members, administrators and students. The College of Medicine’s excellent relationship with partner hospitals was cited as an institutional strength.
