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Then and Now

By Bryant Boutwell, Dr.P.H.

In 1971, Dr. Robert Tuttle, then associate dean for academic affairs at the new UT Medical School at Houston was given a challenge by Dean Cheves Smythe – go find a classroom to teach medical students. At the time, our school had no building, so Dr. Tuttle searched the Medical Center and found rented facilities at the old Center Pavilion Hospital, which is no longer in existence, at Holcombe and South Braeswood. Renovations were needed to have useable seating and functional blackboards with chalk. Students had to walk across the entire campus to attend a lecture where videotapes on a small color television that projected mostly green images was considered high tech.

Fast forward to August 2005. Recent renovations to the Medical School’s large auditoriums and classrooms are providing a state-of-the-art learning environment few dreamed possible even a decade ago. With wireless networking, students can go online and access a wealth of images and medical information as they attend lectures. The latest data projectors provide five times brighter images than in the past, and faculty can project digital images simultaneous with video images at a resolution impressive by all standards.

While lectures continue to be videotaped for student use, live streaming video of lectures allows students to pick up lectures at home or anywhere they have network access. The latest Cardionics technology allows students to listen as a group to heart and pulmonary sounds in the auditorium setting with acoustic quality not possible in years past.

In short, the digital revolution has been embraced by the school and is changing our learning environment for the better – preparing our students to be better equipped as they enter the world as practicing physicians.