Educational Support

The following departments provide support of the institution's educational programs, and are available to assist students and faculty:

Go To: Biomedical Communications | Library Services | Information Technology Services | Research and Biotechnology | Student Affairs | Medical Education | Academic Information Services

Biomedical Communications

The Department of Biomedical Communications provides services to the health science center in the areas of education, research, patient care and community service. Composed of Medical Arts/Print Services, Instructional Support Services, Video/Distance Learning and Electronic Engineering, the department provides a broad range of services in the creation, distribution and repair of instructional, research and patient care equipment and materials.

Videotaping of procedures, patients or lectures, as well as production of specialized educational or promotional programs, is available both in the studio and on location. New video teleconferencing technology links the health science center and the University of North Texas in Denton to teach courses and conduct meetings. The department also receives programs on a variety of medical and policy issues via satellite.

Classroom playback of instructional videos, set up of audio-visual equipment for classroom use, student equipment checkout, maintenance of biomedical and electronic equipment, audio-visual systems design, and duplicating and offset printing are additional services offered by the department.

Medical arts personnel create charts, graphs, illustrations, posters, brochures, newsletters and magazines for the various educational, research and community service endeavors of the institution. Medical photographers provide the prints and slides to complete these instructional and promotional materials, as well as on-site photography of patients, procedures and important events.

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Library Services

The health science center's Gibson D. Lewis Health Sciences Library supports the educational, patient-care, research and community-service missions of the institution by meeting the information needs of faculty, students, staff and the local health sciences community.

Featuring the latest information technology, this spacious and attractive facility provides the physical and intellectual resources needed for study, instruction and research. The library collection contains over 150,000 volumes and 2,280 serial titles in the basic biomedical sciences, clinical medicine and affiliated fields. Special Collections preserves historically significant materials, including over 2,400 volumes of osteopathic and nineteenth century medicine, The William G. Sutherland Collection, and institutional archives, photographs and oral histories.

The library uses the Library Information System (LIS) to provide access to the library's collections and to the National Library of Medicine's MEDLINE database. LIS may be accessed in the library, via telephone modem or through the Internet. Library instruction on LIS, MEDLINE and other library services, as well as reference services and mediated computer searches, are readily available.

Materials not owned by the library may be obtained through interlibrary loan from many sources. The library has been a resource library in the National Network of Libraries of Medicine since 1991. In addition, the library is a member of the South Central Academic Medical Libraries Consortium, which provides access to all 14 academic medical/health science center libraries in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and New Mexico.

The library's Media Resources Center houses an audio-visual collection of over 5,800 titles, including 340 computer software programs and some 124 anatomical models. The collection includes titles with a broad appeal to both medical/scientific users and the general public. Sixteen viewing rooms are equipped with video playback and slide-tape projectors.

Three networked computer labs, with Macintosh and Windows computers, are available for student, staff and faculty use. Monthly computer classes are also offered. The Internet can be accessed in all three labs. Portable computers are also available for overnight and weekend checkout.

All health science center students receive the full range of library services, including borrowing privileges, individual and group study areas, photocopying, computer searches, reference help, document delivery services, print indexes, personal instruction in the use of the library and access to the library's collections. Students must have I.D. badges to borrow materials and gain access to the library's various study rooms. Students are cautioned to be careful with food and drink in the library. Food and drink are not allowed in the computer labs.

Copy cards are available for purchase. The library is a member in the Copyright Clearinghouse Center to ensure compliance with the copyright law.

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Information Technology Services

Information Technology Services provides quality computer and telecommunication services to the health science center.

Administrative Systems and Programming supports the institutional Student Information System (SCT Banner) and designs and implements special purpose systems and programs for fiscal and academic administrative areas of the institution. This division is actively involved in the migration of administrative systems to PeopleSoft in collaboration with their counterparts at the University of North Texas.

Computer Operations and Client Support is responsible for the design, installation and maintenance of the local-area network (LAN) on campus, supports a wide-area network (WAN) for our clinics. This group also provides support for health science center participation in multiple WANs providing connectivity for educational and business purposes. Internet access and email are provided to all network users, including wireless access to the network in the library. Remote access is provided by dialup and Virtual Private Networking. This division sets standards and provides consultation and user assistance to computer users about hardware and software use, communications, printing and information resource purchases.

Web Services provides a wide range of web design and web hosting services. This group is responsible for the design and maintenance of the institutional website infrastructure, courses website, students website, and the intranet website. They also have oversight authority with all other institutional website providers to insure that State of Texas and federal requirements are met, including improving accessibility and security. All vendors providing web services to the campus interact and are guided by this group.

Telecommunication Services operates and maintains the campus-wide telephone system with state-of-the-art equipment and software, and maintains and produces an in-house telephone directory online for faculty and staff. This division also manages the telephone voice mail system, as well as all pagers and answering services, and advises users about cellular telephones. The division is responsible for submitting the Yellow Pages and White Pages information to appropriate telephone companies.

Records Management maintains a program for the economical and efficient management of institutional records. This division is responsible for the preparation and maintenance of the records-retention schedule and approves all requests for the disposal of state records. In addition, they maintain a complete database of all archived records and provide inexpensive "shredding" service to departments.

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Research and Biotechnology

The Office of Research and Biotechnology develops policies and administers programs to enhance faculty and student research and scholarly activity, and to assure institutional compliance with all mandated requirements related to research. The office assists in proposal development, identification of and negotiations with potential sources of support, and post-award management of research funds. The office manages intellectual property (patents and copyrights), institutional policies and research contractual matters.

The office coordinates all basic and applied research, clinical trials and biomedical technology programs, including the Institutes for Discovery. Programs that promote these activities include seminars and workshops, faculty research programs, collaborative and community outreach activities and a variety of programs to encourage students to enter careers in research.

The office also plays a leadership role in establishing and nurturing new research partnerships, technology transfer, and commercialization with industry and the private sector.

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Student Affairs

The health science center's Division of Student Affairs coordinates various services for students' personal and academic needs. Student Affairs supports co-curricular and extra-curricular programming, activities and services to facilitate students' academic training, professional growth and personal development.

The Division of Student Affairs strives to:

• Manage student enrollment, such that recruitment, admission, retention and career development strategies result in graduates who portray those qualities important in the successful initiation of a professional career.

• Support the institutional culture and climate to effectively promote the professional and personal learning and growth of students.

• Support consistent development, creation and implementation of institutional policies and guidelines to promote student success.

• Promote effective and timely communication that demonstrates a professional, caring, and supportive concern for prospective students, enrolled students and alumni.

Offices within the Division of Student Affairs include Student Development, Academic Support Services, Medical Student Admissions, Financial Aid and the Registrar.

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Medical Education

The Department of Medical Education provides educational support services to TCOM and to other health science center programs. Faculty and staff of the department schedule medical school classes and coordinate the scheduling of all other classes, support curriculum development activities in the medical school, conduct faculty development programs designed for the professional development of all faculty, and contribute to educational research.

Medical Education assists basic science and clinical science faculty review and provides staff support to the Curriculum Committee and course director groups that carry out the improvement of the curriculum.

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Academic Information Services

Academic Information Services supports the UNT Health Science Center's commitment to excellence in education by providing a range of academic information support services to a broad constituency of the center's administrators, faculty, staff, and students:

• Testing Services: Score, analyze and report results of classroom testing. Consult with faculty on test construction. Support departments' test item-banking activities. Maintain score rosters of students' test scores. Administer examinations for didactic courses and clinical clerkships.

• Evaluation Services: Monitor the effectiveness of undergraduate and graduate didactic courses, clinical clerkships, and statewide preceptorship experiences through formative and summative student and peer evaluations. Analyze and report timely results to constituent individuals and offices via paper reports and online computer systems. Support various data collection activities of departments, faculty, and students through the design of optical mark scanning forms and Internet pages, along with the analysis, and reporting of the resulting information.

• External Examinations: Serve as the liaison with the National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners (NBOME), National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME), Texas State Board of Medical Examiners, and Federation of State Medical Boards on matters pertaining to examinations and physician licensing. Serve as Executive Chief Proctor and Exam Site Administrator for NBME and NBOME Subject Examinations.

• Information Services: Design, develop, and maintain databases for various types of academic data. Respond to administrative requests for analysis and reporting of data contained in these databases. Provide ongoing data support to various Health Science Center committees, including the Curriculum Committee, Course Directors, Promotion and Tenure, Student Performance, and Self-Study. Provide information to students to facilitate their progress in the curriculum, such as performance-based analyses of strong and weak areas in their knowledge base. Provide predicted external examination performance scores to students.

• Statistical Services: Provide consultation on survey construction, research design, and multi-variate statistical analysis for funded grants.