It’s a wonderful future!

By President Ronald Blanck, DO

Remember the classic 1946 movie “It’s a Wonderful Life”? This timeless film had one fundamental message: one person can make a difference, even through the smallest actions.

In the film, George Bailey (played by Jimmy Stewart) finds himself frustrated by his life, having given up his dreams of travel and adventure to remain in his hometown and tend to his family business. As George is on the verge of suicide after an unexpected financial disaster, a heavenly messenger appears and gives him a glimpse of what life would have been like if he had never been born. George sees a bleak picture that helps him understand how his selflessness shaped the future for the better.

Just as George helped change his town for the better, so have we.

Let’s imagine what life in Fort Worth might be like if our Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine had never been born, and had never “grown up” to be the University of North Texas Health Science Center.

Where our campus now makes its mark on Cowtown’s skyline, there is an industrial plant spewing toxic pollutants into the air and oozing hazardous liquids into the Trinity. Those living in the surrounding neighborhoods suffer from myriad preventable diseases, all because the experts in our School of Public Health were not there to do the studies, shape the policies and drive the decisions that safeguard our community.

Without TCOM’s doctors, physician assistants, nurses and clinical staff here to teach and work with the next generation of medical professionals, thousands of Fort Worth’s families have no one to care for them when they are ill, deliver their babies, or tend to their sick children and aging parents.

Because our researchers and students in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences never existed, the cutting-edge discoveries that help us understand and treat diabetes, glaucoma, Alzheimer’s disease, alcoholism and cancer remain the subject of science fiction novels.

OK, so I have a vivid imagination. But, I assure you, we’ve made a difference in the health of our community, and beyond. Since the first class of medical students began their studies in a borrowed classroom on the fifth floor of our neighboring hospital in 1970, the University of North Texas Health Science Center has grown into a force to be reckoned with.

We lead Texas in enrollment for all health-related institutions and enjoy the largest graduate minority enrollment among Texas health science centers. Our 100-member physician group sees some 200,000 Fort Worth-area patients yearly, and we inject nearly $300 million into the economies of Tarrant County and Texas each year. We boast a record $24 million and growing in annual research funding.

Our new Center for BioHealth, opening with partial occupancy on August 26, is another stepping-stone toward further success. It not only serves as a publicly visible expression of the work we do, it also allows us to expand our efforts in all aspects of our mission: education, research, patient care and service.

To continue our growth, we must have more room. It’s that simple. Not only will our new building provide additional space for the programs that will occupy it, it will also free up space in other buildings that can be used to expand other programs even more. This will, in turn, allow future growth and campus expansions.

The lesson George Bailey learned in 1946 is just as relevant for each of us at UNT Health Science Center in 2004. As we conduct our first-ever capital campaign, please know that every donation counts, and every donation matters to me and to this institution, from $1 to $10,000. Your participation in our 2004 Campus Pride Campaign for the finish-out of the Center for BioHealth represents your support for our health science center and the good we do for our community, our state and our world.

Won’t you please join me in building a wonderful future, together?