MEDICAL SCHOOL EVALUATION & GRADUATION
Medical School Musings By Neal S. Meritz, MD
There were only four medical school options in Texas when I applied in the summer of 1967. The possible choices included Southwestern in Dallas, the Medical Branch in Galveston, Baylor in Houston and the brand-new addition to the University of Texas System that was opening in San Antonio. I flew down on Braniff Airlines from my home in Dallas to interview in San Antonio, the most appealing of Texas cities. The South Texas Medical Center sprang from the open fields of a dairy farm almost 60 years ago. Oak Hills landowners donated the land and Bexar County voters approved a bond issue. San Antonians at that time disagreed strenuously about whether a medical school should be built Left: Neal S. Meritz, MD as a medical student in the 1970s. Right: The South Texas Medical Center in the 1970s. downtown or on the Northwest Side, far away from the population. There were more cows and human anatomy and physiology, with pathology and disease states deer than people in this area during the 1960s. When the Veterans studied in the second year. Anatomy, physiology, pharmacology and Administration announced their intent to build a massive hospital biochemistry were all covered as a unit according to the various body nearby and Santa Rosa revealed plans for a psychiatric unit, the Medsystem. We started a course on physical diagnosis immediately and ical Center became a reality. we saw real patients from the very beginning. My first rotation in the The offices of the medical school at the time were located at Trinity clinical third year was pediatrics. This was early 1970 at the height of University, so I took a taxi there from the airport. My interviews were the Diphtheria epidemic of San Antonio. It was my introduction to conducted by Dr. Leon Cander, Chairman of Internal Medicine, and dedicated doctors treating really sick children, an experience that imDr. Joe Wood, Professor of Anatomy. Dr. Wood and I drove in his pacted and influenced me enormously in my entire career. VW Bug to the open fields of the Medical Center where the new My interviewers kept their word. I spent the summer between the school was under construction amid the deer and cattle. We wore first and second years in Appalachia. During the fourth year I did a hard hats on our tour. Methodist Hospital existed, the medical school course in psychiatry at the University of Toronto, followed by a 3was partially completed and the new Bexar County Hospital was in month rotation in Ob-Gyn at the University of London. My fellow the beginning stages of construction. Dr. Wood described the vision English medical students gave me my all-time favorite nickname. I of Dean Carter Pannill and the forward-thinking concepts of the was known as “The Colonist.” early faculty. Dr. Wood promised me, among other things, an inteLater, I won a full tuition scholarship for my fourth year: $300. grated curriculum, early contact with real patients and a senior year My father was thrilled. composed entirely of electives. I was impressed. Medical School in San Antonio was truly one of the best experiThe University of Texas Medical School at San Antonio Class of ences of my life. The University of Texas, now UT Health San An’72, which was the first class to attend all four years, began on Septonio, is presently composed of multiple programs and is well known tember 3, 1968. Some students maintained living quarters on the as a nationally renowned institution. The founders of this school 12th floor of the unfinished Bexar County Hospital with one wing were courageous and wise. The city of San Antonio has been a terfor female nursing and medical students and the other three wings rific place to practice medicine, raise a family and spend a lifetime. for male medical students. I am married to one of those nursing students. The Class of ’72 consisted of 56 students: 52 men and 4 Neal S. Meritz, MD is a retired Family Practice physician women. 54 of us were Texas residents. The eagerness of the students and a member of the BCMS Publications Committee. and the enthusiasm of the faculty were clearly evident. The curriculum was indeed cleverly integrated, and a non-traditional model was utilized. First year studies concentrated on normal 20
SAN ANTONIO MEDICINE • June 2021
