Douglas Murphy, Ph.D., interim dean of the School of Health Professions, is principal investigator of the Senderos grant to lead high school and college students into the allied health professions.
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The School of Health Professions at the UT Health Science Center San Antonio has received two grants totaling nearly $500,000.

The largest grant — $435,000 from The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board — will fund a new program to encourage minority high school and undergraduate college students to pursue allied health careers. Through the program called Senderos (Spanish for pathways), some students could even graduate from high school already certified as emergency medical technicians.

The second grant, $62,500 from the Allied Health Research Institute (AHRI), could eventually have profound implications nationally regarding the therapy patients receive after hospitalization. The grant will fund Phase I of a project to establish the first national registry of clinically effective and cost-efficient rehabilitative therapies patients receive after hospitalization.

Related links: Encouraging students to enter the allied health professions Grant supports new registry for post-hospitalization therapy

“These grants show the impact the School of Health Professions is having nationally, regionally and locally in education, research, care and service,” said School of Health Professions Interim Dean Douglas Murphy, Ph.D.

National leadership role
“The registry places the School of Health Professions in a national leadership role not only because of the need to contain health care costs, but because of the need for evidence-based therapies for the growing number of Americans who will need rehabilitative therapy as they age,” Dr. Murphy said.

Carolyn Walden, M.S., assistant director of research, is principal investigator of the grant to establish a national registry for therapy patients receive after hospitalization.

Pathway to an allied health career
Through Senderos, the School of Health Professions will provide special activities and paid internships for students at South San and Health Careers high schools. Students from St. Philip’s College and The University of Texas at San Antonio will benefit from special interest groups, programs to explain the different allied health professions and college advising to maximize courses taken before deciding on a specific allied health career.

Learn more about these grants in the “Related links” box on the right.