Billionaire businessman Tilman Fertitta said he’s always believed strongly in the University of Houston Medical School’s mission to improve health equity in Texas. Now he’s donating $50 million to make that vision a reality.
Fertitta and his family announced Thursday what UH leaders are calling a “transformational” donation for the fledgling medical school, which welcomed its first batch of students just two years ago. In recognition, the school has been named the Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine as it prepares to open a state-of-the-art, $80 million building this summer.
Fertitta, the owner of the hospitality empire of Landry’s Inc. and the Houston Rockets, played a pivotal role in founding the medical school as the longtime chair of the UH system’s Board of Regents. But it’s the school’s mission to improve health and healthcare in the community that inspired him to make such a large donation, he said.
“Everyone should get the same medical treatment as everyone else,” he said. “That’s one of the things I like about this school and where we try to fit into the community. We want people to have good basic care and take care of whatever they need to take care of.”
The University of Houston School of Medicine is renamed the Tilman J. Fertitta College of Medicine in recognition of the $50 million donation from the Fertitta Family Foundation.
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The University of Houston School of Medicine is renamed the Tilman J. Fertitta College of Medicine in recognition of the $50 million donation from the Fertitta Family Foundation.
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The University of Houston School of Medicine is renamed the Tilman J. Fertitta College of Medicine in recognition of the $50 million donation from the Fertitta Family Foundation.
The school was established in 2019 with a curriculum focused on community health, behavioral and mental health, preventative medicine and the social determinants of health – the social and economic conditions that affect individual and community health.
The goal is for 50% of graduates to choose careers in primary care specialties such as pediatrics and general internal medicine, filling a shortage in Texas. The State Department of State and Human Services estimates that by 2030 there will be a shortage of 3,375 primary care physicians.
Health improvement and health equity have always been important issues in the medical community, which is why the school has focused on these areas from the beginning. But the COVID-19 pandemic and the social justice movement have made them “front burners” for a larger group of Americans, Dr. Steven Spann, the founding dean of the medical school.
“That’s something we’ve been thinking about. That’s our mission,” Spann said. “It’s wonderful to see society, and healthcare in particular, starting to understand the importance of this and embrace it.”
The school also focuses on improving the diversity of doctors. According to a press release, 67% of the 60 students who were part of the school’s first two grades come from groups that are underrepresented in medicine, and more than half came from a lower socioeconomic background. In comparison, only 13% of the students admitted to medical schools in the US each year are Black or Hispanic.
Educating the next generation of primary care physicians and improving equity in healthcare are goals that go hand-in-hand, said Dr. Toi Harris, Memorial Hermann’s senior vice president and chief equity, diversity and inclusion officer. If a medical student has the opportunity to train in a primary care setting, it could help them understand how social determinants such as socioeconomic status or access to education affect a patient’s overall health.
“I think it’s tremendously helpful and will impact how we approach patient care and how we work with the community,” Harris said. “Being exposed to these types of models during training can really help inform your career aspirations and the way you provide care.”
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From the beginning, in his role as chair of the UH Board of Regents, Fertitta has been aligned with the medical school’s mission to improve access to healthcare and equity, university president Renu Khator said.
“He really believes in his future and what it could do. He has a very clear vision of where it could be in 10 years or where it could be in 15 years,” she said. “It’s amazing that he’s coming forward and giving this kind of gift to help medical school take off and be something better than what it would be without these kind of transformational gifts.”
The $50 million donation will go toward efforts to hire “top-notch faculty” and invest in research at the medical school, Khator said.
Tilman Fertitta, owner of Landry’s, Inc. and the Houston Rockets poses for a portrait at the Post Oak Hotel in Uptown in Houston on Tuesday, May 28, 2019.
Jon Shapley, Houston Chronicle / Staff Photographer
This is how the gift is divided:
$10 million goes to five endowed chairs; The school intends to recruit renowned scholars focused on healthcare innovation. That $10 million will be matched as part of the university’s “$100 million challenge” for chairs and professorships.
$10 million will be used to establish an endowment grant fund to support endowment research grants and medical student grants.
$10 million will be used to cover start-up costs for the medical school to improve research activities.
$20 million will be used to establish the Fertitta Dean’s Endowed Fund to support research-enhancing activities.
Fertitta’s donation also kicks off a $100 million fundraiser for medical school. The money will be used to support scholarships, recruit teachers and pay for operational costs such as equipment.
This isn’t the first time Fertitta, a UH grad, has made a sizeable donation to his alma mater. Back in 2016, he donated $20 million to fund a $60 million renovation of the university’s basketball arena, now known as the Fertitta Center.
The University of Houston School of Medicine is renamed the Tilman J. Fertitta College of Medicine in recognition of the $50 million donation from the Fertitta Family Foundation.
Courtesy University of Houston Photographer/Videographer / Courtesy University of Houston
The University of Houston School of Medicine is renamed the Tilman J. Fertitta College of Medicine in recognition of the $50 million donation from the Fertitta Family Foundation.
Courtesy University of Houston Photographer/Videographer / Courtesy University of Houston
The University of Houston School of Medicine is renamed the Tilman J. Fertitta College of Medicine in recognition of the $50 million donation from the Fertitta Family Foundation.
“I love Houston. Houston has been very good to me. And the university gives our city its name,” said Fertitta. “It’s one of the few large public universities in a city the size of Houston, and that’s what makes it special.”
As Chair of the Board of Regents, Fertitta led efforts to select a site for the College of Medicine’s new $80 million building. The Board of Directors decided in 2018 to construct the 130,000-square-foot building on 43 acres of previously undeveloped campus land. The building is part of a proposed life sciences complex on Martin Luther King Boulevard.
Medical school welcomed its first class of 30 students in 2020. For the past two years, the Health 2 building on campus has been the college’s temporary home.
The new building features a state-of-the-art anatomy suite, a clinical skills lab, patient exam rooms, a simulation center and large classrooms for team-based learning.
Fertitta’s donation is a “morale booster” for the medical school as the new building is slated to open this summer, Spann said.
“We have this beautiful new building and our medical school now has a great name,” he said. “It just builds momentum and builds enthusiasm. It will encourage community support.”
Fertitta also hopes his family’s donation will inspire others to support medical school and its mission. He knows his donation and his work at the medical school are just the beginning; More investment is needed to improve health equity in Texas and elsewhere in the US
However, he hopes the $50 million donation will help achieve that goal. Nobody should have to spend 10 hours in an emergency room on a Saturday because they don’t have a family doctor, he said.
“It’s going to be very special,” he said. “You just have to have the foresight to look to the future.”