College: Medicine


2024-25 Annual Report: Realizing Our Vision

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Cover art of the 2024-25 Annual Report

In the two years since the 2023-28 Strategic Plan launched, the University of Tennessee Health Science Center has worked to make our vision – Healthy Tennesseans. Thriving Communities. – a reality. By training the future of health care, delivering exceptional care in hospitals and clinics across Tennessee, conducting top-tier research, and engaging communities statewide, our… Read More


Dr. John Cox Awarded $3.68 Million to Study How Chlamydia Bacteria Reproduce

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Headshot of Dr. John Cox

John Cox, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Biochemistry at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, has received a $3.68 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to better understand how the bacterium that causes chlamydia reproduces. The research could lead to better ways to… Read More


‘I Just Love Helping People,’ New Executive Dean of the College of Medicine Says

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Photo of Dr. Mike Hocker

The new executive dean for the College of Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center got his start in health care while in high school, helping out at his uncle’s ambulance company in his hometown of Littleton, Colorado, near Denver. “When I was still in high school, I got my EMT (emergency medical… Read More


20 People Receive Gift of Sight During Eighth-Annual Cataract-A-Thon

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Photo of surgery

Nik Hopkins, MD, was a medical student at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center when the Hamilton Eye Institute hosted the first Ivan Marais Cataract‑A‑Thon in 2017. Since then, he had hoped to do his part to provide free, vision-restoring surgeries to people in need. “I was amazed at how many people of different… Read More


Cardiovascular Risk Higher for Individuals with Sickle Cell Trait, Study Led by UT Health Science Center Physician Concludes

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Headshot of Dr. Ugochi Ogu

African Americans with sickle cell trait (SCT) have 39% higher odds of acute heart failure compared to non-African Americans with SCT, according to a study led by Ugochi Ogu, MD, associate professor in the Division of Hematology and Oncology at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and the medical director of the Diggs-Kraus Comprehensive Sickle Cell… Read More


Chancellor Buckley Honored to Join Alliance of Academic Health Centers International Steering Committee

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Photo of Chancellor Peter Buckley.

Peter Buckley, MD, chancellor of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, has been appointed to the steering committee of the Alliance of Academic Health Centers International (AAHCI). AAHCI is a global network of academic health centers and systems with a mission to advance health, education, and research through collaboration. Chancellor Buckley, a psychiatrist who emigrated from Ireland… Read More


UT Health Science Center Physicians in Memphis Have Strong Presence on 2025 Top Doctors List

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Photo of Dr. David Shibata in consultation with a patient

Sixty-four percent of the Memphis physicians named in the 2025 Top Doctors list from national health care research firm Castle Connolly are affiliated with the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. Of the 452 Memphis physicians on the annual Top Doctors list, 291 are affiliated with UT Health Science Center. The list for Memphis is published in… Read More


Dr. Mary Patton Awarded $747K Grant to Study Why Motivation Fades in Mental Illness

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Headshot of Dr. Mary Patton

Mary Patton, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, has received a $747,000 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to study why people with certain mental illnesses lose motivation and how that can be treated. The project focuses on a common… Read More