Future physicians at Sam Houston State University College of Osteopathic Medicine now have a new opportunity for learning, with artifacts loaned from the Texas Medical Association to the school’s Heritage of Healing Gallery.
The association sent dozens of items – such as doctors’ bags, early monitoring devices, quack medicines, and more – to help establish the nascent museum, as did March of Dimes Houston and the Texas Osteopathic Medical Association. SHSU-COM Dean Thomas Mohr, DO, says the objects will be invaluable in encouraging students.
“As we train our students to be physicians of the future, it is often important to look back at our history to see how far we have come,” he wrote in a social media post highlighting the unveiling.
Representing TMA’s History of Medicine Committee, Galveston surgeon John “Pat” Walker, MD, joined Dr. Mohr for the ceremonial ribbon cutting in Conroe.
TMA has long supported the preservation of and education about medicine’s past, maintaining an archive of historical artifacts for over 100 years. Many sit on display in the Robert G. Mickey History of Medicine Gallery on the first floor of the Louis J. Goodman TMA building in Austin, while those at the SHSU-COM campus in Conroe will give medical students context for their education.
“It’s nice to be able to show students that this is the legacy upon which they stand. This is the legacy of medicine and health care and learning that they are now participating in,” Steve Steffensen, MD, a member of TMA’s History of Medicine Committee, told Texas Medicine in 2023, observing the 20th anniversary of the Knowledge Center, which houses the TMA archive of medical artifacts. “It connects them with a part of the history of their profession in a way that very few things can.”
Last Updated On
June 02, 2025
Originally Published On
June 02, 2025