EL PASO, Texas — Texas Tech University Health Sciences El Paso is assembling a team of healthcare heroes who will race into danger to save victims of violent crime before the scene is clear.
TTUHSC El Paso’s newly formed Tactical Medicine Program includes the first Tactical Medicine Fellowship in Texas and the fourth nationally. The fellowship is a one-year program, and a new fellow will be chosen each July.
Tactical medicine is a specialty in which healthcare providers, in this case physicians, respond to critical incidents to provide first aid to victims, law enforcement, or anyone else at an ongoing crime scene. This new program can save lives because when helping in a situation of mass violence, minutes can mean the difference between life and death.
Stephen Schwartfeger, MD, is the first physician to have been accepted into the fellowship. He is also a graduate of the TTUHSC El Paso Emergency Medicine residency program. Over the next six months, he will train at El Paso Community College’s Law Enforcement Academy and graduate with a full police credential.
“Being the first fellow means there will be trial and error components to work through, and having the opportunity to provide direct input into how the program will unfold is an invaluable aspect of being the first fellow,” said Dr. Schwartfeger, who is also studying for his emergency medicine board certification.
Once Dr. Schwartfeger completes his police training, he will begin working with the rest of the Tactical Medicine team, which consists of four physicians from Texas Tech Physicians of El Paso. The team is led by Robert Root, DO, an emergency medicine specialist who spent four years as an emergency medicine physician in the US Army.
As the medical practice of the Foster School of Medicine, the physicians that make up TTP El Paso hold faculty appointments at the medical school, where they teach the next generation of physicians.
“We will provide medical care to people who are trapped in dangerous environments, such as victims of gunshots or stab wounds,” said Dr. Root, who was deployed to Afghanistan and stationed at William Beaumont Army Medical Center before joining TTUHSC El Paso. .