Brig. Gen. Harold L. Timboe
Commander, Brooke Army Medical Center at
Fort Sam Houston
1978 Medical School graduate"The four years of medical school here in San Antonio were a time of great change for me and my family," recalled Gen. Timboe. "We look back on those years with many fond memories. There were lots of good times with classmates—Spurs games, softball, barbecues, studying together—and all of us on a tight budget. I had peanut butter and jelly for lunch most days.
"And then there were the special patients who taught us much about life and living while we were learning the science of their medical problems," said Gen. Timboe. "I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the tremendous faculty who took a real interest in developing us while living out the Hippocratic oath. More than anything, they taught us to believe in what we were doing, to care about others and those we serve, to always be technically competent by continuously learning, and to have the character expected of our profession. They were role models and mentors who showed the way in believing, caring, competence and character. Lastly, I recall the long nights on duty and watching the sunrise from the top floor ward at the Bexar County Hospital and thinking how blessed I was, and wondering what the future would bring."
Gen. Timboe continues to be closely associated
with the Health Science Center..."Brooke Army Medical Center has always had a close association with the Health Science Center," Gen. Timboe added. "As health care in America is changing and especially as it impacts academic medical centers, the Health Science Center and the two military medical centers in San Antonio have found ourselves drawn even more into collaboration and affiliation. We are working to integrate more of our graduate medical education and other student education and training programs in an effort to improve the quality of each. The three institutions have each achieved Level I trauma certification and formed a marvelous trauma system for South Texas. Also, we are part of the biomedical research consortium with the Health Science Center and several other academic research institutions in San Antonio.
"All of these efforts in education, research, trauma and other complex health services allow us to achieve a degree of synergy, cost-efficiency, but most importantly, quality that we could not achieve independently," he stated. "The growing interdependence for our mutual benefit is delightfully reinforced when I see inquisitive, young medical students from my alma mater on the wards and in the clinics of BAMC wearing the same short, white coat and hearing them tell those same stories of their experiences with patients, faculty and classmates. Oh, the memories."
