Message from Dr. Steve Mifflin, Associate Dean of Research and Innovation

The Office of Research and Innovation's mission is to work with our outstanding faculty to train professional osteopathic physicians and scholars with a focus on patient and justice-based research and scholarly activity. Through clinical and laboratory opportunities, our learners obtain the professional skills and experiences that will prepare them for intra- and inter-disciplinary research and scholarly activity and careers as lifelong learners.

Please browse our site to learn more about the exciting research being pursued by faculty, staff and learners. You may be surprised by the breadth and depth of research activities at UIWSOM as a young medical school. The UIWSOM’s strategic plan for research and scholarly activity aligns closely with the University of the Incarnate Word’s social justice and community service mission while remaining committed to expanding knowledge that is grounded in the unique elements and applications of the principles and practices of osteopathic medicine.

Our efforts are centered on three themes:

• Community Engagement: Develop translational research that directly benefits local communities.
• Education: Develop, initiate and assess novel models of education and training for learners with a focus on social.
• Partnerships: Establish interdisciplinary educational and research partnerships regionally, nationally.

Our location within the thriving biomedical research community of San Antonio and the historically rich Brooks City Base is the site of the former U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine. In addition to working with UIWSOM faculty, our learners are working at research facilities throughout the city (e.g., UT Health, Texas Biomedical Foundation, Children’s Hospital of San Antonio). Our goal is to provide our faculty, staff and students with a wide variety of opportunities to develop and pursue research and scholarly activity. We are adding to our existing core laboratory facilities and developing new facilities so that investigators are not burdened with having to obtain funding before they can even begin a research project. We have instituted internal funding mechanisms to support the research efforts of faculty, staff and students as well as programs to support student travel so that our learners can present the results of their research efforts to colleagues at conferences and meetings within Texas and across the USA.

If you have any questions about research and scholarly activity at the UIWSOM please do not hesitate to contact me at mifflin@uiwtx.edu.