Students will enroll this fall in the new accelerated pathway to medical school.
UNT Health Fort Worth’s Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine and Weatherford College on Tuesday announced a partnership that provides students with an accelerated path to becoming an osteopathic physician. The new Primary Care Pathway Program will allow selected Weatherford College students to complete medical school through a seven-year 2+1+4 plan.
The program is designed to address the growing shortage of primary care physicians in rural and medically underserved areas across Texas. The first cohort of students is expected to begin at Weatherford College in the fall. “We are thrilled to start this new pathway program with Weatherford College,” said Christopher Ray, Ph.D., UNT Health’s provost and senior vice president. “We all know there is a critical shortage of primary care providers in the state of Texas and in our rural communities. This pathway program is designed specifically to address those underserved areas and bring more primary care physicians into rural parts of Texas. There is no better medical school prepared for this than TCOM.”
Tod Allen Farmer, M.Ed., president of Weatherford College, shared in Ray’s excitement. “As a graduate of both Weatherford College and the University of North Texas System, I am extremely excited that our shared students will now have a seamless pathway to become physicians,” he said. “These two noble institutions are doing great things for Texas.”
According to data from Texas 2036 and the Texas Department of State Health Services, 224 of Texas’ 254 counties have shortages of primary care providers. Parker, Jack, Wise and Palo Pinto counties, from which Weatherford College draws many students, are among those experiencing shortages, with the problem expected to worsen. More than 6 million Texans currently live in a Health Professional Shortage Area.
“The shortage of primary care physicians in Texas is getting worse, and TCOM is stepping up to address this problem,” said Dr. Lisa Nash, TCOM dean and vice president for clinical affairs at UNT Health. “As a family physician, I know how important it is for communities to have access to primary care providers, and I’m so proud of this new partnership with Weatherford College. We are going to turn local students into local physicians who will serve their communities for years.”
Students will complete their first two years of undergraduate study at Weatherford College before transitioning to their third year at UNT Health’s College of Biomedical and Translational Sciences in Fort Worth. After finishing their third year, students will enroll in TCOM at UNT Health as first-year medical students. Students must maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.75 or higher during their undergraduate studies and complete the course requirements for both Weatherford College and UNT Health before matriculating to TCOM.
This collaboration marks the second TCOM Pathway Program, joining the partnership with Midland College, Midland Memorial Hospital and the University of North Texas that began in 2015. TCOM celebrated the first graduate of the Midland Pathway Program in 2023 and the program’s 10th anniversary in 2025.
About UNT Health UNT Health Fort Worth is located in the heart of the Fort Worth Cultural District. UNT Health trains the health care providers, public health workforce and scientists of the future in an interprofessional ecosystem. Through its six colleges — Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine, College of Biomedical and Translational Sciences, College of Public Health, College of Health Professions, College of Pharmacy and College of Nursing — students learn to work in teams and develop an innovative mindset that prepares them for a rapidly changing health landscape. UNT Health Clinical Practice Group, the clinical enterprise of UNT Health, provides patient-centered care to people across Tarrant County. UNT Health’s research enterprise provides a foundation to expand the frontiers of scientific discovery to improve health and well-being.
About Weatherford College
Weatherford College is the fastest-growing community college in the North Texas region. WC serves approximately 10,000 students per year and is also the oldest community college west of the Mississippi River, established in 1869.
