Tourniquet is an online, open-access publication founded in 2022 by Sarah Snyder and medical students at the University of Houston. Content published in Tourniquet is by medical students, clinicians, and other health professionals/students across Texas. All submissions undergo blind review, and research is peer-reviewed by local experts. The editorial board is made up of volunteer students and is editorially independent. All content is reviewed by the editor-in-chief, our editorial board, and faculty advisors. The journal provides a space for reflective work emphasizing the connection between medicine and the arts, scholarly activity and research, and perspectives on the practice of medicine, with particular emphasis on health equity, underserved populations, and the need for systemic improvements to healthcare. Tourniquet is registered with the U.S. Library of Congress with the ISSN: 2834-4618.

Mission Statement and Values
The Mission of Tourniquet is to create an online environment for Texas medical students and healthcare providers that fosters the values listed below. It will serve as a concrete symbol of medical history in the local community, providing a visual and written archive. We seek to promote medical education through the media of research, writing, relationships, and art.   
  
Our goal is to become the premiere medical publication in Texas while fostering interdisciplinary relationships that will ultimately benefit patients and the Texan community at large. 

VALUES:
• Freedom of Expression/Speech
• Veracity and Reputability
• Furthering of Medical Research
• Accountability of Medical Professionals to The Local Community
• Mentorship
• Leadership

Our Ethical Guidelines reflect the values that we find imporant to clinicians, patients, and the Texan community. In developing Tourniquet's ethical principles, we would like to reference and cite excerpts from in-Training who references work from Dr. Tom Linden, MD, the Glaxo Wellcome Distinguished Professor of Medical Journalism in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Through Dr. Linden’s article, “A Delicate Balance: Ethical Standards for Physician-Journalists” and in-Trainings’ examples, we adapt and amend to emphasize the following in Tourniquet publications: 

• Works including patient information should provide written consent that is given freely and without duress.

• Authors and Artists must be mindful of how a submission will affect the patient and the community; consider an alternative narrative even if the patient consents to being profiled. 

• Do not exploit vulnerability for gain or glory. 

Viewpoints 

Articles and submissions published by Tourniquet do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Tourniquet staff. Although Tourniquet was created and is managed by students from Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine, none of the included works reflect the opinions of the school or of Tilman Fertitta himself.