University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

Type	Public
Established	1943
Endowment	$915 million (November 2014) [1]
President	Daniel K. Podolsky, M.D.
Dean	J. Gregory Fitz, M.D.
Academic staff	3691 (1,394 full-time, 402 part-time, 1,755 voluntary, 110 faculty associates, and 30 administrators)
Administrative staff	7103
Postgraduates	3255
Location	Dallas, Texas, USA 32°48′45″N 96°50′18″W / 32.8126058°N 96.8384102°W / 32.8126058; -96.8384102Coordinates: 32°48′45″N 96°50′18″W / 32.8126058°N 96.8384102°W / 32.8126058; -96.8384102
Campus	Urban, 231 acres (0.9 km2)
Website	www.utsouthwestern.edu

The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UT Southwestern) is a prominent medical education and biomedical research institution in the United States. It is located in Southwestern Medical District, a 231 acre campus in Dallas incorporating UT Southwestern Medical School, UT Southwestern Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, UT Southwestern School of Health Professions, and four affiliated hospitals: Parkland Memorial Hospital, Children’s Health℠, Zale Lipshy University Hospital, and William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital.

History

Establishment

Southwestern Medical College as it appeared at its founding in the 1940s. Animal facilities are seen in the lower right.

The North Campus Research Buildings.

Under the leadership of Dr. Edward H. Cary and Karl Hoblitzelle, a group of prominent Dallas citizens organized Southwestern Medical Foundation in 1939 to promote medical education and research in Dallas and the region. When Baylor University elected to move its school of medicine from Dallas to Houston in 1943, the foundation formally established Southwestern Medical College as the 68th medical school in the United States. Founded during World War II, the medical school was initially housed in a handful of abandoned barracks.^[2]

Affiliation with University of Texas

When a new state medical school was proposed after World War II, leaders of Southwestern Medical Foundation offered the college's equipment, library and certain restricted funds to the University of Texas System, provided the university would locate its new medical branch in Dallas. The Board of Regents accepted this offer from the foundation, and in 1949 the college became Southwestern Medical School of The University of Texas. In 1954 the name was changed to The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. The present campus site on Harry Hines Boulevard was occupied in 1955 upon the completion of the Edward H. Cary Building. This placed the medical school faculty next to the newly built Parkland Memorial Hospital.^[2]

Reorganization

In November 1972 the name and scope of the medical school were changed with its reorganization into The University of Texas Health Science Center at Dallas. In approving the concept of a health science center, the Board of Regents provided for the continued growth of coordinated but separate medical, graduate and undergraduate components, interacting creatively on the problems of human health and well-being.^[2]

Addition of Howard Hughes Medical Institute

In 1986 the Howard Hughes Medical Institute opened a research facility on the campus. Concentrating on molecular biology, it has brought outstanding scientists to head laboratories in their specialties. These investigators also hold faculty positions in the basic science departments of the medical school and graduate school.^[2]

Name change

In October 1987 the UT System Board of Regents approved changing the name of the health science center to The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, reconfirming its original Southwestern identity. The medical center encompasses UT Southwestern Medical School, UT Southwestern Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, and UT Southwestern School of Health Professions.

Physical expansion

Since the late 1960s the university has added more than six million square feet of new construction. The sixty acre South Campus includes sixteen buildings housing classrooms, laboratories, offices, the extensive University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Library, an auditorium and a large outpatient center. Affiliated hospitals adjacent to the campus are Zale Lipshy University Hospital, Parkland Memorial Hospital, William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital, and Children's Medical Center (Dallas).^[2]

In 1987 the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation gave the university 30 acres (120,000 m²) near the South Campus for future expansion. A 20-year master plan for the site, called North Campus, calls for six research towers, a support-services building, an energy plant, and underground parking, in addition to the Mary Nell and Ralph B. Rogers Magnetic Resonance Center and the Moncrief Radiation Oncology Center. Three research towers and an elevated campus connector, linking the South Campus with the North Campus, were completed in the 1990s. A fourth 14-story research tower, was completed in 2005. In 1999 the university purchased an additional } fifty acres from the MacArthur Foundation and a portion of the property was used to create an on-campus student-housing complex of 156 apartments. A second phase of 126 units opens in the summer of 2004. After its initial affiliation with Southwestern in 1999, the Moncrief Radiation Oncology Cancer Center expanded its reach in 2003 with more facilities located in Dallas, Fort Worth, southern Tarrant County, and Weatherford, Texas.^[2]

Clinical services

The clinical services are expanding as annual patient visits to the medical center’s clinics average 400,000 a year, up from 50,000 annually 15 years ago. UT Southwestern also includes affiliated patient care facilities such as the UT Southwestern University Hospitals, and the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, which is a National Cancer Institute NCI-designated Cancer Center.

Academics

UT Southwestern is governed by the UT Board of Regents. The medical center includes three degree-granting institutions/schools: UT Southwestern Medical School, UT Southwestern Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and UT Southwestern School of Health Professions.

UT Southwestern Medical School

UTSWMS admits approximately 230 students each year.^[3] The average MCAT score is 34, and undergraduate GPA in 2014 was 3.88.^[4] The acceptance rate for 2014 was 5.6%.

UTSWMS is one of the five least-expensive public medical schools and amongst the top ten largest medical schools in the United States.^[5] The school's tuition is just over $15,000 per year for in-state residents, being subsidized by the state. By mandate of the state legislature, 90 percent of students are from the state of Texas, in order to assure the state a consistent source of high-quality physicians. Many out-of-state students earn competitive scholarships that make up the difference. Graduates have among the lowest amounts of student loan debt at the time of graduation: average debt $75,400 according to the 2008 U.S. News and World Report.

UTSWMS students manage The Monday Clinic, a free weekly clinic in North Dallas, under the supervision of Dallas-area physicians. They also have the opportunity to volunteer at the Agape Clinic, a free weekly dermatology clinic in Dallas, and Camp Sweeney, a summer camp in North Texas for children with diabetes.

UTSWMS is ranked 25th in Research and 17th in Primary Care according to the 2016 U.S. News and World Report Medical School rankings. It is one of 23 medical institutions to be within the top 25 for both research and primary care rankings. ^[6]

Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences

According to the 2010 U.S. News and World Report containing the latest ranking for graduate schools of life sciences as of June 2013, UT Southwestern is ranked 19th in the Nation in Biological Sciences.^[7]

Specialties

1. 11th in Biochemistry / Biophysics / Structural Biology
2. 10th in Cell Biology
3. 9th in Immunology / Infectious Disease
4. 10th in Molecular Biology

2012 Academic Ranking of World Universities places UTSW 7th^[8] in the world for Life and Agriculture Sciences and 6th for Clinical Medicine and Pharmacy.^[9]

Other ranking methodologies which aim to quantify the impact of publications rank UTSW among the top five biomedical research institutions in the nation. Notably, Thomson ScienceWatch, which quantifies citations-per-paper for work published between 2005–2009, ranked UTSW 1st in the world for published research in Clinical Medicine, 1st in Biology & Biochemistry, 2nd in Neurobiology/Behavior, and 3rd in Molecular Biology/Genetics. No other institution surveyed ranked at the top of more than 1 category, and only three other institutions – Harvard University, the University of California, San Francisco, and Johns Hopkins University – ranked among the top 10 in four or more fields.^[10]

MD-PhD Program

UT Southwestern runs a competitive Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP). The largest source of private support for UTSW's program has been from H. Ross Perot.^[11] Dr. Michael Brown, nobel laureate, is involved with the administration of the program, and attends the weekly "Works-in-Progress" talks given by research faculty.

School of Health Professions

The School of Health Professions has students in eleven health care fields. These programs include Doctor of Physical Therapy, Master of Physician assistant studies, and Rehabilitation counseling.

The Physician assistant program was founded in 1972. For the past five years, graduates have had a 100% first time pass rate of the national certifying exam. Much of the training occurs at Parkland Memorial Hospital.^[12]

Library

The Health Sciences Digital Library and Learning Center supports the information needs of UT Southwestern's research, educational, and clinical activities. The Library and Learning Center maintains a large collection of electronic information resources, print archives, rare books, and materials concerning the history of medicine. It also offers assistance and training in using these resources. The library also has a small branch library on the North Campus.^[13]

Notable faculty

Six Nobel Laureates, four of whom are still active at UTSW.^[14]

Twenty-one members of the National Academy of Sciences^[14]

• 1979 Ronald Estabrook, Ph.D. (emeritus)

Nineteen members of the Institute of Medicine^[14]

Sixteen members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences^[14]

Twelve Members of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute^[16]

UTSW's clinical faculty includes 58 specialists listed in" Best Doctors in America" and 230 included in "Best Doctors in America: Central Region".^[2]

Notable alumni

• James Atkins (MD 1967) UTSW Professor of Medicine
• Jim C. Barnett (MD 1949) (deceased 2013), Member of the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1992 to 2008.^[17]
• Linda B. Buck, (PhD 1980) 2004 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine for work on olfactory receptors, currently an HHMI investigator at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
• Robert Cade,(MD 1954) (deceased 2007) professor of medicine and nephrology at the University of Florida, formulated Gatorade.

• Daniel Foster (MD 1955?) UTSW chairman department of medicine, holder of the UTSW John Denis McGarry, Ph.D., Distinguished Chair in Diabetes and Metabolic Research
• Norman Gant (MD) Former UTSW Chairman Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
• Brett Giroir, (MD 1986), biomedical researcher, former Director of DARPA, current Vice Chancellor for Strategic Initiatives at the Texas A&M University System
• Joseph Goldstein, (MD 1966) is currently Chairman of the Department of Molecular Genetics at UTSW. In 1985, he was named Regental Professor of the University of Texas. He also holds the Paul J. Thomas Chair in Medicine and the Julie and Louis A. Beecherl Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Science. Dr. Goldstein and his colleague, Michael S. Brown, discovered the low density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor and worked out how these receptors control cholesterol homeostasis. It helped lay the conceptual groundwork for development of statins that lower blood LDL-cholesterol and prevent heart attacks. Drs. Goldstein and Brown shared many awards for this work, including the Lasker Award in Basic Medical Research (1985), Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1985), and the National Medal of Science (1988). In recent work, Drs. Goldstein and Brown discovered the SREBP family of transcription factors and showed how these membrane-bound molecules control the synthesis of cholesterol and fatty acids through a newly described process of Regulated Intramembrane Proteolysis. For this work, Drs. Brown and Goldstein received the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research (2003). Dr. Goldstein is currently Chairman of the Albert Lasker Medical Research Awards Jury and is a member of the Boards of Trustees of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and The Rockefeller University.
• Francisco Gonzalez Cigarroa, (MD 1983), president of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, chancellor of the University of Texas System, chief of pediatric transplant surgery at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
• Norman M. Kaplan (MD 1955?) UTSW Clinical Professor of Medicine, author, lecturer, recipient American Heart Associationlifetime achievement award
• Malcolm Perry, (MD 1955) (deceased 2009) while a surgery resident attended to John F. Kennedy at Parkland Memorial Hospital on November 22, 1963, chief of vascular surgery New York-Cornell Hospital 1978 to 1988, professor of surgery Texas Tech University, professor emeritus UTSW.
• Stuart Spitzer (MD 1971?), incoming Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives from District 4
• Richard Warshak, (PhD 1979) clinical and research psychologist and author; known internationally for his expertise on divorce, child custody, and parental alienation; served as a White House consultant on family law reform; 2008 Distinguished Alumni Award
• Xiaodong Wang (PhD), biomedical researcher, member of the National Academy of Science 2004, The Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine 2006, Director National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing
• Kern Wildenthal (MD 1964) president of the Children's Medical Center Foundation in Dallas, President Emeritus and Professor of Medicine Emeritus UTSW, president UTSW 1986-2008.
• Jean D. Wilson (MD 1955), Professor of Medicine UTSW, Institute of Medicine member since 1994, co-editor Harrison's Textbook of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences member since 1983, American Academy of Arts and Sciences member since 1982.

Affiliated healthcare institutions

Major affiliations:

Minor affiliations:

References

External links

• UT Southwestern Medical Center website
• UTSW MSTP Website
• The Immunology Database and Analysis Portal – an NIAID-funded database resource of reference and experiment data covering the entire immunology domain
• Influenza Research Database – Database of influenza genomic sequences and related information.
• Virus Pathogen Resource – Virus Pathogen Resource.