The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UT Southwestern) is one of the leading medical education and biomedical research institutions in the United States. UT Southwestern is located in Southwestern Medical District, a 231-acre (0.93 km2) 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. It also has programs with affiliated hospitals at several sites in Dallas, Richardson, Fort Worth, Waco, Austin, and Wichita Falls.
History
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Since the late 1960s the university has added more than 6,000,000 square feet (560,000Â m2) of new construction. The 60-acre (240,000Â m2) 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).
In 1987 the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation gave the university 30 acres (120,000Â 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 50 acres (200,000Â m2) 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 has expanded its reach in 2003 with more facilities located in Dallas, Fort Worth, southern Tarrant County, and Weatherford, Texas.
The clinical services are expanding as annual patient visits to the medical center’s clinics average 400,000 a year, up dramatically from only 50,000 annually 15 years ago. In 2003, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences added a 12th member and in 2004 the National Academy of Sciences elected a 15th member from the UT Southwestern faculty to join its ranks.
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
UT Southwestern Medical School admits approximately 230 students each year; admission to the school is highly competitive. The average MCAT score and undergraduate GPA of UT Southwestern matriculants for 2011 were 33 and 3.8, respectively. The acceptance rate for 2006 was 13.1%.
UT Southwestern is one of the five least-expensive public medical schools and amongst the top ten largest medical schools in the United States. 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 of UT Southwestern have amongst the lowest amounts of student loan debt at the time of matriculation (average debt of grads from Southwestern is $75,400 according to the 2008 U.S. News and World Report).
UT Southwestern medical students manage The Monday Clinic, a free weekly clinic in North Dallas, under the supervision of Dallas-area physicians. UTSW students 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.
UT Southwestern is ranked 26th in Research and 22nd in Primary Care according to the 2015 U.S. News and World Report Medical School rankings.
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 20th in the Nation in Biological Sciences.
Specialties
- 11th in Biochemistry / Biophysics / Structural Biology
- 10th in Cell Biology
- 9th in Immunology / Infectious Disease
- 10th in Molecular Biology
2012 Academic Ranking of World Universities places UTSW 7th in the world for Life and Agriculture Sciences and 6th for Clinical Medicine and Pharmacy.
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 2005â€"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 â€" Harvard University, the University of California, San Francisco, and Johns Hopkins University â€" ranked among the top 10 in four or more fields.
MD-PhD Program
UT Southwestern runs a competitive Medical Scientist Training Program. The largest source of private support for UTSW's program has been from software billionaire H. Ross Perot, who regularly makes personal appearances during MSTP recruitment events. Dr. Michael Brown has been an advocate for MD-PhD programs, as well as other programs designed to foster the development of future clinician-scientists. Both he and fellow Nobel Laureate Dr. Joseph Goldstein are MD-educated basic scientists and often emphasize the importance of a research-oriented medical education for future medical investigators. Dr. Brown 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 is home to a number of programs in eleven health care fields. These programs include Doctor of Physical Therapy, Physician assistant, Rehabilitation counseling, in addition to many others.
The Physician assistant program is an accredited masters program which was founded in 1972. The program has a 100% first time pass rate of the national certifying exam for the last five years. The hub of the training occurs at Parkland Memorial Hospital.
Patient Care
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.
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.
Faculty
Notable faculty
UTSW's clinical faculty includes 58 specialists listed in Best Doctors in America and 230 included in Best Doctors in America: Central Region.
UT Southwestern has 5.8 Nobel Laureates, four of which remain actively at the university. Alfred Gillman is emeritus faculty due to his position at CPRIT:
21 members of the National Academy of Sciences
- 1979 Ronald Estabrook, Ph.D. (emeritus)
19 members of the Institute of Medicine
16 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
12 Members of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Notable alumni
- Jim C. Barnett, physician/surgeon and member of the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1992 to 2008.
- Robert Cade, internal medicine, founded Gatorade
- Brett Giroir, biomedical researcher, former Director of DARPA, current Vice Chancellor for Strategic Initiatives at the Texas A&M University System
- David Mendelblatt, yachtsman and ophthalmologist
- Malcolm Perry, attended to John F. Kennedy at Parkland Memorial Hospital on November 22, 1963
- Stuart Spitzer, surgeon from Kaufman and incoming Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives from District 4
- Richard Warshak, psychologist, author, consultant 2008 Distinguished Alumni Award
- Linda B. Buck, 2004 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine for work on olfactory receptors, currently an HHMI investigator at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
- Xiaodong Wang, 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
- Teddy Altman (fictional) - cardiac surgeon on Grey's Anatomy
Affiliated healthcare institutions
Major affiliations:
Minor affiliations:
References
External links
- UT Southwestern Medical Center website
- UTSW MSTP Website
- The Immunology Database and Analysis Portal â€" an NIAID-funded database resource of reference and experiment data covering the entire immunology domain
- Influenza Research Database â€" Database of influenza genomic sequences and related information.
- Virus Pathogen Resource â€" Virus Pathogen Resource.
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