University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center


The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center is a public academic health science center in Dallas, Texas. With approximately 13,568 employees and 2,445 faculty and over 2.7 million outpatient visits per year, UT Southwestern is the largest medical school in the University of Texas System and state of Texas.
UTSW's operating budget in 2019 was more than $3.152 billion, and is the largest medical institution in the Dallas Metroplex, annually training about 3,700 medical, graduate, and health professions students, residents, and postdoctoral fellows. Ongoing support from outside sources provides approximately $422.6 million per year for more than 5,700 research projects. In 2017, the school had the largest federal expenditure funding of all UT medical institutions at $204.5 million.
UTSW's three-part mission is to: educate leaders in patient care, biomedical science, and disease prevention; conduct research; and deliver patient care. It incorporates three major degree-granting institutions – UT Southwestern Medical School, UT Southwestern Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, and UT Southwestern School of Health Professions. UTSW has four major affiliated hospitals: Parkland Memorial Hospital, Dallas Children's Medical Center, Zale Lipshy Pavilion – William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital, and William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital. However UT Southwestern's faculty also provide services at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children, VA North Texas Health Care System, and other affiliated hospitals and community clinics in the Metroplex. Faculty and residents care for more than 100,000 hospitalized patients and oversee approximately 2.2 million outpatient visits a year, including more than $106.7 million in unreimbursed clinical services annually.
Through the four major hospitals affiliated with UT, the medical center also has a large presence in Plano and Frisco, prominent suburbs in the Dallas area. Furthermore, in 2016, UT Southwestern began providing additional care through Southwestern Health Resources, a new network combining the systems of Texas Health Resources and UT Southwestern. The network comprises 27 hospitals, 300 clinics, and more than 2,000 physicians, serving a 16-county area with more than 6 million residents.

History

Establishment

Under the leadership of Dr. Edward H. Cary and Karl Hoblitzelle, a group of Dallas citizens organized Southwestern Medical Foundation in 1939 to promote medical education and research in Dallas and the region. When Baylor University moved 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.

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, 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 then-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. This provided for coordinated but separate medical, graduate, and undergraduate components.

Addition of Howard Hughes Medical Institute

In 1986 the Howard Hughes Medical Institute opened a research facility on the campus. Its investigators also hold faculty positions in the basic science departments of the Medical School and Graduate School.

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. The Center consists of three degree-granting institutions: 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 6 million square feet of new construction. The 60-acre South Campus includes 20 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 Pavilion, Parkland Memorial Hospital, William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital, and Children's Medical Center.
In 1987 the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation gave the university 30 acres near the South Campus for future expansion. A 20-year master plan for the site, called North Campus, called 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, followed by a 12-story research tower in 2011. In 1999 the university purchased an additional 50 acres from the MacArthur Foundation, and a portion was used to create an on-campus student-housing complex of 156 apartments. A second phase of 126 units opened in 2004. In 2008, the university purchased the 24-acre Exchange Park adjacent to the North Campus.
In 2008, UT Southwestern announced plans to open the BioCenter at Southwestern Medical District, a facility to commercialize university technologies and attract biotech companies to the area.
Also in 2008, UT Southwestern acquired the Exchange Park site and renamed it the Paul M. Bass Administrative and Clinical Center on the North Campus. The center was named in honor of Mr. Bass, chairman emeritus of the Southwestern Medical Foundation, who served in that role until 2008. With this property, the campus grew to 9 million square feet of laboratory, clinical, educational, and administrative space, covering 387 acres.
In 2009, the $186 million Biomedical Research Building opened. The building is the largest LEED silver-certified laboratory space in Texas.
UT Southwestern opened its William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital on Dec. 6, 2014, along with the decommissioning of the 50-year-old St. Paul University Hospital.
UTSW opened its Radiation Oncology center in 2017.

Affiliated health care institutions



Major affiliations:
Annual patient visits to the Medical Center's clinics average 400,000 a year, up from 50,000 annually 15 years ago. This includes affiliated patient care facilities such as the UT Southwestern University Hospitals.
The Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center is a National Cancer Institute -designated Cancer Center.
UT Southwestern is an Advanced Comprehensive Stroke Center, the highest level of certification. It is the only Joint Commission-certified Advanced Comprehensive Stroke Center in North Texas, one of only three in Texas.
UT Southwestern is home to an NIH Alzheimer's Disease Center and is a Network of Excellence in Neuroscience Clinical Trials Center.
The Doris and Harry W. Bass Jr. Clinical Center for Heart, Lung, and Vascular Disease is a collaborative effort between UT Southwestern faculty and community physicians.
The Center's transplantation programs for heart, lung, kidney, and liver have been certified by the federal government's Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Academics

UT Southwestern is governed by the UT System 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. Throughout its history, UT Southwestern has graduated approximately 20,000 physicians and other professionals in all areas of medicine. In 2016 alone, UTSW faculty is training about 3,700 medical, graduate, and health professions students, residents, and postdoctoral fellows.

UT Southwestern Medical School

UT Southwestern admits approximately 230 students each year. The average MCAT score is 515, and undergraduate GPA in 2017 was 3.81. The acceptance rate for 2014 was 5.6%.
UTSW is one of the five least-expensive public medical schools and among the top 10 largest medical schools in the United States. The school's tuition and fees are approximately $20,000 per year for in-state residents, being subsidized by the state. Admission is competitive and, by mandate of the state legislature, 90 percent of applicants admitted are from the state of Texas. Many out-of-state students earn competitive scholarships that make up the difference.
The Medical School's curriculum emphasizes clinical experience and electives from the first year on. The curriculum comprises three periods – Pre-Clerkship, Clerkship, and Post-Clerkship – and focuses on providing a foundation in biomedical sciences, training in clinical care, and opportunities for research.
The Medical School features six Academic Colleges that function as small learning communities, each headed by a faculty mentor.
Many students use their free time to participate in a variety of community service activities, such as United to Serve, an annual health and fun fair hosted by UT Southwestern for the surrounding community, and the weekly Monday Clinic, organized by student volunteers and staffed by UT Southwestern physicians, providing free medical care to underserved Dallas communities. Other service opportunities include participating at Camp Sweeney, a summer camp in North Texas for children with diabetes.
Along with the M.D. degree, UT Southwestern offers options for students to pursue combined degrees and to earn special graduation distinctions. The combined degrees include:
UT Southwestern is ranked 25th in Research and 8th in Primary Care according to the 2017 U.S. News & World Report Medical School rankings.

Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences

With an enrollment of more than 1,000 students, the Graduate School educates biomedical scientists, engineers, clinical researchers, and counselors. Programs lead to Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Science degrees and, in some cases, non-degree certificates.
The Graduate School has 12 Ph.D. programs: Biological Chemistry; Biomedical Engineering; Cancer Biology; Cell and Molecular Biology; Clinical Psychology; Genetics, Development, and Disease; Immunology; Integrative Biology; Molecular Biophysics; Molecular Microbiology; Neuroscience; and Organic Chemistry.
In addition, a master's degree and a certificate are offered in Clinical Science. Postdoctoral certificates are offered in Research, Advanced Research, Cancer, Educational Techniques, Obesity and Metabolism, and Scientific Management.

M.D./Ph.D. Program

UT Southwestern runs a Medical Scientist Training Program offering a combined M.D./Ph.D. degree. It is one of fewer than 50 M.D./Ph.D.-granting programs nationwide that receive financial support from the National Institutes of Health. The largest source of private support for UTSW's program has been from H. Ross Perot.University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center#cite note-10|
The clinical training curriculum includes coursework in the disciplines necessary to understand human disease at the level of cellular physiology and biochemistry. In addition, students practice clinical skills at UT Southwestern's affiliated clinical training hospitals, including Parkland Memorial Hospital and William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital.
Following summer laboratory rotations, students choose one of 10 interdepartmental graduate programs and select a dissertation mentor from the UT Southwestern Graduate School faculty for training in intellectual and experimental strategies. During these years, the MSTP student functions as a graduate student in his or her laboratory while maintaining an awareness of clinical medicine through program activities.
Dissertation research culminates in results that significantly advance the state of biomedical knowledge.

School of Health Professions



About 340 students are enrolled in UT Southwestern's School of Health Professions. The school confers a doctoral professional degree in Physical Therapy and master's degrees in Clinical Nutrition, Physician Assistant Studies, Prosthetics-Orthotics, and Rehabilitation Counseling. The school also has a baccalaureate certificate program in Radiation Therapy.
The Physician Assistant program was founded in 1972. For the past five years, graduates have had a 100 percent first-time pass rate on the national certifying exam. Much of the training occurs at Parkland Hospital.University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center#cite note-11|

Rankings

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 on the North Campus.University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center#cite note-12|

Research

UT Southwestern had a total research expenditure of $454.9 million in 2018 of which $204.5 million was federally sourced.
UT Southwestern scientists and physician researchers conduct investigations into cancer, stem cells, neuroscience, heart disease and stroke, arthritis, diabetes, and many other fields.
At the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute on campus, investigators research the basic molecular workings of the brain, and their application to the prevention and treatment of brain diseases and injuries. The Institute covers neurodegenerative diseases; depression and psychiatric disorders; migraines; and spine, nerve, and muscle diseases. Also at the Institute are voice specialists, rehabilitation experts, and neuroimmunologists, plus basic and translational scientists in cellular and molecular neuroscience, neurobiology, regenerative medicine, neuro-engineering, imaging, and genetics.
Researchers at UTSW's Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center – the only cancer center in North Texas with the National Cancer Institute's "comprehensive" designation – are focusing on discovering drug-like chemicals that drive or inhibit cancer growth,and deciphering mechanisms in cell regulatory networks that go awry and contribute to cancer initiation and growth. Researchers in developmental biology, cancer biology, and stem cell biology work on how developmental processes contribute to cancer's progress.
In 2011, the Children's Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern was established as a joint venture between Children's Health System of Texas and UTSW. Located on the UTSW campus, CRI is home to an interdisciplinary group of scientists and physicians pursuing research in regenerative medicine, cancer biology and metabolism.
UT Southwestern established the Hamon Center for Regenerative Science and Medicine in 2014 for research on fundamental mechanisms of tissue formation and repair,and to develop transformative strategies and medications for tissue regeneration.
Research at UTSW's Texas Institute for Brain Injury and Repair focuses on brain injuries and conditions, including traumatic brain injury, stroke, and Alzheimer's disease. The Institute also promotes brain injury education and prevention.
Other research currently underway at UT Southwestern includes studies on:

Nobel Laureates

Seven UT Southwestern alumni and/or faculty members have been awarded Nobel Prizes:
Two current recipients of the Albert D. Lasker Award in Basic Medical Research
Twenty-five current members of the National Academy of Sciences
Seventeen current members of the National Academy of Medicine
Fifteen members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Fifteen current members of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Two current recipients of the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences.