Daniel K. Podolsky, M.D.

UT Southwestern Medical Center is distinctive for its overall quality and for the strength of its three core missions of education, research, and patient care. These mission components are highly interdependent; each is integral to and enhances the others. The results of basic science, translational, and clinical research inform the patient care we provide; research projects are influenced by the desire to understand the causes of disease and the hope of designing new—and effective—treatments and cures; and our students and trainees are exposed to innovative scientific thinking and clinical expertise, and in turn, stimulate our faculty to remain at the cutting edge of their fields. UT Southwestern is proud of its distinguished record of breakthrough scientific discoveries, outstanding medical education and training, and excellence in patient care. Founded in 1943 as a private medical school by a group of prominent Dallas citizens, it became part of the University of Texas System in 1949, and has evolved over the years to become one of the leading academic medical centers in the country.

UT Southwestern consists today of three degree-granting schools and a University Health System of hospitals and clinics. Since 1985, six faculty members have been awarded Nobel Prizes. In addition, our faculty includes many members of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine). UT Southwestern Medical Center is either nationally ranked or rated as high performing in nearly a dozen specialties by U.S. News & World Report. The initial connection with the Dallas community has been sustained, and their ongoing interest and generosity have been fundamental to UT Southwestern’s growth and success.

UT Southwestern contributes to the Dallas community and North Texas region in multiple ways. With more than 17,000 employees and an operating budget of $3.4 billion, the Medical Center is a major source of jobs and economic activity for Dallas. UT Southwestern faculty receive over $489.4 million a year in external funding for research, and as an extension of our research mission, UT Southwestern promotes technology transfer activities that lead to the creation of companies aimed at translating research results into therapeutic agents.

In regard to clinical care, UT Southwestern contributes directly and indirectly to the quality of health care available to those who live in Dallas and North Texas. The majority of physicians who practice in the area were trained at UT Southwestern, and in addition to the care provided by UT Southwestern faculty physicians to patients at our affiliated partners – Parkland Hospital, Children’s Health℠ Children’s Medical Center, and the Dallas VA Medical Center – UT Southwestern University Hospitals (William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital and Zale Lipshy Pavilion – William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital) provide members of the Dallas community access to the most advanced care for the most serious medical problems. Clements University Hospital is a designated stroke center, our Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center is the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center in North Texas, and the nursing program achieved Magnet status, recognized as the gold standard of nursing excellence. Clements University Hospital opened in late 2014, and is designed to be an expression of our commitment to delivering high-quality, patient-centric care that reflects the integration of our academic and clinical missions.

To position UT Southwestern for success in the changing landscape of health care delivery and to provide the citizens of North Texas with expanded, comprehensive access to quality health care, UT Southwestern formed a clinically integrated network, Southwestern Health Resources, with Texas Health Resources to leverage the strengths of both organizations. Southwestern Health Resources began operations in April 2016, and it encompasses 31 hospitals locations, 300 clinics, and more than 2,600 physicians across a 16-county area.

Other milestones include our new $17 million cryo-electron microscope facility with a unique collection of instruments, literally not found anywhere else in the world, that allows investigators to view 3-D images of objects as tiny as an atom or an intact cell, technology expected to accelerate discoveries in basic research that answer fundamental scientific questions. The facility is also expected to contribute significantly to translational investigations that advance the development of drugs and other therapies to combat human disease. Scientists and clinicians with the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute, established in 2015, are working to address the devastating toll of diseases of the brain, actively using sophisticated techniques in gene editing, biomarker analysis, and other advanced technologies to better understand, treat, cure, and prevent a wide range of neurological and brain disorders.

In 2017, UT Southwestern opened a new state-of-the-art Radiation Oncology Building adjacent to the BioCenter on East Campus, and work is well underway on the education and clinical building that will be the first phase of the master plan for West Campus. UT Southwestern also will open an ambulatory care facility at the UT Southwestern Monty and Tex Moncrief Medical Center at Fort Worth.

UT Southwestern is committed to remaining at the forefront of scientific research; to educating and training physicians, scientists, and health care professionals for the changing landscapes of health care delivery and of biomedical and clinical research; and to providing excellent and innovative patient care. The leadership, faculty, staff, and students of UT Southwestern Medical Center are proud to be engaged in creating the future of medicine, today.