University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas

The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas (also known as “UT Southwestern”) is a medical research center in Texas, United States. It is one of the leading academic medical centers in the world. [ [http://www.utsouthwestern.edu/utsw/cda/dept37361/files/281435.html UT Southwestern Fact Sheet] ]

Located in the Southwestern Medical District, UT Southwestern is situated on a convert|231|acre|km2|sing=on campus in Dallas. It has branch programs with affiliated hospitals at several sites in Dallas, Richardson, Fort Worth, Waco and Wichita Falls. The medical center is located adjacent to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, and near UT Dallas, Southern Methodist University, Children's Medical Center, and the headquarters of the American Heart Association.

The center includes three degree-granting institutions: UT Southwestern Medical School, UT Southwestern Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and UT Southwestern Allied Health Sciences School. The medical center and its four affiliated hospitals: Zale Lipshy University Hospital, St. Paul University Hospital, Parkland Memorial Hospital, and Children’s Medical Center Dallas make up the Southwestern Medical District. It is also affiliated with Aston Ambulatory Care Center.

History

The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, originally named as “Southwestern Medical College”, was established in 1943 as a wartime medical school. By 1949 it had prospered sufficiently to become the second medical school in The University of Texas System. In 1972 the scope of the medical school was expanded to that of a full-fledged health science center, and the institution was renamed The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas in 1987.

Faculty

Four Nobel laureates are faculty at UT Southwestern [http://www8.utsouthwestern.edu/utsw/home/about/nobel/index.html] , more than any other medical school in the world. [http://www8.utsouthwestern.edu/vgn/images/portal/cit_56417/43/32/2800592006_Fact_Sheet.pdf] The faculty also includes: 15 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 16 members of the Institute of Medicine, More than 200 specialists listed in Best Doctors in America:Central Region. ["Ibid."]

Library

The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas Library serves the research, education and clinical information needs of the campus, including the University Hospitals, as well as serving Parkland Health & Hospital System and Children’s Medical Center. According to the library’s [http://www4.utsouthwestern.edu/library/about/aboutResult.cfm?id=56 Facts and Statistics] page [ [http://www4.utsouthwestern.edu/library/about/aboutResult.cfm?id=56 Library Facts and Statistics--UT Southwestern Medical Center Library] . Retrieved on 17 April 2008.] , the library offers over 50,000 full-text electronic journals and 86,000 books including both print and electronic, as well as about 184,000 print journal volumes. The library’s World Wide Web site gets 1.4 million hits annually and features quality-filtered Internet resources.

The library’s main physical location on the South Campus offers almost convert|65000|sqft|m2 of space with computers for client use, the print book and journal collection, and many study areas. The library also has a small branch library on the North Campus. The main library is open 109 hours per week, seven days per week. The Information Desk offers assistance to users whenever the library is open. Library staff totals 52 full-time equivalents. Persons not affiliated with UT Southwestern are allowed to use the library’s resources on-site to obtain information for purposes consistent with the mission of the campus: medical research, education and patient care. For more information about the library, see its [http://www4.utsouthwestern.edu/library/about/about.cfm About the Library] Web page [ [http://www4.utsouthwestern.edu/library/about/about.cfm About the Library--UT Southwestern Medical Center Library] . Retrieved on 17 April 2008.] .

Research

UT Southwestern ranked first among the world’s medical schools in the production of highly cited research papers in molecular biology and genetics between 1992 and 2002. Theelite rank was compiled by Science Watch, an independent publication that reports on trends and performances in basic research. [ [http://www.in-cites.com/institutions/texas.html in-cites - In-depth Profile of the University of Texas System] ]

Southwestern runs a MD-PHD program, funded partly by Federal Medical Scientist Training Program funds and partly by large grants from private donors, including oil billionaire H. Ross Perot, who regularly makes personal appearances during MSTP recruitment events. [ Skolnick AA. "Thanks to gift from Ross Perot, University of Texas Southwestern's MD-PhD Program triples in size." JAMA. 1993 Apr 7;269(13):1607, 1611. ]

Research at Southwestern is organized hierarchically, more so than most other academic research institutions. Department chairs' laboratories often contain the entire departments they are in charge of, and these chairs make tenure decisions and disburse departmental funds themselves. This is in contrast to most other American universities, where faculty committees and/or the deans or regents vote on such matters, and departments are composed of smaller, independent research groups. [ [http://www4.utsouthwestern.edu/moleculargenetics/pages/brown/person.html Lab Personnel for Brown/Goldstein Laboratory in the Department of Molecular Genetics at University of Texas Southwestern] ] [ [http://www.utsouthwestern.edu/home/research/centersdepts/index.html UTS Centers and Departments] ]

ee also

*Texas Medical Center
*South Texas Medical Center

References

External links

* [http://www.utsouthwestern.edu/ UT Southwestern Medical Center website]
* [http://www.immport.org The Immunology Database and Analysis Portal] - an NIAID-funded database resource of reference and experiment data covering the entire immunology domain
* [http://www.biohealthbase.org BioHealthBase] - an NIAID-funded database resource for select human pathogens, including "Influenza virus", "Mycobacterium tuberculosis" and "Francisella tularensis"