Podolsky Named President of UT Southwestern Medical Center

AUSTIN – The University of Texas System Board of Regents today (June 20) formally appointed Harvard professor and Boston healthcare academic leader Daniel K. Podolsky, M.D., president of UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

 Podolsky, who will succeed longtime President Kern Wildenthal on September 2, had been named the sole finalist for the position by the UT System Board of Regents in May following a national search.

“We look forward to Dr. Podolsky’s leadership and have the utmost confidence that he will continue building on the excellence that has been the hallmark of UT Southwestern,” Regents’ Chairman H. Scott Caven, Jr., said. “His credentials as an administrator and faculty member are impressive by any measure and his wisdom would be instantly valuable to any world-class institution such as UT Southwestern. The UT System family and the state of Texas as a whole will greatly benefit from having someone of Dr. Podolsky’s caliber in this critical leadership post.”

Podolsky is an internationally renowned physician scientist and has been associated with Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital – where he has served as chief of gastroenterology since 1989 – for his entire career.  A former president of the American Gastroenterological Association, he received the AGA’s Distinguished Achievement Award in 2007.

For the past three years, he has also served as chief academic officer of Partners HealthCare, which was founded by Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 1994. In that role, he was responsible for a $1 billion research enterprise as well as graduate medical education at both hospitals. He is currently on the board of directors and audit committee of GlaxoSmithKline. Podolsky earned his undergraduate degree (summa cum laude) from Harvard College and medical degree from Harvard Medical School. He is married to Dr. Carol P. Podolsky, and they are the parents of three children now in college and graduate school.

“Dr. Podolsky brings with him a distinguished record of achievement that will serve UT Southwestern – and medical education in general – well,” said Dr. Kenneth I. Shine, UT System chancellor ad interim. “His experiences as a professor, clinician and administrator aptly suit him for taking on a breadth of challenges that face academic health centers today.”

Wildenthal, who will step down in September after 22 years as president, will remain on the UT Southwestern faculty, devoting much of his time to philanthropic efforts at the medical center.

UT Southwestern Medical Center, one of the premier medical centers in the nation, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. Its more than 1,500 full-time faculty members - including four active Nobel Prize winners, more than any other medical school in the world - are responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and are committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern researchers undertake more than 3,500 research projects annually, totaling more than $361 million.

UT Southwestern physicians provide medical care in 40 specialties to nearly 92,000 hospitalized patients and oversee 1.7 million outpatient visits a year. The physician faculty of UT Southwestern offers patient care at UT Southwestern University Hospitals, Parkland Health & Hospital System, Children's Medical Center Dallas, VA North Texas Health Care System, and other affiliated hospitals and clinics in Dallas and Fort Worth. Three degree-granting institutions – UT Southwestern Medical School, UT Southwestern Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and UT Southwestern Allied Health Sciences School – train more than 4,200 students, residents and fellows each year.

The University of Texas System is one of the nation’s largest higher education systems, with nine academic campuses and six health institutions. The UT System has an annual operating budget of $10.7 billion (FY 2008) including $2.3 billion in sponsored programs funded by federal, state, local and private sources. Student enrollment exceeded 194,000 in the 2007 academic year. The UT System confers more than one-third of the state's undergraduate degrees and educates nearly three-fourths of the state's health care professionals annually. With more than 81,000 employees, the UT System is one of the largest employers in the state.