It has been a great honor to serve as chair of surgery for the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery since November 2012, having been afforded the unique opportunity to continue the storied legacy that began with Dr. DeBakey assuming this role almost 80 years ago. These accomplishments today include a top 20 ranking by U.S. News & World Report for the past six years and most recently achieving a top 20 rank for departments of surgery in NIH grants support, reflecting a 40% growth and a rise of ten spots in our Blue Ridge Ranking.
This past year featured multiple major clinical advances, including the performance of the world’s first robotic heart transplantation, performed by Dr. Ken Liao, and our achieving top tier status in the American College of Surgeons Trauma Quality Database for Ben Taub Hospital’s trauma program. This past year we also added several premier surgeons to our world class team, including Dr. Gustavo Oderich as our new chief of the Division of Vascular Surgery and Endovascular Therapy, Dr. Alex Perez as our inaugural vice chair for surgical simulation, and Dr. Eddie Suarez as the director for cardiothoracic transplantation at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center Transplant Institute.
Innovation in the department, led by Dr. Livia S. Eberlin and our research team of more than 50 research coordinators, grants managers and statisticians, includes inventions ranging from intra-operative mass spectrometry that instantaneously detects cancerous tissues to pioneering research in myocardial regeneration to treat myocardial infarction led by Dr. Tamer Mohammed. Overseeing more than 300 active grants and clinical trials, our Office of Surgical Research manages a dynamic portfolio that includes the ATLAS data science initiative, the INSTINCT Innovation Incubator, and a biorepository containing more than 100,000 samples and the the world’s largest aortic tissue bank.
Our undergraduate and graduate medical education programs have likewise flourished over the past decade. The appeal of our graduate and undergraduate programs has led more Baylor medical students to seek residencies in surgery than ever in recent memory and attracts over 200 applicants to 15 spots annually in our storied DeBakey Summer Surgery Program for pre-med students. Our general surgery residency program is growing to eleven categorical positions featuring four distinct tracks, making it one of the largest in the United States. Our unique global surgery track led by Dr. Rachel W. Davis and our Innovation track led by Dr. Feibi Zheng remain the only such NRMP-listed programs in the nation.
Todd Rosengart, M.D., MBA, FACS
Professor and Chair, Department of Surgery
DeBakey-Bard Chair of Surgery
Professor of Molecular & Cellular Biology
Vice President, Hospital Operations and Quality Improvement
Baylor College of Medicine