Launching a vision
By Catherine Duncan
Bill and Rebecca Reed have contributed a $1 million leadership gift to UT Health San Antonio to launch their vision for the Bill and Rebecca Reed Center for Precision Therapies and Palliative Care in Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases. It will be funded through a $20 million planned gift that is dedicated to advancing the mission and goals of the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases.
Sudha Seshadri, M.D., founding director of the Biggs Institute and professor of neurology, said the gift is being used to pilot innovative prevention, diagnosis and care approaches targeted to the needs of each patient with dementia, and their caregivers, from the earliest stages through palliative care support.
“This gift is also allowing us to engage large numbers of affected families so we can study in detail the various biological pathways underlying each families’ dementia,” she said. “This research will help us find new treatments and customize care for each patient, today and for the future.”
President William L. Henrich, M.D., MACP, said the university community is grateful for the generosity and vision of the Reeds, who have served as members of the university’s Development Board since 2013.
“The generosity of our community allowed us to establish the Biggs Institute, and the Reeds have given us the opportunity to add these important programs,” he said. “I know Glenn would be so proud of what Ann and his family, and so many friends like Bill and Rebecca, have done to see his dream realized for patients with Alzheimer’s.”
Biobank to boost bioresearch
J.M.R. Barker Foundation donates $2.5 million for biobank to study multiple diseases
A $2.5 million gift from the J.M.R. Barker Foundation will allow UT Health San Antonio to establish a centralized biobank that will accelerate the pace of biomedical research in key research areas including cancer, Alzheimer’s and neurodegenerative diseases, heart disease, aging and more.
The biobank will strengthen critical research platforms and advance the ability to provide patients with improved diagnosis and treatment through enhanced understanding of conditions that affect the health of this region and the nation. The biobank is part of a comprehensive UT System effort that includes six UT System institutions in support of a federal biobank infrastructure of resources and best practices to collect bio-specimens linked to the medical records of each donor.
UT Health San Antonio President William L. Henrich, M.D., MACP, said the centralized biobank will allow for increased focus on collecting, processing and analyzing specimens from patients affected by diseases that disproportionately affect the South Texas population, with special emphasis on Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, diabetes and heart disease.
“In the United States, the majority of clinical trials and medical research has been conducted on non-Hispanic Caucasians, and evidence is showing that many discoveries and resulting treatments may not be relevant to other populations,” Dr. Henrich said. “San Antonio’s patient base is 63 percent Hispanic—a population that is significantly underrepresented nationally in biomedical research and clinical trials.”
Sudha Seshadri, M.D., director of the university’s Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases, said plans for the biobank include a repository specifically for brain specimens.
“This brain bank will provide essential resources for our neuroscience researchers and faculty at the Biggs Institute as they seek to understand how the brain functions,” Dr. Seshadri said. “It also will create additional avenues for collaborative research on a national level in Alzheimer’s and neurodegenerative diseases. In addition, the brain bank will support our efforts in applying for highly competitive and significant national funding to become a comprehensive and nationally recognized center specializing in Alzheimer’s research.”
Andrea Giuffrida, Ph.D., vice president for research, said the biobank will have a profound impact on research being conducted at the university’s nationally recognized Sam and Ann Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies. The institute is the only aging research center in the country to achieve the distinction of having both a Nathan Shock Center of Excellence and a Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center, through two National Institute on Aging grants.
“Maintaining these prestigious designations at the Barshop Institute is a top priority for our university,” Dr. Giuffrida said. “The biobank will facilitate translational studies and extend observations made in animal models to elucidate relevant determinants of human diseases that require the availability of human tissue samples.”
Ruben Mesa, M.D., director of the Mays Cancer Center, home to UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson Cancer Center, said the biobank also will impact research at the university’s National Cancer Institute-Designated Cancer Center.
“The biorepository will have a unique emphasis on tumor specimens from cancers that disproportionately occur in Hispanics in South Texas,” Dr. Mesa said. “Our tumor collections will serve investigators at the [Mays Cancer Center] and the university’s Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute with its special focus on addressing the unique challenges of childhood cancer.”
Dr. Henrich said UT Health San Antonio is grateful for the generosity and support shown by Ben Barker, Ph.D., and the Barker Foundation.
“This is an exciting time in biomedical research when a confluence of events is multiplying possibilities for new breakthroughs in medicine in many areas of health,” Dr. Henrich said. “The foundation’s support is playing a critical role in advancing a strategic initiative that will allow us to significantly contribute to advancing science that will impact researchers worldwide.”
Dr. Barker serves on the Development Board of UT Health San Antonio and on the board of the J.M.R. Barker Foundation. His father, Robert R. Barker, suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and is the namesake of the Robert R. Barker Distinguished University Chair for the Director of the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases. The endowment is held by Dr. Seshadri, who was recruited from Boston University to serve as the inaugural director of the Biggs Institute.
Robert R. Barker founded the J.M.R. Barker Foundation to honor his father. The Barker Foundation provided the lead gift to launch the Biggs Institute.
A commitment to education and health
A $750,000 gift from The Canseco Foundation has established The Canseco Foundation Presidential Scholarship Endowment at UT Health San Antonio. It is dedicated to supporting a mental health collaborative as well as offering scholarships for Laredo students to pursue health careers. It supports the Canseco family’s longstanding commitment to education and health care for the Laredo community—a medically underserved area.
The endowment will advance a pilot program that encourages collaboration among UT Health San Antonio, the UT Health San Antonio Regional Campus Laredo and Texas A&M International University to help address Laredo’s critical shortage of mental health professionals. It will provide Canseco Presidential Scholarships for top Laredo students enrolled in one of three schools at UT Health San Antonio: the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine, the School of Nursing or the School of Health Professions.
It builds on a legacy of support from The Canseco Foundation and its mission to serve the health needs of South Texas. Begun in 2006 under the leadership of former university president Francisco Cigarroa, M.D., the foundation focused on a critical need for greater access to oral health care by establishing The Canseco Foundation President’s Endowed Scholarship in Oral Health.
“Now, 12 years later, we are proud of the model we have in Laredo, which has brought collaborative partners together and established an important training program that serves the Laredo community,” said UT Health San Antonio President William L. Henrich, M.D., MACP. “Canseco Foundation scholarships have allowed us to recruit outstanding students from Laredo who will be future oral health care providers for South Texas. This new endowment will support additional students interested in mental health. The Canseco family is making a real difference in the future health of Laredo and the middle Rio Grande Valley.”
A legacy of support
The Zachry Foundation, on behalf of Mollie and Bartell Zachry, has added to its legacy of support to UT Health San Antonio with a new gift of $1 million. The gift will name the Zachry Laboratory at the new Sam and Ann Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies building, currently under construction in the South Texas Medical Center.
The three-story, 109,000-square-foot building is located at the corner of Floyd Curl Drive and Charles Katz Drive. It is adjacent to UT Health San Antonio’s Medical Arts and Research Center and across from the university’s Greehey campus. The new home to the Barshop Institute is expected to be completed by December 2019.
The Zachry Laboratory will house scientists who are advancing research in neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s—areas of research strength within the Barshop Institute led by Nicolas Musi, M.D., a professor of medicine.
The laboratory will foster collaboration between researchers at the Barshop Institute and the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases, established last year under the leadership of Sudha Seshadri, M.D., its inaugural director.
“We are exceedingly grateful to the Zachry family for continuing to build on their exemplar legacy of support for biomedical research that benefits the health of our community, South Texas and the world,” said William L. Henrich, M.D., MACP, university president. “New state-of-the-art facilities, such as the Zachry Laboratory, complement the many other Zachry family investments in endowed chairs for faculty dedicated to this critically important area of research and more. Their support is truly making a difference.”
Heartening journey
Andres Castillo Jr. was born with a hole in his heart.
At age 2, he underwent his first major heart surgery to repair the hole—an atrial septal defect. Seven years later, his first pacemaker was implanted—a box the size of an old VHS tape, visible under his shirt.
He tried to live a normal life, though his teenage years and young adulthood were marked with repeated hospital stays and countless heart procedures.
“Every year, my doctors wrote notes to the school saying I couldn’t do anything physical,” he said. “I really wanted to play dodgeball and do what the other kids did. The doctors were scared my pacemaker would get hit.”
Castillo was 35 when his tricuspid valve, the door that lets blood enter the heart from the body, narrowed. It took yet another open heart surgery for the tricuspid valve to be replaced with a bovine pericardial valve: a manufactured valve made from the sack that contains a cow heart.
It didn’t last.
By his 43rd birthday, his bovine valve was failing and creating a deadly domino effect on his other organs. With a seventh pacemaker and four decades of surgeries, his options were limited.
UT Health San Antonio doctors, including cardiologist Marc Feldman, M.D., and A.J. Carpenter, M.D., Ph.D., the cardiothoracic surgeon who had performed his valve surgery, considered what to do next. They consulted with Steven R. Bailey, M.D., interventional cardiologist.
They all agreed: He wouldn’t survive another invasive heart valve surgery.
“We knew we had to do something. If we didn’t, he would be dead within six months,” said Dr. Bailey, chief of the Janey and Dolph Briscoe Division of Cardiology at the UT Health Science Center.
Pacemakers had damaged Castillo’s tricuspid valve, he said. When the right tricuspid valve doesn’t work, the liver starts filling with blood and fluid. This condition results in cardiac cirrhosis of the liver. Once one organ shuts down, others can follow.
Castillo’s immediate future looked grim.
“He would have endured extended stays in the hospital; he would have had no quality of life,” Dr. Bailey said. “That is no way to live.”
Members of the Heart and Vascular Institute, a collaboration of cardiologists and cardiothoracic surgeons from UT Medicine and the University Health System, considered a heart transplant, “but we learned that was not an option,” Dr. Bailey said.
A heart transplant is performed when there is failure of the left ventricle. Castillo’s case was unique because the failure was on the right. This unusual condition required a novel remedy.
They turned to a relatively new device called the Edwards SAPIEN XT Transcatheter Heart Valve, first introduced in the U.S. in 2011.
The Edwards valve consists of an expandable metal mesh cage with bovine tissue within it that expands and contracts like the heart’s natural valve. It is approved by the Federal Drug Administration for aortic or left valve use, but “there are so few patients with Andres’ right valve problem that research has not been done on use of the Edwards valve on it,” Dr. Bailey said. “This is where the art of medicine can extend the science.”
[pexyoutube pex_attr_src="https://youtu.be/3KcuLYBbT0E"][/pexyoutube]
Source: Edwards LifeSciences Corporation, image of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR)
It wasn’t a guaranteed fix and did include some risk. But Castillo, a single father of 11-year-old son Andres Castillo III, said he prayed about it and decided the chance to spend more time with his son was worth the risk.
“Since he was 5 years old, I have been raising him by myself,” Castillo said of his son. “I cherish every day I have with my son. He has made me a better father.”
On Jan. 8, a team of 22 health care professionals at University Hospital inserted the valve into Castillo’s existing bovine valve. The noninvasive procedure used a catheter to push the crimped valve into an expanded balloon.
“You get the equivalent of a new valve without having surgery,” Dr. Bailey said.
Dr. Bailey is cautiously optimistic about Castillo’s prognosis. Before the valve procedure, Castillo’s liver had already begun to fail and other organs were following suit. Dr. Bailey said he is hopeful that treating the right valve will improve his overall health.
“In all reality, we don’t know. In patients who have had similar problems with their tricuspid valve, this returns them to normal status. The only thing wrong with him was that right valve,” he said.
Castillo still struggles to climb the stairs to his second-floor apartment. Coughing fits interrupt his speech. A collection of prescription pill bottles lines his tabletops. This is his daily life.
Yet his body is getting stronger. Slowly. And his spirituality remains intact—evidenced by the crosses hanging on the wall in his apartment.
“I take life day by day. I take things slow,” he said.
Dr. Carpenter has helped to save Castillo’s life twice in seven years. She’s seen him fight through prolonged hospital stays and multiple health crises. She is confident that with Castillo’s right tricuspid valve repaired, he will be a candidate in the future for a heart transplant.
“Andres told me once that his dream was to see his son graduate from high school,” she said. “I would like him to think bigger than that. I think we can help him be here for even more of his son’s life.”
Castillo has struggled with heart failure his entire life. He knows the struggles aren’t over, but neither is his journey.
He has much to be thankful for, he said, including his family that continues to support him and his doctors who haven’t given up on him.
“Thanks to all of them and to God, I am doing better,” he said. “I believe God wants me to be here. I have been through so much, but, at a time when others may have said I had no options, these doctors worked together to help me. They saved my life.”
Serving our military
Christopher A. Rábago, Ph.D., PT, is not your typical physical therapist. And, he surely isn’t your usual biomedical researcher. His rare combination of biomedical engineering knowledge, analytical research skills and clinical abilities make him a perfect fit at a unique military treatment and research facility.
Dr. Rábago works with a diverse team of scientists and physical therapists performing amputee, prosthetic and limb injury clinical research in the Military Performance Laboratory at the Center for the Intrepid (CFI). The CFI, located at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, is part of the Department of Defense/Department of Veterans Affairs Extremity Trauma and Amputation Center of Excellence.
Dr. Rábago is a triple graduate of the Health Science Center and said his work with wounded warriors often makes him think of where he was on Sept. 11, 2001.
“I was in my first year of physical therapy school at the Health Science Center. I was in Dr. Patricia Brewer’s neuroanatomy lab in the basement of the medical school. The events of that day affected me profoundly,” he said.
A couple of years later, when he was about to earn his master’s degree in physical therapy, which then required a coordinating bachelor’s degree in health care sciences, Dr. Rábago explored the idea of joining the military as a physical therapist.
“At that time, the military had no openings for physical therapists, so I thought working with the military was off the table,” he said. The San Antonio native—inspired by his physical therapy professors—decided to stay at the Health Science Center after graduation to pursue a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering.
This may have seemed a big leap from physical therapy to biomedical engineering, but the joint program between the Health Science Center and The University of Texas at San Antonio “offered a great integration of clinical and engineering courses,” he said. It also helped that Dr. Rábago had a strong background in the core courses that made up the diverse curriculum.
“When I first went to college, I started off as an electrical engineering major at UT Austin. After my first year, I changed my major to kinesiology. After earning my bachelor’s degree in kinesiology, I stayed at UT Austin and earned my first master’s degree in kinesiology with a biomechanics specialty,” he said.
At the Health Science Center, Dr. Rábago was supervised by Dr. Jack Lancaster at the Research Imaging Institute (RII).
“The RII was an incredible place to conduct research and expand my knowledge and research skills,” Dr. Rábago said. “I was a PT learning neuroimaging techniques on all these new, incredible imaging devices.”
His dissertation involved using transcranial magnetic stimulation to study motor control in a project funded by the VA.
After earning his Ph.D. in 2009, he received an email from a fellow alumnus he met while serving as the founding president of the Physical Therapy Alumni Association at the Health Science Center.
“This forwarded email gave details about a position at the [Center for the Intrepid] for a physical therapist with experience in neuro research and who had a Ph.D.,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it. I began here in October 2009 as a contractor and in 2011 became the first Army civilian employee for the DoD/VA Extremity Trauma and Amputation Center of Excellence.”
Dr. Rábago also serves as an adjunct professor at the U.S. Army-Baylor DPT Program at Fort Sam Houston and is a faculty associate in the Long School of Medicine at the Health Science Center.
He is a team lead on projects using a Computer Assisted Rehabilitation Environment, which is referred to as CAREN, for virtual reality rehabilitation for injured service members. Using the CAREN’s 300-degree virtual reality environment, physical therapists can assess and treat service members in a safe, simulated reality.
In the CAREN, there are 24 motion-capture cameras tracking the movements of a wounded warrior while he or she interacts with elements in realistic and challenging scenarios created by a CAREN operator. Dr. Rábago and his colleagues can assess a service member’s biomechanics for adaptation to a prosthetic, to identify deficits following brain injury, or to determine readiness for discharge and a return to duty.
Photos by Lester Rosebrock, Creative Media Services
The Military Performance Laboratory at the Center for the Intrepid also contains a state-of-art Gait and Motion Analysis system to aid in developing and evaluating novel prosthetic devices.
“When new prosthetic devices are developed, we get them first to evaluate. If they don’t increase the function of our servicemen and women, it’s difficult to justify their prescription,” Dr. Rábago added.
“The technology we have here allows us to assess and treat our wounded warriors while also performing clinical research. Everything we do is evidence-based practice, which I learned at the Health Science Center,” he said. “We have the best therapists working at the CFI who ask great questions that turn into research projects, all in order to optimize and better the care of our patients. I am so proud that I was able to come to the Center for the Intrepid and work with our military members. At the CFI, we get the pleasure of serving those who have sacrificed so much in service to our country.”
Endowed scholarship honors donor’s passion for education and medicine
Before today’s medical school students were born, James E. Pridgen, M.D., joined a team of doctors and area leaders to advocate for the building of a medical school in San Antonio. He believed that the South Texas Medical Center, with its vast amount of land, was the perfect site.
The dream became a reality in 1968 when The University of Texas Medical School at San Antonio was completed and the new Bexar County Hospital became its teaching affiliate. Shortly after, Dr. Pridgen was recruited as a clinical professor of surgery at the university. In 1969, he was named chief of staff at Bexar County Hospital, which is now known as the University Health System’s University Hospital.
Dr. Pridgen, who died on Christmas Eve at the age of 95, will be remembered for his passion and commitment to enhancing the school’s national reputation as a leader in educating future physicians. His work created a foundation for the solid working partnership between the school and the teaching hospital that still exists today, said UT Health Science Center President William L. Henrich, M.D., MACP.
Dr. Pridgen was born in Cuero, Texas, to Dr. James and Ada Beth Pridgen. After graduating from Cuero High School, he attended Texas A&M University, where he played first-chair clarinet in the Aggie Band as a freshman. He later transferred to UT Austin and graduated in 1939. He attended Tulane Medical School in New Orleans and graduated with honors in 1943.
A surgical fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., was delayed after Dr. Pridgen was called to active duty as an Army combat medical officer during World War II. He was honorably discharged after achieving the rank of major and receiving a Bronze Star Medal with oak leaf clusters. In 1946, he married Betty Jo Rabb of Atlanta, Texas, and completed his fellowship at the Mayo Clinic. Five years later, they moved to San Antonio, where he started a private surgical practice. They had three children: Carol P. Storey, Gay Swanson and James Pridgen.
Dr. Pridgen became instrumental in helping develop the South Texas Medical Center and the Health Science Center. Today, nearly 700 medical residents and more than 400 third- and fourth-year medical students receive training each year through the Health Science Center and University Health System partnership.
"Daddy was an ‘old school’ doctor and believed with all his heart that education was the key to the success of the continually evolving field of medicine," said Storey. To illustrate his passion for education and medicine, he established the James E. Pridgen, M.D. Endowed Presidential Scholarship in 2011.
In a partnership with Christ Healing Center, a San Antonio-based nonprofit organization, Dr. Pridgen and his family raised $100,000 to establish the scholarship that is awarded to medical students interested in pursuing a career in surgery. It honors the five doctors in the Pridgen family who have practiced medicine over several generations.
"He had a genuine passion for medicine and was truly one who constantly kept learning throughout his 95 years," his daughter said. "To sustain this dedication and create a passion in another student was his ultimate goal. He was a noble gentleman of a bygone era."
[pexyoutube pex_attr_src="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXImWd1IiWg&feature=youtu.be"][/pexyoutube]
Watch an interview of Dr. Pridgen.
VIP care: without the VIP price tag
Ildiko Agoston, M.D., FACC, assistant professor of medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, has created what she calls a VIP clinic for the everyday woman without the VIP price tag.
Since arriving at the university in 2011, Dr. Agoston and her team created the Women’s Comprehensive Health Institute. The institute, which opened last June, offers a comprehensive, multidisciplinary clinic that addresses the complex and unique health care needs of women of all ages.
Annual health assessments done all in one place
"This truly is a one-stop shop for women. Instead of taking five days to go to five different doctor’s offices, they can have all their annual health care assessments done in one place on one single day," she said. "We have all the specialists in one place. Women love the convenience and the time-saving process."
Based on a woman’s age and insurance benefits, the annual appointment can include a physical exam, dermatology exam, gynecology exam with Pap smear, mammogram, electrocardiogram, bone density scan and other health screenings.
"To begin coming to our women’s institute, a woman calls our office and talks to a registered nurse who answers questions about our services and provides a health questionnaire. We review the completed questionnaire and decide – based on the current evidence-based health guidelines – what the woman needs," Dr. Agoston said.
The registered nurse works with the patient to schedule the appointments and confirm insurance benefits. The patient is given an itinerary for the day.
Instantaneous access to medical records
"The women have loved it. There is no clinic likes this in the city. Our electronic medical record system allows our doctors to share health care records instantaneously. The concept is to make it more convenient for our patients to take care of themselves," she said.
Dr. Agoston, who is a general cardiologist, said if the patient has multiple cardiac risk factors or has had cardiology problems, then she will see the patient. "Most women do not understand how prevalent heart disease is in females. Too many people still think it is a man’s disease."
Appointments at MARC and CTRC
The majority of appointments are located in the Medical Arts & Research Center (MARC), which is the eight-story clinical home for UT Health Physicians, the faculty medical practice of the Long School of Medicine at the UT Health Science Center San Antonio. The MARC is located at 8300 Floyd Curl Drive. The dermatology exams and mammograms are located nearby at the Cancer Therapy & Research Center (CTRC), 7979 Wurzbach Road.
For more information
Call the institute at 210-450-6400.
West Side pride
Adelita Cantu, Ph.D., RN, assistant professor of family and community health systems, grew up on the city’s West Side. "That is my barrio. I have gotten so much from my career in nursing. I want to give back, and there are limited resources on the West Side."
Dr. Cantu partners with local non-profit and governmental agencies to improve the health of these residents while providing nursing students invaluable hands-on experience. As part of these programs, nursing students work with residents to encourage healthy eating, exercise and behavioral changes that affect their overall health. To accomplish these goals, she has developed health-related projects including:
Good Samaritan Community Services
Undergraduate nursing students work with the elderly at the Senior Center. Students use culturally appropriate practices to show seniors how to make food in a healthier manner. Students also walk with seniors to encourage exercise.
La Fe Policy Research & Education Center
Dr. Cantu and the non-profit center received an AARP grant targeting seniors who are food insecure on the West Side. Nursing students educate seniors about resources available for getting food.
San Antonio Metropolitan Health District
She worked with the public agency to receive a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant for Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities. This program concentrates on food deserts, which are areas on the West Side lacking healthy food availability. In seven convenience stores, the program provided refrigerated units to hold fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables.
Healthy Futures of Texas
Dr. Cantu partnered with the non-profit corporation to prevent unplanned pregnancies in teens and adults. Nursing students will use the Abstinence-Plus program in the community.
"In all of the programs, I give direction, but the nursing students do the teaching and work with the community members," she said. "This gives the students a perspective they will not get from just treating patients at the bedside. Students must understand the context of the community in order to better treat each individual patient."
TEAMWORK: Sports medicine collaboration advances patient care, research, education
Some of San Antonio’s best orthopaedic physicians - who specialize in sports medicine surgery, patient care, rehabilitation and research - are joining forces under the new UT Medicine Sports Medicine Institute.
This collaboration brings together faculty from UT Health Physicians, which is the clinical practice of the Long School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, with physicians from Sports Medicine Associates of San Antonio.
Sports Medicine Associates is famous in town for serving as the official doctors to the San Antonio Spurs, San Antonio Rampage, San Antonio Silver Stars, San Antonio Missions baseball club, and area collegiate athletic teams.
Robert Quinn, M.D., chair of the Department of Orthopaedics, said the new collaboration is bringing together the best and the brightest to care for athletes from the Spurs to college football players to student athletes of all ages.
"The institute helps us share our strengths and knowledge. By doing so, we can provide doctors in training from the Health Science Center the opportunity to learn from a vast array of sports medicine specialists. Our residents and medical students will attain invaluable knowledge in sports medicine as they help care for professional and non-professional athletes," he said.
Victory after surgery
Matthew Murray, M.D. adjusts 16-year-old Anthony Cavallaro’s knee brace. The 5-foot-11 Claudia Taylor Johnson High School sophomore tore his left ACL while defending his home turf during a district soccer game in February 2012. A month later, he underwent reconstruction surgery performed by Dr. Murray, who completed his medical degree and orthopaedic surgery residency training at the UT Health Science Center. After pre- and post-surgery physical therapy sessions, Cavallaro is back on the field running, kicking and winning in more ways than one. His mom, Jane, says her son is feeling better than ever. "He says he feels stronger and that he can run faster. We call him the bionic man when he runs with his brace on," she joked. This spring, Dr. Murray gave Cavallaro the green light to participate in soccer without the use of his knee brace.
Matthew Murray, M.D., an orthopaedic surgeon and an assistant clinical professor of orthopaedic sports medicine surgery, said doctors at Sports Medicine Associates are the most well-known orthopaedists in town.
"They have established their practice as the go-to place for sports injuries in this area. We will have them as consultants and teachers for our students. Our sports medicine fellows and residents will be working with Dr. (David R.) Schmidt and his colleagues. Our students will receive a more comprehensive experience in sports medicine," Dr. Murray said.
He calls the new institute an "umbrella for people who need accessible and readily available care. Both entities already have state-of-the-art equipment, MRIs and physical therapy equipment."
Jesse DeLee, M.D., professor of orthopaedics, said this collaboration will make the university the lead location for the management of sports injuries. He said the partnership puts the research capabilities of the UT Health Science in a position to be utilized for sports medicine.
"I believe the ability to do sports medicine research is the most important aspect of the institute," Dr. DeLee said. "It will allow us to be recognized as the place to go for athletic injuries."
Dr. DeLee said a research project has already begun on the bone quality of patients with anterior cruciate ligament, which is commonly called ACL, injuries. Dr. Murray is overseeing this research and has six patients participating. "By doing this study, we all have access to the research findings. We will be able to better teach our residents and better care for our patients," he said.
David R. Schmidt, M.D., an orthopaedic knee surgeon with Sports Medicine Associates of San Antonio, hails the collaboration as a win-win for all involved.
"This will substantially improve the sports medicine experience for residents and fellows who are studying orthopaedics at the Health Science Center. They will learn from all the doctors involved. In the end, this collaboration will result in better trained sports medicine doctors throughout this area," said Dr. Schmidt, who received his medical degree and completed his residency in orthopaedic surgery at the Health Science Center.
Ralph Curtis, M.D., an orthopaedic shoulder surgeon with Sports Medicine Associates who also received his medical degree and completed his residency in orthopaedic surgery at the Health Science Center, said it is great to be able to give back to the university by working with the residents and fellows.
"This collaboration is Dr. Quinn’s brainstorm. He is right on the money. It is a wonderful way to better train the residents and fellows. The collaboration will allow them to gain experience in sports medicine on all levels," he said.
The UT Medicine Sports Medicine Institute will create first-class sports medicine training and patient care in the San Antonio area, Dr. Curtis added.
Patients treated as part of the new institute will be seen at the Sports Medicine Associates’ offices at 21 Spurs Lane in the South Texas Medical Center and at 5921 Broadway in Alamo Heights as well as UT Medicine’s orthopaedics clinic on the third floor of the Medical Arts & Research Center, 8300 Floyd Curl Drive.
To schedule an appointment at UT Medicine, call 210-450-9300. To schedule an appointment with Sports Medicine Associates, call 210-699-8326.