From the President

Since February is Heart Healthy Month, it is fitting that we dedicate this edition of Texas Medical Center News to stories associated with the heart. I would like to take a moment to salute a few of the grand things that some of the TMC institutions are doing to ensure that the Texas Medical Center remains in the forefront of the cardiology field.

Last year, Dr. Michael Reardon, a surgeon at the Methodist DeBakey Heart Center and a professor of surgery at Baylor College of Medicine, performed a unique surgical procedure called an autotransplant. By removing the heart from the patient's chest, he successfully cut out three malignant tumors, repaired the heart with parts from a cow and successfully re-implanted the organ. It is thought to be only the third time a procedure of this nature has been performed. Annually, the Methodist DeBakey Heart Center performs more than 6,000 cardiac catheterizations, 2,500 angioplasties, 1,300 open heart surgeries and has performed more than 425 heart transplants in the last 10 years.

The Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital has the largest and most fully equipped catheterization lab in the world. More than 10,500 diagnostic and interventional procedures are performed here every year. Last summer U.S. News & World Report ranked the Texas Heart Institute 7th in cardiac care out of the top 50 hospitals recognized for this specialty.

At Texas Children's Hospital, the cardiology staff performs 9,500 to 10,000 echocardiograms per year, using ultrasound technology to provide pictures of the heart. The Children's lab is only one of 13 pediatric labs in the United States that is certified and accredited for children by the Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Echocardiography Laboratories, and the only one in the Southwest region of the country.

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I would also like to recognize the passing of one the Texas Medical Center's most innovative physicians - Dr. Joseph L. Melnick, dean emeritus of Baylor College of Medicine's Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. Dr. Melnick was one of the founders of the virology field. He was among the first to demonstrate that the polio virus usually invades the intestines of the infected host rather than the central nervous system and he led the team that developed thermostabilized live polio vaccines, enabling millions of people in countries without deep-freeze storage facilities to be immunized.

Dr. Melnick joined the Baylor faculty in 1958 as a professor and founding chairman of the Department of Virology and Epidemiology. His dedication to training young scientists was superlative and led him to serve as dean of Baylor's graduate school from 1968 to 1991.

The Texas Medical Center is grateful for Dr. Melnick's service to the Houston community and the world. He will be greatly missed.

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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