Kaitlyn D’Onofrio

DocwireNews

During the second annual Houston Shock Symposium, Guiseppe N. Colasurdo, MD, president, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, and CEO, UT Physicians, discussed insight into the past, present, and future of academic medicine, notably in Texas.
He noted how, over the last century, the Texas Medical Center grew from an idea—nothing but land—to a reality, where it now exists as a large, busy, institution.
“You always start with nothing,” he said, before you decide what you want to be. As academic medicine grows, so does the need for revenue.
“We like to live in this very expensive place,” he said, referring to the United States. “We like to teach, we like to do research, but who’s going to pay for all that?”
“It’s not as much fun as understanding the mechanism of shock and how we approach it,” Dr. Colasurdo, a native of Italy, said. He talked about the new reality for academic health centers and discussed how, as the field has grown, funding sources for academic health centers have drastically changed. From 1960–1961, clinical service and tuition/fees accounted for the smallest percentage of revenue—each coming in at 6%. Funding primarily came in the forms of federal research funding (31%), state or local funding (17%), and other federal funding (10%). The remaining 30% was all other income sources.
Over the next 50 years, this sharply changed. By 2008–2009, more than half (52%) of the funding came from clinical services, and the remaining sources provided significantly smaller amounts of revenue (federal research funding, 19%; state or local funding, 8%; tuition/fees, 3%; and other federal funding, 3%). The remaining 15% came from all other income sources.
Universities with their own hospitals depend even more heavily on direct patient care.
“If you go into universities, where they have their own hospitals today, you are close to 80%. About 80% of an academic health science center [budget] today is dependent on us seeing patients,” Dr. Colasurdo said.
The presence of academic health has also grown substantially during that time. From 1960–1961, there were 86 medical schools nationwide; by 2008–2009, this number had nearly doubled to 126. The number of medical students also increased—from 30,288 to 76,202—as did the presence of residents/fellows (14,417 to 108,176) and full-time faculty (11,224 to 128,683). The most significant difference was in expenditures: $437,000,000 to $78,856,000,000.
Despite the surge in medical students, the doctor role is evolving as well, as the medical field makes advances in artificial intelligence.
For 2010–2020, Dr. Colasurdo said strategy and priorities in academic medicine focused on facets such as discovery and customer experience. Looking at 2020 and beyond, he emphasized cost structure, informatics, artificial intelligence, and population health/precision medicine/health disparities.

Emily Menendez

Complete Response to Immunotherapy in HCC: Insights From IMbrave150

Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Anne Marie Morse, DO

Rob Dillard

Dr. Morse Talks About the Significance of World Sleep Day 2025

Sleep Disorders

Dr. John Fruehauf, Evolent

Advancing Therapies Have Improved the Prognosis of Metastatic Melanoma

Melanoma

Latest News

The Future of Academic Medicine: More Doctors, More Dollars

Houston's Shock Symposium 2019

During the second annual Houston Shock Symposium, Guiseppe N. Colasurdo, MD, president, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, and CEO, UT Physicians, discussed ...

About Us

Editorial Policy

Advertising

Contact Us

eNewsletters

Contribute

Career Center

MashupMD

Blood Cancers Today

Cancer Nursing Today

GU Oncology Now

Urban Health Today

Bile Duct Cancer

Colorectal Cancer

Gastroesophageal Cancer

Gastric Cancer

GEP-NETs

GIST

Liver Cancer

Pancreatic Cancer

GI Oncology Now

Anemia

Deep Vein Thrombosis

Essential Thrombocythemia

Hemophilia

Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura

Myelodysplastic Syndromes

Myelofibrosis

Myeloproliferative Neoplasms

Polycythemia Vera

Pulmonary Embolism

Sickle Cell Disease

Thrombocytopenia

Thrombophilia

Thrombosis

Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura

Venous Thromboembolism

von Willebrand Disease

Heme Today

Acute Kidney Injury

ADPKD

Anemia and Kidney Disease

Chronic Kidney Disease

COVID-19 and Kidney Disease

Diabetes and Hypertension

End-Stage Renal Disease

Gout

Hyperkalemia

IgAN

Kidney Transplantation

Metabolic Acidosis

Nephrology Times

Mesothelioma

Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Small Cell Lung Cancer

Lung Cancers Today

Atherosclerotic Disease

Atrial Fibrillation

Heart Failure

Hypertension

Interventional Cardiology

Lipid Management

Practice Tips With Dr. Lichaa

Preventive Cardiology

Stroke

Cardiology

Breast Cancer

Gynecologic Cancer

Head and Neck Cancer

Skin Cancer

Oncology

Sleep

Urology

Diabetes

Ophthalmology

— Demodex Blepharitis

Neurology

Rheumatology

Gastroenterology

Pulmonology

Infectious Diseases

— HIV

Health and Wellness

Lupus

Future of Medicine

Orthopedics

Pharmacology

Career News

More

Conferences

CardioNerds

The Sleep Source With Dr. Morse

Rheumatology Rounds With Dr. Maheswaranathan

Partners

Expert Interviews

Subscribe