Baylor University Medical Center
On October 26, 1903, the Texas Baptist General Convention chartered Texas Baptist Memorial Sanitarium. A new facility constructed in 1909 was the Southwest's most modern hospital of its kind. In 1921 the facility was renamed Baylor Hospital, and in 1959 the name evolved to the present-day Baylor University Medical Center.Today Baylor University Medical Center is one of the nation's largest not-for-profit medical centers and is a major patient care, teaching and research center for the Southwest. The medical center, licensed for 998 beds, comprises five hospitals with 36 specialty centers for organ transplantation, cardiovascular services, orthopedics and the treatment of conditions such as cancer and digestive diseases. The medical staff consists of physicians representing 45 medical specialties.
Many revolutionary medical procedures began at Baylor. In 1960, Baylor surgeons performed the Southwest's first pacemaker implant. Then in the 1980s, Baylor made a series of regional breakthroughs in transplant medicine. Some premiers include North Texas' first marrow transplant in 1983, Texas' first liver transplant in 1984 and Dallas' first heart transplant in 1986. Baylor surgeons also performed the world's first extracorporeal perfusion using a genetically altered pig liver, which allowed the patient to successfully undergo liver transplantation in 1997.
Baylor University Medical Center is also a center for medical education, where more than 135 medical and surgical interns, residents and fellows receive clinical training each year. Baylor University's Louise Herrington School of Nursing is located at the Center and offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in nursing to more than 250 students.
Facilities
Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas offers excellent facilities. Within the clinical buildings are special equipment items available for research including radiation oncology and clinical immunology.
Division of Radiation Oncology: The Division of Radiation Oncology houses a Varian Clinac 2500, Clinac 18, Clinac 4, Picker Cesium 137, Westinghouse 250 kV, G.E. 100 kVP, and a theratron cobalt unit. The medical oncology-hematology clinic contains examination room facilities, a laboratory and an infusion area for outpatient chemotherapy and transfusions.
Clinical Immunology Research Laboratory: The Clinical Immunology Research Laboratory occupies approximately 3,600 square feet of equipped and furnished laboratory space for diagnostic and cancer research-related immunologic studies. Organizationally, the laboratory consists of the diagnostic immunology section, the transplantation immunology section and the cancer immunology research section. The laboratory contains laminar flow hoods, various incubators, walk-in warm and cold rooms, a walk-in freezer, a Zeiss spectrophotometer, a liquid nitrogen container, beta and gamma counters, an analytic ultracentrifuge, radioimmunoassay and chemical fume hoods and fluorescent microscopes with cameras. The laboratory also houses an Ortho cytofluorograf IIs.
