Baylor University Medical Center

Internal Medicine Residency

The medical college, which eventually became Baylor Medical College, opened its doors in November of 1900 as the "Dallas Medical Department." From this humble beginning arose the Texas Baptist Memorial Sanitorium and eventually evolved into the Baylor University College of Medicine. Although internal medicine residents received training from the very beginning, the department of medicine did not become a cohesive unit until the 1940s when Dr. Henry Winans assumed its leadership. Dr. Paul Thomas succeeded him for one year. Then, in 1957, Dr. Ralph Tompsett was recruited to Baylor University Medical Center from The New York Hospital and Cornell Medical Center to become BUMC's chief of medicine and director of medical education. He revamped the teaching service and built the foundation for our current program. With great foresight, he created a teaching service that admitted patients primarily on the basis of the educational needs of the residents and medical students and not the service needs of the hospital or physician staff. The service responsibilities of the teaching program were reduced and educational activities increasingly emphasized.

Dr. John Fordtran succeeded Dr. Tompsett in 1979. After training in New Orleans, Dallas, and Boston, Dr. Fordtran returned to Dallas to join the faculty of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and Parkland Hospital. Almost immediately, he became a renowned chief of gastroenterology. His skills as a teacher, clinician and scientist were legendary. Dr. Fordtran remains one of the world's most well-recognized and respected clinical gastroenterologists and investigators in the field of GI physiology and pathophysiology. The gastroenterology textbook he co-edited with Dr. Marvin Schlessinger has become the standard in the field.

Dr. Michael Emmett, an expert in the field of acid-base and electrolyte physiology, became chairman in 1996. His primary professional interest at this time is medical education. Prior to becoming chief of medicine, he was the chief of nephrology at BUMC and was well aware of the training program's evolution under the leadership of Dr. Tompsett and Dr. Fordtran. He has continued and strengthened many of the programs they developed. Dr. Emmett's goal remains the same as his predecessors: To create the best training program possible at BUMC.