New arrivals to San Antonio can find some of the best health care in the world at their fingertips. This international and historic city is home to the finest diagnoses and treatments for the complete spectrum of human disease and frailty. For example, San Antonio can boast of

• The national Women’s Health Initiative, coordinated by the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at The University of Texas Health Science Center, studying thousands of women ages 50 to 79 years to help reduce coronary heart disease, breast and colorectal cancer and bone fractures among postmenopausal women;



• Two of the largest men’s health/prostate studies in the world being led by Dr. Ian Thompson;



• The most technologically advanced da Vinci® Surgical System (see photo below) at Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital. The system includes a console where the surgeon sits to manipulate the controls with a greater range of motion than the human hand. Specially trained surgeons at the hospital are currently using the device to perform protatectomies and hysterectomies.




• The research team that invented the first stent to hold open clogged arteries, now used in millions of patients and being redesigned to interact more therapeutically with the body’s own tissue;
  
• Two of the largest children’s hospitals dedicated to saving lives: CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Children’s Hospital and the largest children’s hospital in South Texas, Methodist Children’s Hospital.



• The two largest military hospitals in the world – Brooke Army Medical Center and Wilford Hall USAF Medical Center;



• The largest liver transplant program in Texas, conducted by surgeons at University Hospital and the UT Health Science Center;



• The brain imaging team coordinating the global project to map human brain function;



• The genetics team that led the mapping of human chromosome three, site of many inherited diseases;



• Children’s Cancer Research Center, supported by a $200 million endowment and operating in the South Texas Medical Center;



• The first use of radioactive seed implants to treat breast cancer in the nation performed at Methodist Hospital



• The Sam and Ann Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging. The research team, a part of The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, is now number one in the nation in number of federal grants received for aging studies;



• Unique collaboration between the CHRISTUS Transplant Institute and Brooke Army Medical Center’s cardiac transplant program (the U.S. Department of Defense’s only heart transplant program), to serve military personnel.



• Innovative orthopedic joint replacement program and CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Medical Center.



• Many other leading scientists and caregivers in all fields of medicine, dentistry, nursing and allied health.

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