Message from Chair

It is my pleasure to welcome you to the website of the Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Imaging at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston. This website provides an overview of our department. We hope you enjoy your visit!

UTHealth Houston is a comprehensive health science university, with a mission focused on the education of health science professionals, discovering and translating advances in the biomedical and social sciences, and modeling the best practices in clinical care and public health. Working together, we pursue this mission to advance the quality of human life by enhancing the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease and injury, as well as promoting individual health and community well-being. UTHealth Houston strives to create a culture in which faculty, staff, and students can correlate how their work contributes to the mission of the university through recognition of their efforts.

McGovern Medical School, UTHealth Houston, located in the heart of the Texas Medical Center was established by the Texas Legislature in 1969 to address the shortages of physicians and the then-untapped resources for medical education in Houston. The first class of 19 entered Medical School in 1970, and by 1979, class sizes of 200, legislatively supported through state formula funding, were the norm. Today, McGovern Medical School accepts classes of 240 per year to meet the growing demand for physicians throughout the state of Texas. With nearly 1,000 medical students and a similar number of residents and fellows, McGovern Medical School is the ninth-largest and most diverse medical school in the country. Students have access to the latest technology and are taught with an emphasis on humanities, ethics, patient quality, and safety.

We are proud that the Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Imaging of the McGovern Medical School is affiliated with several inpatient hospitals and outpatient facilities, providing a broad range of clinical services. Excellence in quality and service to patients and referring physicians in our community are our paramount objectives. Our primary teaching hospital, Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, was the first institution built in 1925 on the grounds of the world-famous Texas Medical Center and was recently named the second top teaching hospital in the nation. We also provide services at Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital, a premier county hospital within the Harris Health System. Our hospitals provide a rich learning environment for our students, residents, fellows and faculty, with a large and diverse patient population and a wealth of both common and rare disorders. Our organization is dedicated to putting patients first and our ability to address patient’s needs is based on the depth of experience and knowledge of our subspecialized faculty.  We constantly strive to provide timely, safe, and cost effective diagnostic and interventional radiology services, which allows us to be a leader in the market at the forefront of our field.

Our Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Imaging supports a broad spectrum of healthcare needs and provides the educational and research initiatives of a radiology department at the forefront of modern medicine. Our department interprets more than 420,000 radiological procedures per year. Quality in service to our patients and referring physicians is actively maintained through a robust performance improvement program. Teaching is fundamental to our mission and we are proud of the well-recognized qualifications of our faculty. Our highly competitive training programs not only capitalize on the educational opportunities at our affiliated teaching hospitals but also benefit by sharing residency and fellowship training programs with other internationally recognized radiology departments. We offer a premier educational environment staffed by an internationally recognized faculty.

World-class research in MRI and functional imaging in neuroscience and space medicine, orthopedic and sports medicine, trauma, and advanced image-guided interventions are hallmarks of our department. Many of our basic science and clinical faculty have achieved international status as world leaders in their fields. The unique and trail-blazing work of our research scientists and the creative talents behind the achievements of our faculty speak for themselves.

We invite you to take a tour through our department; I trust you will find our website an informative journey through our world of Diagnostic and Interventional Imaging.