University of Texas Dell Medical School names Dr. Claudia F. Lucchinetti new dean

The University of Texas has named Dr. Claudia F. Lucchinetti the dean of Dell Medical School. She will begin Dec. 1.

Lucchinetti — a veteran of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. — will be the second dean of Dell Medical School, which began offering classes in 2016. She follows Dr. Clay Johnston, who led the school from January 2014, before it welcomed its first students, until stepping down in 2021. Johnston has remained in Austin and is now a co-founder of Harbor Health clinic.

Dr. George Macones has been serving as interim dean since September 2021.

“Dr. Lucchinetti is an example of the world-class talent we are attracting to our university, and she will lead our efforts to draw even more talent to UT to fulfill our mission to revolutionize how people get and stay healthy,” UT President Jay Hartzell said in a news release. “We are excited to have her join UT in this pivotal role, as we expand our efforts in health care delivery, education and research, and seek to establish Central Texas as the next major hub for health care and life science innovation.”

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Lucchinetti also will be senior vice president for medical affairs at UT and will hold the Frank and Charmaine Denius Distinguished Dean’s Chair in Medical Leadership.

“It’s an honor, and an incredible opportunity, to join the team at Dell Med and UT Austin,” Lucchinetti said in a news release. “With this mission-focused team, in collaboration with partners, and considering the unique relationship the medical school has with the Austin and Travis County communities, there are unparalleled opportunities to build an integrated academic health system that innovates and transforms health and health care for the benefit of all.”

She also spoke to the innovating nature of Dell Medical School and its "rethink everything" mantra. "This mindset is critical if we’re to respond as health care becomes less affordable, more fragmented and less equitable, all amid a rapid acceleration of digital capabilities and new technologies," she said. "Dell Med is in a unique position to respond nimbly to these changes and challenges, and to play a leading role in driving health care transformation."

Dell Medical School has made its core teaching principles about addressing health equity. Lucchinetti said she plans to continue this work.

"As incoming dean, I am dedicated to intentionally promoting equity, diversity and inclusion across Dell Med’s work, and to bringing science to bear on the challenges of eliminating health disparities, including in access to care and health outcomes," she said.

Lucchinetti comes to UT from the Mayo Clinic, where she has been the chair of the neurology department as well as the dean for clinical and translational science. She specializes in researching and treating multiple sclerosis and other inflammatory demyelinating diseases.

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In a Mayo Clinic video, Lucchinetti said: "At the end of the day, I am relentless in my desire to want to make an impact on the care of my patients. I particularly like the opportunity to connect with my patients, to get to know them on a personal level. I find it fascinating to not only study and learn about the nervous system and be able to study and understand how we might better treat and hopefully one day cure some of these disorders."

Her research has focused on four different patterns of tissue damage in early MS as well as the means by which the disease progresses throughout the nervous system, which has led to the discovery of biomarkers as well as treatments. She also heads research into understanding neuromyelitis optica, an autoimmune disease of the eye that led to the first FDA-approved medication for it.

Lucchinetti joined the faculty at the Mayo Clinic in 1996 after doing her training there, as well as at the Institute of Experimental Neurology at the University of Vienna in Austria. She attended Rush Medical School in Chicago and Northwestern University.

“Dr. Lucchinetti brings an extraordinary combination of exceptional academic leadership, impactful research and teaching, and clinical excellence to this important role,” said Sharon L. Wood, executive vice president and provost at UT. “We are thrilled to welcome her to UT and work with her as she guides our campuswide medical priorities and advances our work with community partners.”

Lucchinetti will oversee both the education at the medical school and the clinical operations at UT Health Austin, the medical school's clinic, which has focused on innovations in neurology, cancer and musculoskeletal disorders, as well as endocrinology, rheumatology, infectious diseases, ophthalmology and primary care.

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Dell Medical School has graduated 143 students and has 200 current students. It receives about 6,200 applications annually. It now has 338 residents and 68 fellows in its graduate medical education program with Ascension Seton, and 45% of the people who have gone through its residency program now work in Central Texas.

Dell Medical School has a $302.3 million budget for fiscal year 2023. In the last full year that Johnston was dean, he made $797,537. Lucchinetti's salary has not been released yet. The school has operated under a deficit since it opened and expects to break even in 2023, Johnston said last year.

The school is not without critics, mainly regarding its use of public money.

A 2012 vote by Travis County taxpayers to invest $35 million annually on the medical school was key in its development. That money gets filtered from Central Health and Ascension Seton through their nonprofit Community Care Collaborative to the medical school, under a 50-year agreement.

Early critics accused the school and Central Health, the hospital district of Travis County, of misusing property tax money on administrative fees and salaries rather than health care services. Central Health hired an audit firm to do a two-part review in 2017, which found that funding was in keeping with the agreement Central Health had with Dell Medical School. However, it did recommend that Dell Medical School's use of the money receive more oversight by Central Health.

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Central Health in July asked Dell Medical School and UT for a better accounting of the use of the $35 million and has since received some information, but not everything it has requested.

A new audit ordered by Travis County commissioners last month will again look at the use of that money and all of Central Health's funding. There is also a lawsuit surrounding Central Health's funding that involves the portion that goes to Dell Medical School.

In addition to its public funding, the school is supported by donors, including the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, the Mulva Family Foundation, the Livestrong Foundation and the Wong family, as well as partners at Central Health and Ascension Seton, through the Community Care Collaborative.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: University of Texas Dell Medical School names new dean