UT Dell Medicine Launches as UT Austin's Academic Health System, With a $5 Billion Hospital Set to Open in 2030
The name replaces UT Health Austin and puts Dell Medical School, its clinics and the medical center now under construction under one brand - a system that plans, at full operation, to double its clinical capability and more than triple its patient volumes.
The University of Texas at Austin on Tuesday introduced UT Dell Medicine, its new academic health system, and shared plans for the UT Dell Medical Center set to open in 2030, Becker's Hospital Review reported. The UT Dell Medicine name replaces UT Health Austin, which covered the clinical practice and ambulatory surgery center of the Dell Medical School, and brings the medical school, its clinics and the $5 billion medical center under construction under a single system brand.
The hospital at the center of the system is the project UT bills as the nation's first AI-native hospital, expected to reach full build-out in 2035. It will focus on five areas: cancer, cardiovascular care, neurology, transplant - with the potential for the liver and lung transplant care Austin currently lacks - and advanced intensive care. Through a collaboration with the Houston-based University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, MD Anderson physicians will be embedded directly in care delivery. The campus will have its own power plant, and the hospital will have three redundant power systems so it is never without power, the report said.
The scale UT is planning for is the local story. Once fully operational, UT Dell Medicine plans to double its clinical capability through physicians and advanced practice providers and more than triple its patient volumes, according to the university's release. Planners are also working to make the electronic health record and AI tools better integrated and easier to use for patients, caregivers and clinicians. 'This is what academic medicine can do,' said Michael Ryan, chief administrative officer and chief information officer of Dell Medical School.
The system is led by Dr. Claudia Lucchinetti, whom President Jim Davis named Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs and the UT Dell Medicine Health System on October 7; she continues as dean of the Dell Medical School. Michael and Susan Dell have given $1 billion to the university, including support for the new medical center. For Austin patients, Tuesday's launch changes a name and an org chart. The change they will feel - a specialty hospital of this size, in this city - arrives with the building, in 2030.
