The Academic Colleges at UT Southwestern are small learning communities that bring together gifted faculty members with small groups of students (typically six) so the students can observe and mirror the professional clinical skills, behaviors, and attitudes of a highly experienced physician. Students are assigned to one of the six Colleges on their first day of medical school and remain in that College for all four years of their education. The Colleges, named after prestigious former faculty members, add clinical experiences and a doctoring course early in the curriculum. During their first two years, students meet weekly with faculty members in their College group, and the physician-mentors stay with their students throughout their medical school education.

Further, the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Management was fortunate to have one of their own mentors, Dr. Stephanie Byerly, selected to participate in a promotional video, which will be seen by prospective medical students and other institutions as we continue to recruit quality canidates. Congratulations to Dr. Byerly.

By Russell Rian

Adolph H. “Buddy” Giesecke, Jr., M.D., Professor Emeritus of Anesthesiology and Pain Management, who led the department throughout the 1980s and helped define several practices that have since become standards of care, died on Christmas Eve, 2011 following a brief illness.

Dr. Giesecke, whose storied career spanned more than five decades ranging from flight surgeon to Fulbright scholar, was renowned for his contributions to anesthesia for trauma patients and paramedic-based emergency medicine. 

“Dr. Giesecke is considered an icon in the field of anesthesiology, having introduced several practices considered standard care today,” according to Dr. Charles Whitten, Chairman of Anesthesiology and Pain Management and holder of the Margaret Milam McDermott Distinguished Chair in Anesthesiology and Pain Management.  “History will recognize Dr. Giesecke for his numerous contributions to the field of trauma anesthesiology and obstetric anesthesiology, in addition to the role he played in the resuscitative efforts of President John F. Kennedy and in the perioperative care of Governor John Connally.”  

Dr. Giesecke introduced locally, then nationally, the practice of endotracheal intubation to protect a patient's airway during anesthesia in obstetric procedures and the use of a preinduction antacid to raise the pH of gastric contents, reducing the likelihood of damage to the lungs if aspiration occurs. Dr. Giesecke and Dr. Richard Morris, a former UT Southwestern fellow, discovered the interaction between magnesium sulfate and the neuromuscular blocking drugs used during anesthesia.