News Leiden to Lead Seton's Research Office

Seton's Role in Research and Medical Education Expanding

Austin, TX - (August 19, 2010) - The Seton Family of Hospitals today announced that Lisa Leiden, PhD, has joined Central Texas' largest health care network as the new Senior Director of Research for Seton's Office of Research Administration. She will oversee Seton's expanding research program.

Prior to joining Seton, Dr. Leiden was the Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and Sponsored Programs at the University of Texas System Office of Research and Technology Transfer. She was also Director of the Office of Research Support and Compliance at the University of Texas at Austin, an office that she created. She has chaired several Institutional Review Boards that oversee human subjects' research and has held professional positions in medical education and research at the University of Florida, University of Nevada and the University of Arizona Colleges of Medicine.

Dr. Leiden joins Seton at a transformational time for health care in Central Texas. Seton's recent affiliation with UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and The University of Texas System will attract the nation's top doctors and researchers to the Seton Family. A key element of the affiliation agreement is the development of the Seton Family of Hospitals/UT Southwestern Clinical Research Institute. The amount of medical education offerings and collaborative research conducted by Seton, UTSW and UT Austin, will increase dramatically.

New opportunities for translational research will allow discoveries to transition more quickly from the laboratory bench to the patient bedside. The affiliation will also bolster the health care safety net, of which Seton provided more than $430 million in charity care and community benefit last fiscal year, and fuel economic development in the life sciences sector.

"Seton is on the verge of an exponential leap in the research arena," said Leiden. "The potential to attract research collaborators is enormous, as experienced academic and community-based physicians bring their research programs to Seton. It's an exciting time to be at Seton."

Dr. Leiden added, "The studies conducted by Seton's two Level I Trauma Centers, Dell Children's Medical Center and University Medical Center Brackenridge, have already taken the clinical research performed in Central Texas to a new level. Just recently, UMCB's trauma director Dr. Carlos Brown was the lead author of a study on salvaging blood from trauma patients, a research study that was published in medical journals and in newspapers across the nation."

Dr. Leiden is assuming the position formerly held by Dr. Tate Erlinger, who is now the State Epidemiologist. Among Dr. Erlinger's many successes at Seton was a pioneering data model system that he helped design to understand diseases in populations. This model was invaluable to our community during the H1N1 outbreak in Austin last fall.

"We look forward to the expertise and passion Dr. Leiden will bring to Seton's evolving and expanding research trials and centers," said Charles Barnett, FACHE, president and CEO, Seton Family of Hospitals. "The growth of both medical research and innovation will fuel growth in Central Texas' economy, particularly the life sciences and biotechnology sector."