SAN ANTONIO (Jan. 12, 2015) — Jan E. Patterson, M.D., M.S., of the School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, has been appointed to serve on the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell made the appointment.
This committee provides advice and guidance to Secretary Burwell, CDC Director Tom Frieden, the director of CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion and others regarding infection control practices and strategies for surveillance and prevention of health care-associated infections, antimicrobial resistance and related events.
Dr. Patterson is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, a Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and a Fellow of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. She is a professor of medicine, infectious diseases and pathology in the School of Medicine of the UT Health Science Center San Antonio, and serves as associate dean for quality and lifelong learning. She is also director of the Center for Patient Safety and Health Policy at the Health Science Center.
Dr. Patterson’s expertise in infection control is widely sought. For example, in the 2003 outbreak of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) in Toronto, Canada, Dr. Patterson traveled there on request to assist in the health care response.
Prior to assuming her roles as associate dean and as a center director, Dr. Patterson led infection control at University Hospital and the Audie Murphy Division of the South Texas Veterans Health Care System. She is a physician of UT Medicine San Antonio, the clinical practice of the School of Medicine.
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, one of the country’s leading health sciences universities, ranks in the top 13 percent of academic institutions receiving National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding. The university’s schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, health professions and graduate biomedical sciences have produced more than 31,000 graduates. The $787.7 million operating budget supports eight campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg. For more information on the many ways “We make lives better®,” visit www.uthscsa.edu.