San Antonio (Oct. 19, 2007) – The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio School of Medicine today announced the establishment of the Lee J. Sanders Professorship in Lower Extremity Amputation Prevention. The professorship will support a faculty member in the Health Science Center Department of Orthopaedics.
The Sanders Professorship will be one of the few named professorships for a podiatrist in the U.S. It honors Lee J. Sanders, DPM, chief of podiatry service, acute care and specialty services at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Lebanon, Pa. Dr. Sanders is considered one of the foremost leaders in prevention of lower-extremity amputations in diabetics.
Fund raising for the endowment was initiated by Larry Harkless, DPM, former longtime faculty podiatrist at the Health Science Center, during the American Diabetes Association’s Scientific Sessions held in 2000 in San Antonio.
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio is the leading research institution in South Texas and one of the major health sciences universities in the world. With an operating budget of $576 million, the Health Science Center is the chief catalyst for the $15.3 billion biosciences and health care sector in San Antonio’s economy. The Health Science Center has had an estimated $35 billion impact on the region since inception and has expanded to six campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg. More than 22,000 graduates (physicians, dentists, nurses, scientists and allied health professionals) serve in their fields, including many in Texas. Health Science Center faculty are international leaders in cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, aging, stroke prevention, kidney disease, orthopaedics, research imaging, transplant surgery, psychiatry and clinical neurosciences, pain management, genetics, nursing, allied health, dentistry and many other fields.