Led UT Health San Antonio’s COVID-19 clinical management
Thomas F. Patterson, MD, professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio), has been awarded the highly prestigious Mastership from the American College of Physicians (MACP).
Patterson, who also is vice chair for clinical research for the Department of Medicine in the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine at UT Health San Antonio, is one of only 68 physicians nationwide, and the only one in South Texas, to earn the designation for 2024-2025 from ACP, the national organization of internists and the country’s largest for medical specialties.
MACPs are fellows in the organization selected because of “integrity, positions of honor, impact in practice or in medical research, or other attainments in science or in the art of medicine,” and must be highly accomplished persons demonstrating impact in practice, leadership or in medical research, according to ACP. Fewer than 4,000 members of the organization, which today numbers 163,000, have received MACP in its 100-year history.
Patterson joins his wife, Jan E. Patterson, MD, also a professor of medicine in the field of infectious diseases at UT Health San Antonio, as likely one of very few couples to ever earn MACP. Jan Patterson, associate dean of Quality and Lifelong Learning, received her MACP designation in 2021. The couple was awarded the Texas ACP Chapter Laureate Award in 2021 for their contributions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the pandemic, Thomas Patterson led the UT Health San Antonio Division of Infectious Diseases’ efforts in clinical management of COVID-19 care and was the institution’s principal investigator for the Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial (ACTT) conducted at University Hospital, supported by the National Institutes of Health to develop safe and effective therapies against COVID-19. He and his team formed a leading enrollment site for those NIH-supported trials.
Today, he is a principal investigator for the RECOVER study to combat long COVID. He is a past president of the Texas Infectious Disease Society and the International Immunocompromised Host Society.
“Dr. Patterson has been a pillar in treating infectious disease not only in Texas but the entire world,” said Robert Hromas, MD, FACP, acting president of UT Health San Antonio. “His leadership in understanding long COVID will be crucial to ending the devastating disease.”
With his extensive experience in the study of opportunistic fungal infections, Patterson has been involved in developing new antifungal drugs and in clinical trials of new antifungal compounds. He also is director of the San Antonio Center for Medical Mycology.
He has published and lectured extensively on fungal infections – with more than 400 peer-reviewed publications, chapters books and reviews – and was an early founder and co-editor-in-chief of the popular mycology website DoctorFungus (www.drfungus.org).
Patterson received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Baylor University and his medical degree from McGovern Medical School in Houston. He completed his internship and residency at Vanderbilt University Medical School and at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and a fellowship in infectious diseases at Yale University School of Medicine, where he also served as an assistant professor of medicine.
He was awarded the 2021 UT Health San Antonio Presidential Distinguished Research Scholar award.
The first MACP was presented in 1923 to Dr. James M. Anders, who served ACP as president for two terms. He was recognized for extraordinary service to the college and for being one of the most outstanding internists and medical teachers of his day.
MACPs can be awarded for many types of achievements, such as being renown in their field and/or ACP chapter, research, education, health care initiatives, volunteerism, administrative positions, care of patients and service to their community.
The ACP has members in more than 145 countries, including internal medicine physicians (internists), related subspecialists and medical students. Internal medicine physicians are specialists who apply scientific knowledge and clinical expertise to the diagnosis, treatment and compassionate care of adults across the spectrum from health to complex illness.