Alumni

By Wendy Mohon

Houston businessman creates distinguished chair for cardiology

James D. Woods, distinguished business leader, investor, and philanthropist, knows a thing or two about partnerships. The longtime Houston businessman has brokered deals and orchestrated mergers of large corporations and health care entities during his career. Now, Woods has chosen to partner with the Medical School to create the James D. Woods Distinguished Chair in Cardiovascular Medicine.

“I believe in cardiovascular research and awareness programs. I think this is a great way to spend your money,” Woods says. “Selecting The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and Dr. Richard Smalling as the beneficiaries of my commitment was an easy decision based on their past accomplishments in cardiovascular medicine.”
Woods, chairman emeritus of Baker Hughes, created the $1 million permanent endowment in honor of Richard W. Smalling, M.D., Ph.D., professor in the Division of Cardiology.

Dr. Smalling says that endowed funds are vital to advancing research, now more than ever.

“Research funding is difficult to come by in the current era,” Dr. Smalling says. “More and more investigators are submitting NIH (National Institutes of Health) proposals for federal grants. There has been a precipitous drop in those funds recently.”

Dr. Smalling notes that research support from pharmaceutical companies and associated industries is “harder to come by, also.” This dearth of funding has a detrimental effect on every aspect of scientific research, but the impact is especially negative for clinical trials and the advanced physiological research that Dr. Smalling does.

Dr. Smalling says the endowment established by Woods “facilitates bringing research to fruition in the clinical area. James Woods’ gift and gifts received from others can contribute to reduction in heart attack mortality in the next five to 10 years from 10 percent to 1 percent.

“It takes a village to address cardiovascular disease mortality. Many people are working on this across the U.S., including colleagues at the School of Public Health and the NIH. We sincerely appreciate grateful patients, like Mr. Woods, who have so generously supported the research,” Dr. Smalling adds.