John Charles Baldwin (September 23, 1948 – April 3, 2016) was an American cardiac surgeon and academic administrator. He served as the surgery department chairman at

Baylor College of Medicine The Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) is a private medical school in Houston, Texas, United States. Originally as the Baylor University College of Medicine from 1903 to 1969, the college became independent with the current name and has been se ...

, as dean of

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

Geisel School of Medicine The Geisel School of Medicine is the medical school of Dartmouth College located in Hanover, New Hampshire. The fourth oldest medical school in the United States, it was founded in 1797 by New England physician Nathan Smith (physician, born 1762) ...

, as president and CEO of the Harvard Immune Disease Institute, and as president of the

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous state in the South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the west, and has an international border wi ...

Biography

Baldwin earned an undergraduate degree in

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, was a

Rhodes Scholar The Rhodes Scholarship is an international Postgraduate education, postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scholarship is open to people from all backgrounds around the world. Esta ...

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College ( ) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by Bishop of Winchester William of Waynflete. It is one of the wealthiest Oxford colleges, as of 2022, and ...

, and attended

Stanford University School of Medicine The Stanford University School of Medicine is the medical school of Stanford University and is located in Stanford, California, United States. It traces its roots to the Medical Department of the University of the Pacific, founded in San Fra ...

. He completed a cardiothoracic surgery residency at Stanford in 1983. At Stanford, he trained under cardiac surgeon

Norman Shumway Norman Edward Shumway (February 9, 1923 – February 10, 2006) was a pioneer of heart surgery at Stanford University. He was the 67th president of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery and the first to perform an adult human to huma ...

. After he completed his training, Baldwin taught and practiced cardiothoracic surgery as a faculty member at Stanford, becoming the director of the heart-lung transplantation program there. In 1988, he accepted the same position at the

Yale School of Medicine The Yale School of Medicine is the medical school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was founded in 1810 as the Medical Institution of Yale College and formally opened in 1813. It is the sixth-oldest m ...

. Baldwin was named the Debakey Professor and the surgery department chairman at Baylor College of Medicine in 1994. While at Baylor, he performed the first successful cardiac "auto-transplant" procedure, in which he removed a patient's heart, took a tumor out of the heart, and reimplanted the heart into the patient. He conducted research on

gene therapy Gene therapy is Health technology, medical technology that aims to produce a therapeutic effect through the manipulation of gene expression or through altering the biological properties of living cells. The first attempt at modifying human DNA ...

and

growth factor A growth factor is a naturally occurring substance capable of stimulating cell proliferation, wound healing, and occasionally cellular differentiation. Usually it is a secreted protein or a steroid hormone. Growth factors are important for ...

utilization in cardiac care, and he worked to enhance the care provided in academic

managed care In the United States, managed care or managed healthcare is a group of activities intended to reduce the cost of providing health care and providing health insurance while improving the quality of that care. It has become the predominant system o ...

systems. He became the medical school dean and associate provost for health affairs at Dartmouth College in 1998. Baldwin was president and CEO of the Harvard Immune Disease Institute from 2005 to 2007. He became president of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) in 2007. During Baldwin's presidency, the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine at the TTUHSC El Paso campus received its accreditation as a four-year medical school. He resigned as president in 2009, but he remained at Texas Tech as an advisor to the chancellor and as a tenured professor. In 1995, Baldwin was elected to a six-year term on the Harvard University Board of Overseers. He also served on the board of directors of the Robert F. Kennedy Foundation and he received a 2011 presidential appointment to the U.S. Defense Health Board. Baldwin died on April 3, 2016, following a swimming accident in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baldwin, John C. 1948 births 2016 deaths American cardiac surgeons Health professionals from Fort Worth, Texas Stanford University School of Medicine faculty Baylor College of Medicine faculty Harvard Medical School faculty Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center faculty Geisel School of Medicine faculty Yale School of Medicine faculty Harvard College alumni Stanford University School of Medicine alumni American Rhodes Scholars Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford