Jim Willerson is one of the major forces in cardiovascular disease in the world. After
his training in Boston and in Bethesda he returned to his beloved Texas by joining
the Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern
Medical School in Dallas. Within 1 year he rose from Assistant to Associate Professor
of Medicine and 3 years later at age 37 he became Professor of Medicine occupying
an endowed chair. A year later he was Director of the Cardiology Division. He remained
in Dallas for 18 years, leaving in 1989 to become Chairman of the Department of Internal
Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Chief of the
Medical Services at Herman Hospital and at the Lyndon Baines Johnson General Hospital,
Medical Director of the Texas Heart Institute and Chief of Cardiology at the Texas
Heart Institute and at St. Luke's Hospital. When he left Dallas his chair in cardiology
was renamed the “James T. Willerson, MD., Distinguished Chair in Cardiovascular Diseases.”
In 1993 he became Editor in Chief of Circulation. His honors and research contributions have been numerous. His publications in medical
journals as of September 1996 number 624 and he is the author or coauthor of 10 books.
He has received numerous teaching awards. Many patients are under his personal care.
I am grateful that Dr. Willerson was willing to share the interview which follows.
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