It’s Destination Dallas for medical care, validating the booming industry’s broad appeal

People travel here for all kinds of reasons: to cheer on the Dallas Cowboys, to shop at Neiman Marcus — and to get some of the best health care anywhere. Antonio Dobos, a 4-year-old with a rare deadly brain disease, made the trek with his parents from a small village in Romania. He received a gene therapy treatment in a clinical trial at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Children’s Health, and his gait has already improved since he arrived in Dallas in late July. “He’s walking [normally] and he’s very much a normal child, except he’s not talking yet,” his parents said through an interpreter. Antonio’s case is an example of the amazing medical advances being made in Dallas. In the past year, such efforts have attracted over 8,000 people from outside the state to UT Southwestern alone. Other North Texas providers have become medical destinations, too, especially in cancer care and heart surgery.

These medical visitors speak to the quality and capacity of a booming local industry — one that’s invested billions in new facilities, services, research and personnel. “A lot of people think you have to go to New York or Houston or San Francisco to get the best care, but we have some of the very best treatment right here,” said Stephen Love, CEO of the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council, an advocate for the industry. “We save a lot of lives.” The best are getting better. Five years ago, UT Southwestern had two specialties ranked in the top 50 nationwide, according to U.S. News & World Report. In the most recent ranking, UTSW had eight specialties in the top 25, including those attracting the most medical tourists: neurology, cancer, cardiology and urology. Its Clements University Hospital also has ranked as D-FW’s top hospital for five consecutive years. Clements was completed in late 2014 — 12 stories, 1.3 million square feet with a price tag of $800 million. It’s among several signature projects transforming the UT Southwestern campus and larger medical district, about 4 miles northwest of downtown Dallas.