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The Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine was founded as a
joint program between Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas and The University of
Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. Its mission is to promote
basic and clinical research, education, and clinical practice in defining
the limits to human functional capacity in health and disease, with the
objective of improving the quality of life for human beings of all ages.
The Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine (IEEM) is located in
Dallas,
Texas just 25 minutes from DFW airport and
just east of the Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas campus. See our map.
The Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine
contains 40,000 sq ft of research and office space, with 7 major
laboratories supported by approximately 40 technical staff. These
laboratories are tightly integrated and organized intellectually along the
"oxygen cascade" – the path that oxygen must follow through
the body from the external environment through the lungs, heart, and
skeletal muscle to perform physical activity. Our broad areas of interest
therefore include environmental physiology (temperature regulation, high
altitude physiology, hyperbaric medicine, water immersion), respiratory
physiology, cardiovascular regulation, neural control of the circulation,
and muscle metabolism. Each laboratory, led by a specific faculty member,
has both a research focus and a clinical application; as such, this
institute is one of a very few clinical research centers in the world that
fosters the fusion of basic science and clinical medicine in a program
designed specifically to study human physiology.
The individual clinical and research laboratories
include:
The Environmental Physiology Laboratory
focuses on high altitude and hyperbaric medicine; the clinical Hyperbaric
Medicine Unit is devoted to wound care and other applications.
Hyperbaric Medicine delivers increased amounts
of oxygen to the tissues to speed healing.
And Hypobaric Medicine decreases oxygen to simulate high altitude
or hypoxia;
The Cardiopulmonary Exercise Laboratory
examines cardiac and respiratory function during exercise and is a
regional referral center for patients with heart failure, lung disease,
and dyspnea (shortness of breath) on exertion; the adjoining Swimming
Flume/Water Immersion Laboratory contains a high speed "swimming
treadmill" as well as a deep water immersion channel for immersion
studies and underwater weighing which measures body (fat) composition.
The Cardiovascular Physiology/Autonomic Function
Laboratory allows for the in-depth study of
cardiovascular control processes and the neural control of the circulation
including the brain, also serves as a regional and national referral center
for disorders of the autonomic nervous system;
The Thermoregulation /Skin Blood Flow Laboratory
uses innovative techniques to evaluate blood flow to the skin, with the
objective to examine mechanisms of temperature regulation;
The Neuromuscular
Center receives referrals from around the world, and combines an
outpatient clinic and research laboratory, both dedicated to treatment and
research on skeletal muscle metabolic defects that limit the uptake of
oxygen and exercise capacity;
The Center also maintains a licensed Biochemistry
Laboratory for special chemistry and histochemistry analysis.
The Hyperbaric Medicine Unit also provides a program for pilots to
experience hypoxia, decompression simulation, under controlled
conditions. This Executive
Aerospace program can be scheduled by contact 214-345-4651.
Our Director, Benjamin D. Levine, MD. He is a researcher and a practicing cardiologist. Dr.
Levine is a Professor in the Internal Medicine Department at
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.
Many of our internationally renowned faculty have appointments at The
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Others are in
private practice. All are dedicated to expanding the knowledge of
integrative human physiology leading to the improvement of the health of
our community.
We have opportunities for you to contribute to the community as a
research subject. See the list.
The IEEM is funded by three sources. Our clinical revenues, as
part of Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas, grant funds from various federal agencies and charitable organizations, and
public gifts to our endowment.
List of publications in journals 1992 - 2003.
Our grant funding from 1992.
Contact information
under construction
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