ph ysici a n profile
J O H N F. E I D T, M . D.
Service is an important word to John F. Eidt,
M.D., who joined the medical staff at Baylor Jack
and Jane Hamilton Heart and Vascular Hospital
in late 2015. “I feel very committed to the concept
that as a physician, and particularly as a surgeon,
you are a servant. You are there to serve the patient’s
best interest. That is why you exist.”
As a vascular surgeon, Dr. Eidt serves the Baylor
community in a number of ways beyond the vascular surgeries that he performs. One of his functions
is helping to develop Baylor’s academic program in
vascular surgery, which involves research and publishing as well as educating and training residents
in vascular surgery. He’s also helping to enhance
systems of care, as health care shifts from fee-forservice medicine to population-based medicine. “A
lot of academic practice has been focused on basic
science and translational research in the last half a
century,” Dr. Eidt said. “But, I’m convinced that
the question marks are not so much exactly what to
do, but how do we efficiently and effectively deliver
that care to a population of people?”
Working at Baylor is a homecoming of sorts for
Dr. Eidt, who was born at the former Florence
Nightingale Maternity Hospital at Baylor Dallas.
After graduating from Jesuit College Preparatory
School of Dallas, he received his undergraduate
degree in English from the University of Notre
Dame. He earned his M.D. from UT Southwestern
Medical School, completed a general surgery residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston,
and then trained as a fellow at Parkland Memorial
Hospital. He spent the bulk of his career as the
Chief of Vascular Surgery and Program Director at
the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
Dr. Eidt and his wife are excited about being back
in his hometown of Dallas, which is near both of
their families, and close to their farm in Rockwall,
Texas. He’s particularly proud to be at Baylor, where
cardiac surgeons and vascular surgeons work closely.
“In a lot of places, these two specialties stay in quite
separate domains, which is detrimental to patient
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care,” he said. “One of the unique things about
Baylor is we have this very strong, cooperative relationship between vascular surgery and cardiac surgery — and cardiology for that matter — that
allows for comprehensive, complex care.”
What brought you back to Texas?
My 95-year-old mother lives over on Midway
Road. I have a brother and sister here, and my wife’s
family is from Longview. We have a farm out in
Rockwall that we have some cows on, and I spend
most of my free time out there. The farm will probably be my retirement home — hopefully — if it
doesn’t get too crowded out there. Rockwall used to
be out in the country. When I was a kid, you’d leave
Dallas and drive out through Garland and then you
go through Rowlett, and then you get to Rockwall.
Now, until you get to Greenville, you’re still in Dallas.
Do you have any children?
Never had kids. My residents have always been
my kids.
You’ve said that you always ask your residents
what they’re most proud of. Why is this an
important question to you?
One of the things I learned [while creating pottery]
was that you can work on this pot, and if it’s not what
you want it to be, you can cut it off the wheel and
throw it back into the mud and start over. It’s not so
much about creating this lasting artifact, but more
about the actual process of building, of doing.
Besides the cows on your farm, do you have any pets?
I’ve got a Great Dane named Levi. He’s our sixth
one. We’ve had Great
Danes since I was in
the research lab. I’d
snuck a research dog
out of the lab in the
middle of the night
because he was on
death row. About six
months later, I snuck
out another one.
DR. JOHN EIDT