Last modified: Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Dean D. T. Maglinte
Distinguished Professor, Radiology and Imaging Science
Department of Radiology and Imaging Services
School of Medicine
Indiana University- Purdue University Indianapolis
Appointed to IU faculty, 1983
A.A., University of Santo Tomas (Philippines), 1965
M.D., University of Santo Tomas, 1965
". . . Dr. Maglinte has conquered small bowel imaging. It is an area in which he can reasonably be considered the world's foremost authority. He did this with his own ingenuity, perseverance, and hard work." --Gary Becker, Executive Director of the American Board of Radiology
There is no way to calculate the lives saved through more than 40 years of enthusiastic dedication and innovation ascribed to Dr. Dean Maglinte by an international peer group. These experts recognize him as the leading gastrointestinal radiologist in the world.
Cancer, Crohn's disease, and other gastrointestinal afflictions often hide in the small bowel, a portion of the human digestive system that has always been difficult to image through radiography or to enter with an endoscope because of its motility and a complex, looping configuration.
"Yet Dr. Maglinte has conquered small bowel imaging," says Gary Becker, executive director of the American Board of Radiology. "It is an area in which he can reasonably be considered the world's foremost authority. He did this with his own ingenuity, perseverance, and hard work."
Radiology department chairs from hospitals and universities around the world agree that Maglinte's work has saved countless lives through a career of dedicated patient care, innovative research, and energetic teaching that first brought him to Indiana in 1973 as a radiologist at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis.
Early in his career Maglinte recognized inadequacies with small bowel imaging using barium that led to his development of a new procedure called small bowel enteroclysis. Considered the gold standard for evaluating small bowel diseases, the X-ray procedure allowed for administration of two contrast agents that dramatically improved visualization opportunities.
"He did pioneering work in the area of small intestinal enteroclysis and is largely responsible for the bulk of our knowledge in that regard," says Clarian Health Chief Medical Officer Richard Graffis. "He is without peer in his ability to make obscure diagnoses based on this test. There has been a huge benefit to patients that receive this test in terms of accuracy of diagnosis, avoidance of additional unnecessary tests, and even the avoidance of surgery in many instances." Maglinte's innovative spirit continued as he combined modern multi-slice computed tomography (CT) scanners with enteroclysis to create CT enteroclysis, which offered further imaging improvements.
"Over the past 20 years Methodist Hospital and Indiana University Hospital have collectively performed more enteroclysis examinations than any other center in the world by a substantial margin," says IU Distinguished Professor of Medicine Douglas Rex. "Dean has been a clear leader in the development of enteroclysis and the world's leading expert in terms of volume and quality of performance in enteroclysis."
Maglinte developed the catheter -- now called the Maglinte Enteroclysis Catheter -- that is widely used for enteroclysis infusions, and also invented a long decompression/enteroclysis catheter called the Maglinte Long Tube, which is used for small bowel decompression and diagnosis -- one of the few long small-bowel catheters in North America.
Richard Baron, chair of the University of Chicago's Department of Radiology, describes Maglinte as a creative, thoughtful, and dynamic teacher whose enthusiasm and expertise in mentoring students and young faculty ensure another generation of authorities in the field.
"He has served the radiology academic community persistently and diligently, giving freely of large amounts of personal time in ways that so often go unrecognized," Baron says. "Much of this time truly came at the expense of his personal time, being accomplished in nights and weekends after completing his expected daily tasks."
His body of work is immense, with 20 visiting professorships (at Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, and Oxford, among other universities), 185 presentations at national and international professional meetings, authorship and co-authorship of more than 150 original articles, 80 chapters and review articles, and three books, including two definitive textbooks with Hans Herlinger.
In 2006 he received the Gold Medal Award from the Indiana Radiological Society and was also named by the Society of Gastrointestinal Radiologists as the 2006 Richard Marshak International Lecturer. In 2008 he was awarded the Society of Gastrointestinal Radiologists' highest honor, the Walter Bradford Canon Medal for lifetime achievement. Maglinte has also received the T.H.O.M.A.S. Award for outstanding alumni in research from his alma mater, the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, Philippines.
"He is likely the most well-respected gastrointestinal radiologist in the world, and this kind of recognition brings honor to the Department of Radiology, the School of Medicine, IUPUI, and Indiana University," says D. Craig Brater, dean of the IU School of Medicine. "Since coming to the United States in 1965, Dean Maglinte has continued to exhibit excellence in research, in education, and in patient care."
