Michael J Lichtenstein, M.D.

Establishing successful sustainable research and science education programs is Dr. Michael Lichtenstein’s career focus. In 2001 he led the team that created the San Antonio Masters of Science in Clinical Investigation Degree, the first non-departmentally based program at the UT Health Science Center. 

In 2011, Dr. Lichtenstein coordinated development of a joint Translational Science PhD between the UT Health Science Center and three other academic components of the UT System (UT San Antonio, UT Austin, and UT School of Public Health).  

As technologies and learning platforms/methods rapidly evolve, Dr. Lichtenstein is excited in contributing to the growing experience and body of knowledge focused on how to prepare a diverse workforce for successful clinical and translational science careers.

• Professional Background

  Education

  • 1985 - Postdoctoral Fellowship - Epidemiology - Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit
  • 1984 - MS - Epidemiology - London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
  • 1981 - Residency - Internal Medicine - Vanderbilt University Medical Center
  • 1979 - Internship - Internal Medicine - Vanderbilt University Medical Center
  • 1978 - MD - Medicine (Cum Laude) - Baylor College of Medicine
  • 1974 - BS - Biochemistry - University of Wisconsin

  Appointments

  • 9/2009 - F. Carter Pannill Professor in Internal Medicine - University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Medicine, San Antonio
  • 1/2009 - Adjunct Professor of Public Health - UT School of Public Health-San Antonio Regional CampusSan Antonio
  • 8/1990 - Primary Care Geriatrics Practice - UT Health Physicians, Medicine, San Antonio
  • 9/1989 - Attending Physician - University Health SystemSan Antonio

• Instruction & Training

  • 9/2009 - Present, Individual Instruction, UTHSCSA
  • 9/2008 - Present, Post Graduate Rotation Supervision, UTHSCSA, UTSA, UT Austin, UT School of Public Health
  • 8/2008 - Present, Membership on Supervising Committee, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
  • 1/2002 - Present, MEDI 6060 Patient Oriented Clinical Research Methods 2, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
  • 9/2001 - Present, Post Graduate Rotation Supervision, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
  • 8/2001 - Present, MEDI 5070 Responsible Conduct of Patient Oriented Clinical Research
  • 8/2001 - Present, MEDI 5071 Patient Oriented Clinical Research Methods 1
  • 9/1996 - Present, Post Graduate Rotation Supervision, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
  • 10/1993 - Present, High School/Junior High School Student Supervision

• Research & Grants

  Grants

  Federal

  Funding Agency NIH Title Science Education Partnership Award ?Empowering K-12 STEM Teachers Through a Bioscience Academy?(OD-R25OD020202-A101) Status Active Period 7/2016 - 3/2021 Role Principal Investigator Grant Detail ABSTRACT: United States science education is in crisis. In spite of efforts to make school districts accountable through the `No Child Left Behind? legislation, the top-down approaches employed failed to yield improved secondary educational outcomes. In 2013, to address the challenges of improving Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education, a national committee?s (CoSTEM) first strategic priority to improve STEM Instruction emphatically proposes to ?prepare 100,000 excellent new K-12 STEM teachers by 2020, and support the existing STEM teacher workforce.? This proposal directly addresses this priority, specifically supporting the existing STEM teacher workforce.
  To improve in-service teacher STEM instruction, we used community engagement processes to establish the Voelcker Biosciences Teacher Academy (VBTA) in 2010 with the vision to create a learning community of empowered public school teachers. By engaging the in-service teacher community, the VBTA is growing into an effective network that works across schools and school districts. The VBTA disseminates best practices, offers teacher professional development, establishes peer-mentoring networks, and creates a culture that fosters independent, active life-long learning. To accomplish these missions, the VBTA teachers prioritized needs across their school districts, self-organized, and established three teacher-led committees that form the constructs for this SEPA proposal?s Specific Aims: Extending In-depth Teacher Professional Development (Peer Mentoring and Grant Writing) and Community Engagement. Our specific aims to accelerate VBTA development and support the existing STEM workforce are:
  1. Extend In-depth Bioscience Teacher Professional Development through:
  A. Peer Mentoring: The VBTA will promote peer mentoring through the process of STEM curriculum development aligned with Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), te Funding Agency NIH/NIA Title San Antonio Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center (PI - Nicolas Musi) Status Active Period 6/2015 - 4/2020 Role Co-Investigator Grant Detail This center grant funds a range of projects, training, and infrastructure focusing on interventions that will advance discoveries previously found in rodents into the pre-clinical arena using a non-human primate, the common marmoset, and then on into humans through clinical studies. I serve as Director of the Research Education and Career Development Core.

  The central premise of the proposed San Antonio Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center (OAIC) is that basic aging research has advanced to the point where scientifically validated, aging-modulating approaches are ready to be tested and translated into human therapies. We propose an Intervention Program that will advance discoveries obtained in rodents into the pre-clinical arena using a non-human primate model, the common marmoset, and from the pre-clinical arena into humans through clinical studies. Our Center will provide investigators with the scientific infrastructure and services that are requisite to translate innovative interventions that target the aging process and age-related diseases into humans. Initially, our major focus will be on pharmacological interventions, however, regenerative and gene transfer interventions also will be tested as they become available. The Specific Objectives of the OAIC are: 1. To provide, through Resource Core (RC-1), functional assessment (health span) services, and determine the effect of interventions on lifespan. This Core also will support pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamics, safety, and tolerability assessment of aging-modulating interventions. 2. To provide human clinical research and pharmacology services to studies of interventions aimed at preventing physiological decline and age-related diseases through Resource Core (RC-2). Services provided by this core will include study design, subject recruitment, subject retention, and procedures to assess physical performance, cognition, glucose metabolism, vascular function, atherosclerosis, exercise toleran

  Funding Agency NCATS Title Clinical and Translational Science Award: Institute for Integration of Medicine and Science: a Partnership to Improve Health Status Complete Period 7/2013 - 6/2018 Role Co-Principal Investigator Grant Detail Within the Institute for Integration of Medicine and Science, MJ Lichtenstein served as the Co-Principal Investigator for Research Education, Training, and Career Development.
  NCATS - KL2 TR001118 - KL2 Scholars Career Development Award Program
  Total Costs KL2: $3,274,065
  NCATS - TL1 TR001119 - TL1 Pre-doctoral Training Program
  Total Costs TL1: $620, 395

  Dr. Lichtenstein stepped down from his IIMS responsibilities on 12.31.2015

  Total Costs for UL1 + KL2 + TL1: $22,707,724
  ABSTRACT: San Antonio, the gateway to South Texas, is the 7*^ largest city in the US and the largest metropolitan area with a majority Hispanic population (63%). South Texas is about the size of Ohio, and comprises an impoverished and largely Hispanic population with disproportionate rates of diabetes and obesity, exacerbated by a lack of health insurance and poor access to health care. This region also contains numerous US military installations, and active-duty service members and veterans often have special health issues, including risk for post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic injuries. Unfortunately, neither better access to care nor improved care delivery can eliminate health disparities and meet these complex needs, in addition, research across the full T1 to T4 translational spectrum is required to eliminate knowledge gaps and establish real-world effectiveness that improves health care for our populations. In 2006, UTHSCSA established the Institute for Integration of Medicine and Science (IIMS) to improve health and reduce disparities by accelerating scientific discoveries and applications across the full translational research spectrum. For example, IIMS expanded the number of clinical research units that extend to the Texas-Mexico border from 1 to 7, and dramatically increasing participant access to clinical and translational science. We increased, from 2 to 6, the Practice-Based Research Networks that focus on diverse ambulatory populations. Efforts to address tr

   

• Publications

  Editorial

  Lichtenstein MJ. In Memoriam: Andrew K. Diehl, MD, MSc, MACP American Journal of Medical Sciences 2015 Jan;.

  Journal Article

  Garcia C, Espinoza SE, Lichtenstein M, Hazuda H. Health Literacy Associations between Hispanic Elderly Patients and their Caregivers Journal of Health Communication 2013 Oct;18:256-272.

• Clinical

  Board Certifications

  • American Board of Internal Medicine/Geriatric Medicine
  • American Board of Internal Medicine