In this recent post on the death of Michael DeBakey, I noted that a substantial part of Dr. DeBakey’s legacy was his involvement in the massive importation of talented medical professionals to Houston over the past 60 years. That talent transformed the Texas Medical Center from a sleepy regional medical center into one of the largest and most dynamic medical centers in the world.

Dr. Ralph Feigen, who died at the age of 70 on Thursday,epitomizes the doctors who have been at the center of that transformation.

Drawn to Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine at the age of 40 in 1977, Dr. Feigen spent the rest of his life in Houston cultivating a culture of excellence in research and patient care that turned Texas Children’s into one of the largest and best pediatric hospitals in the world. Dr. Feigen was an excellent teacher, superb clinician and a highly-regarded researcher, but his personal warmth for his patients is what thousands of parents and their children will remember most about this fine man. A large part of Dr. Feigen’s legacy is that Texas Children’s — despite its enormous growth over the past 30 years — still reflects the comfortable warmth of its long-time leader.

Todd Ackerman, the Chronicle’s fine medical reporter, summarizes Dr. Feigen’s enormous impact well (the NY Times obituary is here):

Feigin, considered by many the most important pediatrician of the past 25 years, died Thursday. [.  .  .]

Feigin transformed Baylor pediatrics from a small, poorly funded department into the nation’s biggest, made Texas Children’s Hospital one of the nation’s elite children’s hospitals and trained an amazing roster of doctors, including almost half of Harris County’s current population of pediatricians and many academic leaders nationally.

He also was known for research that contributed to the better understanding and treatment of pediatric disease, as the author of textbooks that changed the care of children worldwide and as a tireless advocate who never missed a chance to take up the cause of children’s health.

Colleagues described him as unfailingly cheerful and energetic, even after the lung cancer struck. Diagnosed with the disease in late 2007, he continued as Baylor’s chairman of pediatrics and Texas Children’s physician-in-chief while in treatment. In May, he announced he would step down but attributed the decision to a plan he had made at 65 to stop his administrative duties at 70. [.  .  .]

In all, Feigin trained more than 2,000 pediatricians and pediatric specialists. Of those, two went on to become medical school deans, 22 became associate medical school deans, 10 became pediatric department chairmen and 180 became section heads of pediatrics.

Feigin came to Houston in 1977, a time when neither Baylor pediatrics nor Texas Children’s were players of any significance. In 30 years, Baylor’s pediatric faculty grew from less than 40 to more than 500, and pediatric’s federal research funding became the most in the country, nearly $100 million. Texas Children’s created and developed several of the nation’s most respected clinical centers, and its patient load skyrocketed.

In addition to his pediatric administrative and clinical duties, Feigin served as president of Baylor from 1996 to 2003 and as interim CEO of Texas Children’s from 1987 to 1989.

Despite the administrative roles, Feigin remained focused on children’s health. He pushed for the state to extend the Children’s Health Insurance Program to the maximum number of children and Medicaid to the maximum number of indigent mothers. He and his colleagues were at the forefront whenever there was an infectious disease outbreak, giving shots to kids and urging people to exercise caution.

He was considered such a great diagnostician that twice a week residents would gather to seek his help on their most baffling cases at "stump Feigin" sessions.

Without books or computers, Feigin would reel off myriad possible causes, then describe what he’d do to arrive at a diagnosis as quickly as possible. The performance left the residents awed.

We often get sidetracked as to what bells and whistles will supposedly make Houston better, but it’s people such as Ralph Feigen who truly make Houston such a special place to live.