Dr. Jacqueline Pugh has a distinguished 30 year career as a faculty member of the Medical School at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA).  Dr. Pugh grew up in Waco, Texas, received a BA in Comparative Studies from UT Austin, and her MD from UTHSCSA.  She then completed an internal medicine residency at Duke University as well as a year of General Medicine Fellowship.  She subsequently returned to San Antonio to complete an additional 1.5 years of epidemiology fellowship with Dr. Michael Stern during which time she began her research into the epidemiology of end-stage renal disease related to Type 2 diabetes mellitus.

In 1987 Dr. Pugh joined the faculty of the Division of General Internal Medicine in the Department of Medicine, with a clinical appointment in the South Texas Veterans Health Care System (STVHCS).  Dr. Pugh pursued research into the complications of Type 2 diabetes mellitus in the Mexican American population and ways in which clinical settings could slow or prevent these complications.  She has been funded for this research by the VA Health Services Research and Development, the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research, the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases, and the Texas Diabetes Council.  She has served as the PI on three large multi-project grants that provided early funding for young investigators: the Texas Diabetes Institute (TDI) grant from the Texas Diabetes Council that funded 7 projects on case management and patient, provider, and community education about diabetes;  MERECE, an AHRQ funded Minority Medical Treatment Outcomes Program grant, and VERDICT, a VA Health Services Research Enhancement and Advancement Award.  While the Director of VERDICT, she led a group of 15 MD and PhD investigators from a multiple disciplines including internal medicine, family medicine, pulmonary, and critical care medicine, health, clinical and organizational psychology, epidemiology, medical anthropology, and statistics.   Her current research uses complexity science as a lens to understand and improve health care organizations.

Four years ago,  Dr. Pugh assumed the role of Associate Chief of Staff for Research and Development at STVHCS.  In this role she oversees both the regulatory requirements for conducting both animal and human research at STVHCS as well as the continued development and expansion of research efforts.

In addition to her research, Dr. Pugh has provided service at the local and national level in a variety of forums. She served as the STVHCS’ employee health physician early in her career.  She was the course director of the second year medical student’s advanced physical diagnosis course for 4 years, sharing this role with Dr. Jane Appleby for the last 2 years.  Dr. Pugh served as the General Medicine Section Chief at the STVHCS for a number of years as well.  Dr. Pugh’s work with the TDI included planning of the educational arm of the TDI as well as travel to McAllen and Harlingen monthly for about 3 years, an early model to the current RAHC activities.

At the national level, Dr. Pugh served as chair of the Technical Advisory Committee to the Division of the Diabetes Translation at the Centers for Disease Control, served for 5 ½ years as a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the U.S. Renal Data System, was an editorial board member of Diabetes Care, was a team leader for the Nephropathy Module of the VA Diabetes Clinical Practice Guidelines and has served for the last 6 years on the VA Quality Enhancement Research Initiative (QUERI) Research and Methodology Committee.

Dr. Pugh continues to maintain a small primary care clinic at the VA where she receives comments like these from her patients and their families.  “ My Dr. Pugh is easily the best M.D. I’ve ever had. Her empathy and caring is on and beyond any M.D. I’ve ever had and I am signing my name because she should have credit where credit is deserved.”  “We cannot express our gratitude for all that you have done for our father. We appreciate the time and attention that you gave him and his family. You are a great doctor and a wonderful person. My father was blessed to have you.”