Dr. Benjamin Levine, director of the Institute of Exercise and Environmental Medicine (IEEM) at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, has been elected to membership in the Association of American Physicians (AAP). This prestigious medical society includes fewer than 2,000 current, emeritus and honorary members from the United States and other countries.

In 1992, Levine helped found the IEEM, which is operated jointly by Texas Health Dallas and UT Southwestern Medical Center. It is the country’s largest human physiology clinical research program and seeks to improve individuals’ quality of life through research, education and clinical practice.

“Dr. Levine's work on cardiovascular physiology in health and disease is innovative, important, and directly applicable to the care of patients with heart disease and a wide variety of circulatory disorders,” said Dr. Mark Feldman, chair of Internal Medicine at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas and also a member of the Association of American Physicians. “He is highly deserving of this honor”.

Among his many accomplishments, Levine has conducted research for the U.S. Olympic Committee on the effects of high-altitude training on endurance athletes, and practiced high-altitude medicine with the Himalayan Rescue Association in Nepal.

He also is a longtime consultant to NASA, and when 33 miners were trapped underground in a mine explosion in Chile in 2010, Levine partnered with two NASA flight surgeons to help with the rescue operation. Together, they devised a medical plan so that the miners could be brought 2,300 feet to the surface without losing consciousness.

“It is a tremendous honor to be selected as a member of the Association of American Physicians, one of the great medical societies,” Levine said. “It has been a real privilege working with two fantastic organizations: UT Southwestern and Texas Health Resources, which has allowed me to develop a program at the cutting edge of clinical medicine and human physiological research.”

Levine is a graduate of Brown University and Harvard Medical School. He completed his internship and residency at Stanford University and joined the medical staff at Texas Health Dallas in 1992. He also became a member of the UT Southwestern faculty in 1990.

The Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine (IEEM) was founded as a joint program between Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas and UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. Its mission is to promote basic and clinical research, education, and clinical practice in defining the limits to human functional capacity in health and disease, with the objective of improving the quality of life for human beings of all ages. The IEEM includes ten major laboratories tightly integrated and organized intellectually along the “oxygen cascade” — the path that oxygen must follow through the body from the external environment through the lungs, heart, and skeletal muscle to perform cognitive function and physical activity. The IEEM is among the only research centers in the world that fosters the fusion of basic science and clinical medicine in a program designed specifically to study human physiology.

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas is an 898-bed acute care hospital and recognized clinical program leader, having provided compassionate care to the residents of Dallas and surrounding communities since 1966. U.S. News and World Report has ranked Texas Health Dallas among the nation’s best hospitals in digestive disorders, orthopedics, and neurology and neurosurgery. An affiliate of the faith-based, nonprofit Texas Health Resources system, Texas Health Dallas has approximately 4,000 employees and an active medical staff of more than 1,000 physicians. For more information, call 1-877-THR-WELL, or visit TexasHealth.org/Dallas