Appointment signals truce in medical center turf war in Houston area.

Dec. 9--Ending a 40-year rift between two of the Texas Medical Center's pre-eminent institutions, Texas Heart Institute President Dr. Denton Cooley appointed a Baylor College of Medicine heart surgeon Wednesday as his chief of adult cardiac surgery.

The naming of Dr. Joseph Coselli brings together Baylor's heart-surgery program and the institute for the first time since the early 1960s, when Cooley founded the institute in a now-legendary turf war with Dr. Michael DeBakey.

"The Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital is proud of its international reputation in cardiovascular research, education and patient care," Cooley said in a statement. "The addition of Dr. Coselli and his team to our faculty and staff should significantly enhance these functions."

Experts said the partnership -- Coselli initially will bring with him 31 faculty, staff and residents -- should bring the institute back to a position of national pre-eminence. It was long considered the nation's best heart center, but its reputation has dipped slightly in the past decade. It is ranked as the ninth-best heart center in the latest U.S. News and World Report survey.

Coselli's naming also means the heart institute's leadership will include both a Baylor doctor and a University of Texas doctor, an unusual collaboration in the Texas Medical Center. Dr. James Willerson, president of the UT Health Science Center at Houston, is the institute's president-elect, as well as its medical director, chief of cardiology and director of cardiology research.

Cooley's appointment of Coselli follows a historic split between Baylor and The Methodist Hospital earlier this year. After a 50-year partnership, the two decided in April not to renew their contract, and St. Luke's became Baylor's primary private adult affiliate. Staff members have been relocating since then.

Many medical center staff applauded the announcement Wednesday, saying they've been waiting a long time for two of the city's best heart-care resources to be united. Among them was Dr. Bud Frazier, director of cardiovascular surgical research at the heart institute and chief of transplant services at St. Luke's.