UT Health Austin will be closed on Tuesday, December 24, and Wednesday, December 25, in observance of the winter holidays as well as on Tuesday, December 31, and Wednesday, January 1, for New Year’s. On behalf of our clinicians and staff, we wish you and your loved ones a joyful, safe, and healthy holiday season. For non-urgent matters, you can always message your care team through your MyUTHA Patient Portal.


Advanced Search
Blog
Women's Health Apr 17, 2018

Building Compassion Into Your Care

Christina Salazar, MD, FACOG, Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgeon with the Women’s Health clinic, greets a patient. Dr. Salazar's hand is on the woman's shoulder and she is smiling.

There shouldn’t be a difference between care and caring. Here at UT Health Austin, compassion is one of our biggest driving factors as healthcare providers.

By focusing on outcomes and goals that matter most to patients, our objective is to ensure that every single patient feels listened to, understood, and helped in the most effective and meaningful way. Dr. Christina Salazar, a gynecologist specializing in the management of complex women’s health conditions in Women’s Health, a partnership between Ascension Seton and UT Health Austin, explains that this approach to patient care is unique to medicine. She says that healthcare providers rarely have the opportunity to carve out time to sit as a team and discuss each patient as an individual and then together develop a treatment plan utilizing a variety of resources already available on the team.

“It’s about getting back to the human side of medicine, and focusing on how we can better the system for patients that require specialized care,” said Dr. Salazar.

A Comprehensive Approach to Reproductive Health

The care team approach is designed to utilize medical opinions from a variety of specialists to review a patient’s history, symptoms, lifestyle as well as emotional and mental health to put together a long-term care plan that is unique to the patient’s needs. “Having the ability to unite dietitians, health social workers, and physical therapists into an academic setting allows us to have a very functional, supportive, and caring medical team. That has been the largest contributing factor in providing phenomenal caring for our patients,” said Dr. Salazar.

“I think the ability for us to apply the resources available to us and collaborate with our colleagues in the Musculoskeletal Institute has been very effective,” she added. “Our mission as a clinic is to serve as a unique resource for the community and help provide solutions by looking at the patient from a new perspective. After reaching their goals, we graduate these patients and send them back to their primary providers.”

“Patients have been very receptive and even emotional at times after receiving care here,” said Dr. Salazar. “I’m touched all the time by their stories and it reminds me that I’m here to make a change in how healthcare is delivered and to make a difference in people’s lives.

Impacting the Community, One Individual at a Time

Dr. Salazar was inspired to serve others through the field of medicine by her father who is a general surgeon and family practitioner serving the needs of patients in South-Central Texas. She has always had a special interest in women’s health and is committed to using that passion for the benefit of the Austin community. She is a strong patient advocate and cares deeply about improving each individual woman’s quality of life. “It’s just a joy to be a part of this team,” she said. “We are changing lives and helping Austin’s citizens get specialized care that they wouldn’t otherwise have access to. It’s really encouraging seeing some of these patients that have otherwise felt lost who have now found a path to healing.”

For more information about Women’s Health or to request an appointment, visit here.

Women's Health

About UT Health Austin

UT Health Austin is the clinical practice of the Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin. We collaborate with our colleagues at the Dell Medical School and The University of Texas at Austin to utilize the latest research, diagnostic, and treatment techniques, allowing us to provide patients with an unparalleled quality of care. Our experienced healthcare professionals deliver personalized, whole-person care of uncompromising quality and treat each patient as an individual with unique circumstances, priorities, and beliefs. Working directly with you, your care team creates an individualized care plan to help you reach the goals that matter most to you — in the care room and beyond. For more information, call us at 1-833-UT-CARES or request an appointment here.