Spotlight

Joseph Garcia-Prats, MD, is a native of El Paso, Texas. His father was a civil engineer and his mother was a stay-at-home mom whose hobby was performing traditional Spanish dances. Dr. Garcia-Prats’ siblings also are in the medical field—his brother practices emergency room medicine at the Oschner Foundation Hospital in New Orleans and his sister is a registered nurse doing case management in Odessa.

After obtaining his undergraduate degree in biology from Loyola University, Dr. Garcia-Prats attended Tulane Medical School where he was inducted into Alpha Omega Alpha. He decided to pursue a subspecialty in pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine where he was also a chief resident his last year of training. He was so impressed and motivated by the care of critically ill newborn infants and by Drs. Arnold Rudolph and James Adams that he stayed to complete his fellowship in neonatal-perinatal medicine.

Shortly after joining the Baylor faculty in the section of neonatology, he felt a calling to develop the nursery service at the old Jefferson Davis Hospital, which in the mid to late 1970s and 80s was delivering more than 16,000 babies a year. Besides administering that busy service, Dr. Garcia-Prats helped Dr. Rudolph in the Perinatal Outreach Program at Texas Children’s Hospital. The program presents perinatal education to hospital nursing staff in the Houston area and sponsors an annual perinatal nursing symposium. This year is the 25th year since Dr. Rudolph began the program, and the symposium (Nov. 2) celebrates his contributions.

This year, too, Dr. Garcia-Prats received the Barbara and Corbin J. Robertson, Jr. Presidential Award for Excellence in Education at Baylor College of Medicine. Currently he is medical director of the Arnold J. Rudolph Newborn ICU and deputy medical director of nursery services at Ben Taub General Hospital.

Dr. Garcia-Prats and his wife Catherine are the proud parents of 10 sons who are 25 to 7 years of age. Catherine and Joseph have co-authored two books, Good Families Don’t Just Happen and Good Marriages Don’t Just Happen. Dr. Garcia-Prats also is a co-author of the book entitled What To Do When Your Baby is Premature.