Longtime University of Texas at Austin supporters Phil and Mary Beth Canfield are helping transform how Texans receive care through a gift to UT Dell Medicine, the University’s academic health system. Their $10 million contribution will play a crucial part in turning discoveries into new possibilities for preventing and treating disease, extending healthy life and bringing tomorrow’s most advanced medicine to a growing community.
For the first time in the city’s nearly 200-year history, Austin surpassed 1 million residents in 2025. The growth underscores a vital challenge of any flourishing region: access to high-quality healthcare that can scale with new technologies and the pace of medicine. As the University builds UT Dell Medicine, the Canfields believe there’s no better moment to invest in how people in Central Texas and beyond get and stay healthy for generations to come.
“We’re at a unique moment in time, and all the ingredients are here,” Phil Canfield, BBA ’89, said. “You have a Tier 1 research university, leadership who are 100% committed to reimagining how healthcare is experienced, and a community with a growing need for coordinated, frictionless care.”
UT Dell Medicine’s cornerstone, UT Dell Medical Center, will open in 2030. University and health system leaders are designing the medical center around the needs of patients and care teams, with flexible physical and digital infrastructure that can adapt as medical knowledge, treatments and technology advance.
“Building a health system from the ground up gives us an extraordinary opportunity to change the trajectory of medicine — to bring discoveries into care faster, help people live longer in good health, and bring advanced treatments and expertise closer to home,” said Claudia Lucchinetti, M.D., executive vice president for medical affairs at The University of Texas at Austin, dean of Dell Medical School and the executive leader of UT Dell Medicine. “Phil and Mary Beth understand the promise of this moment. Their generosity allows us to pursue bold ideas that could extend healthspan and give patients options they would otherwise have to leave Central Texas to receive.
“I’m deeply grateful for their trust and their partnership in building a future that will change what is possible for patients and families.”
Investing in Steadfast Leadership
The Canfields returned to Austin after decades living in Chicago, where they saw how close collaboration among research universities, specialist physicians and academic medical centers brought advanced care and clinical trials to communities across the region.
Meeting with Lucchinetti, the Canfields discussed her vision for UT Dell Medicine and what it’s poised to become: a destination for premier healthcare at one of the world’s leading research universities, designed around patients and their experience — with technology and artificial intelligence enabling seamless, truly integrated person-centered care.
“From the first time we met Claudia until now, her vision and her strategic goals have remained consistent,” Mary Beth Canfield said. “In our experience, leadership has been the biggest influence on where we want to invest our time and resources.”
Phil Canfield, who has spent his career in corporate finance and private investing, highlights one of the ripple effects of leadership: recruitment of world-renowned physicians and researchers, drawn to Austin by the opportunity to redefine what’s possible in medicine.
“Any organization is only as good as the talent of the leader and the people that leader can attract to the organization,” Phil said. “It’s the kind of thing that just starts to snowball once you get it going.”
Strategic Support for An Unprecedented Opportunity
As advances in medicine and technology open new possibilities for care, flexible funding allows UT Dell Medicine to act on promising discoveries and needs that cannot yet be anticipated. The Canfields’ unrestricted gift gives leaders the freedom to invest where resources are needed most, accelerating work that can improve patients’ lives and shape the future of medicine.
The Canfields, whose previous philanthropy named and supported the Canfield Business Honors Program, said they hope their gift inspires others to provide unrestricted support for UT Dell Medicine.
“UT is building a health system in a way no one else can,” Phil said. “It will be really hard for medical centers that have been around for 50 years, 100 years, to try and change the wings on an airplane at 40,000 feet.
“You have to have tremendous confidence in the vision and understand there will be unknowns, unexpected challenges and new opportunities that require resources and nimble decision-making.”
A Lasting Investment in Healthier Lives
Looking ahead, the Canfields see their contribution to UT Dell Medicine as a step toward fundamentally changing how medicine is taught, practiced and experienced in Austin and beyond.
“The expectation is that this should be the top academic health system in the country,” Phil said. “We’re going to have the most talented physicians training new doctors in a system built to deliver medicine the way medicine should be delivered today and in the future.
“Given everything that’s changing within healthcare and technology, I can’t think of a better time to do this.”
Source: news.utexas.edu
