Antonia F. Chen, M.D., M.B.A., is a leader and a healer. She joined UT Southwestern Medical Center last fall as Chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. Dr. Chen specializes in total knee and hip replacements and partial and total joint replacements along with subspecialties in infection prevention and management.

Prior to UT Southwestern, she served as Chief of Arthroplasty and Joint Reconstruction and Director of Research in Arthroplasty Services at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, where she was also an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School. She earned her medical degree and M.B.A. at Rutgers, then completed her residency in orthopedic surgery at the University of Pittsburgh.

Dr. Chen is certified by the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery and serves on the editorial boards of numerous journals. She is a Deputy Editor for the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery.

How does your understanding of business and management inform your clinical work?

I got my M.B.A. between my first and second year of medical school thinking that I would go into private practice. Clearly, I’m in the academic setting now, but my M.B.A. has helped me understand the business side of things and to have a seat at the finance table. The popular saying is, “no margin, no mission.” If your practice is not in the black, you’re not going to be able to fulfill your mission. It’s that simple.

“Managing People” is one of the most important classes I took in business school. Management is an everyday pursuit: you manage your patients, you manage your office staff, you manage the operating room. You measure and you manage everyone. I realize I’m an outlier, having a business degree among M.D.s, but it is becoming more popular to obtain joint degrees in medicine.

Have you seen instances of how philanthropy has impacted your practice and/or research?

Private philanthropy is key. Public grants are wonderful, but oftentimes to secure a grant, you need preliminary data. How do you get preliminary data if you have no money to start with? The answer is philanthropy. People who invest private money in a cause are interested in it and want to know the results. They tend to follow up and ask wonderful questions.

At Brigham and Women’s Hospital, private philanthropy was a large part of how we studied complications like infection in orthopedics. When someone undergoes a hip or knee replacement, it can get infected, and there are some risk factors that aren’t completely understood. It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor, green or purple, you can get infected. It’s an equal opportunity complication after surgery, and studying the risk factors associated with infection is incredibly important for treatment success.

What were your initial impressions of UT Southwestern and the DFW Community?

We love the weather, the people, and the food. While I came from a large academic system, the UT System feels different. While it’s big, it feels more accessible.

At UT Southwestern, I also feel like there’s a lot more cohesiveness between our clinical and research enterprises. Our different clinical enterprises all serve a different patient population, and with all of our orthopedic units combined, we can take care of all the types of patients found in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.

I’m also very proud to see the UT Southwestern flag being flown in our marketing venues, like at a Mavericks game, or an FC Dallas, or Dallas Trinity FC soccer game. It’s very, very inspiring as it really brings people together. I think that’s part of the Dallas-Fort Worth nature, that people in Texas all band together.

• Dr. Chen holds the Dr. Charles F. Gregory Distinguished Chair in Orthopaedic Surgery.