2023 Ashbel Smith Distinguished Alumni (ASDA) Award Recipient
This is the highest alumni honor bestowed to a medical school graduate by the university's John Sealy School of Medicine Alumni Association. This award, recognizing outstanding service to the medical profession and to humanity, honors the memory of Dr. Ashbel Smith. A prominent figure in Texas medicine, politics and education, Dr. Smith was considered the driving force behind establishing the University of Texas at Austin in 1881, and a medical department that would later be known as the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston in 1891.
About Dr. Leggett
Dr. Philip L. Leggett graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1975 from The University of Texas at Austin. Subsequently he received
his Doctor of Medicine from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston in May 1980, and was a member of Phi
Beta Pi Medical Fraternity.
He completed his internship and residency at Alton Ochsner Medical Foundation from 1980 to 1985, and served as Chief
Surgical Resident 1984 – 1985.
Dr. Leggett was a pioneer in laparoscopic surgical techniques starting in 1989. He traveled the continental United States
and Europe to learn innovative methods which he used as a springboard to progress to smaller and less trocars for more
advanced
procedures. Armed with these developments, he was asked to travel and
teach his techniques around the world for Ethicon Endo-Surgery and was
sponsored by Johnson and Johnson. This led him to develop one of the
first laparoendoscopic fellowships in the United States in 1999. This
fellowship has expanded to include four other programs
and is now known as Minimally Invasive Surgery of Texas.
In 2010, Dr. Leggett was honored to work with another distinguished UTMB alum, Dr. E. Steve Woodle, at the
University of Cincinnati to utilize laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy as a precursor to organ transplant to decrease
significant morbidity and mortality for their life-saving procedures.
In the mid 1990’s, Dr. Leggett was a member of the Clinical Outcomes of Surgical Trials which proved laparoscopic colon
surgery for malignancy was superior to open surgery. His practice has been designated as a Center of Excellence for
Bariatric Surgery from 2008 to the present.
Dr. Leggett served in various capacities at HCA Northwest Houston Hospital before being elected Chairman of the
Board there in 2011. He is a Board Member of the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo, The Richard Wallrath Educational
Foundation, The Mary J. Hamilton con Dios Foundation, and an Honorary Lifetime Board Member for the Boys &
Girls Country of Houston. Moreover, Dr. Leggett is also on the Advisory Board for HCA Healthcare Houston, Gulf Coast
Region. He serves as a Clinical Assistant Professor at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston and is a
Clinical Associate Professor of Surgery at The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. He has authored and/or
co-authored over 50 scientific publications.
Dr. Philip Leggett and his wife, Janet, live in Houston and have a house in Galveston, one block from Sonny’s. He and
his wife have three children, Philip II, Lauren, and Lindsey, and five grandchildren, Olivia, Sadie Rose, Cecilia, Barrett,
and Hunter.