Dr. Daniel Scott - UT Southwestern

Biography

Daniel Scott, M.D., is Assistant Dean of Simulation and Student Integration and holds the Frank H. Kidd Jr., M.D., Distinguished Professorship in Surgery. He studied biomedical engineering at Southern Methodist University and completed medical school at Louisiana State University School of Medicine, graduating as a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. He pursued residency training in general surgery and completed a 2-year fellowship in advanced laparoscopic surgery at UT Southwestern. He then joined as faculty at Tulane University School of Medicine in 2002, where he established a Simulation and Training Laboratory, a Laparoscopic Fellowship Program, a multi-disciplinary Bariatric Surgery Program, and a Robotic Surgery Program. Dr. Scott relocated to Dallas in 2005 and joined the faculty at UT Southwestern. Dr. Scott practices as a general surgeon who specializes in minimally invasive, bariatric, and hernia surgery and has been repetitively listed in D Magazine’s Best Doctors in Dallas. He served as the director of a multi-department simulation program and Vice Chair of Education and Residency Program Director in the Department of Surgery, and continues to serve as Program Director of the Minimally Invasive/Bariatric/Hernia Surgery Fellowship. In 2016, Dr. Scott became Director of the UT Southwestern Simulation Center, which host events for all departments and has over 23,000 annual learner encounters.

Dr. Scott is a nationally and internationally recognized as an expert in medical education, with a strong interest in competency-based training. He has authored over 240 publications, including landmark studies in surgical simulation. Dr. Scott has received grants from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and other organizations for simulation-based training and device development research. Dr. Scott has also served in numerous national leadership roles, including President of the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES), President of the Fellowship Council, and President of the Association for Surgical Education (ASE), and a member of the American Board of Surgery General Surgery Board.

Education

Medical School: Louisiana State University School of Medicine at New Orleans (1995)
Internship: UT Southwestern Medical Center (1996), Surgery
Fellowship: UT Southwestern Medical Center (2000), Laparoscopic Surgery
Residency: UT Southwestern Medical Center (2002), Surgery

Research Interest

Artificial Intelligence for human performance assessment
Bariatric Surgery
Hernia Surgery
Minimally Invasive Surgery
Simulation-based training and assessment

Publications

Featured Publications

Certification pass rate of 100% for fundamentals of laparoscopic surgery skills after proficiency-based training.: Scott DJ, Ritter EM, Tesfay ST, Pimentel EA, Nagji A, Fried GM Surg Endosc 2008 22 1887 - 1893
Completely transvaginal NOTES cholecystectomy using magnetically anchored instruments.: Scott DJ, Tang S, Fernandez R, Bergs R, Goova MT, Zeltser I, Kehdy FJ, Cadeddu JA. Surg Endosc 2007 21 2308 - 16
Laparoscopic training on bench models: better and more cost effective than operating room experience?: Scott DJ, Bergen PC, Euhus DM, Jeyarajah DR, Laycock R, Rege RV, Tesfay ST, Thompson WM, Valentine RJ, Jones DB. J Am Coll Surg 2000 191 272 - 283
Using OR Black Box technology to determine quality improvement outcomes for in-situ timeout and debrief simulation.: Campbell KK, Abreu AA, Zeh HJ, Daniel WC, Palter VN, Bishop SJ, Sims S, Odeh JM, Evans K, Dandekar P, Scott DJ Ann Surg 2026 283 122 - 129
Advanced Training in Laparoscopic Suturing (ATLAS): developing multicenter expert-derived proficiency scores and assessing workload.: Nagaraj MB, Nepomnayshy D, Jonas N, Stefanidis D, Ghaderi I, Alseidi A, Scott DJ. Global Surg Educ 2025 4 1 - 6
Applying state-of-the-art artificial intelligence to grading in simulation-based education: assessment, feedback, and ROI.: Campbell KK, Holcomb MJ, Vedovato S, Young L, Danuser G, Dalton TO, Jamieson AR, Scott DJ. Discov Artif Intell 2025 5 1 - 14
Examining the 8-year evolution of a suturing simulation curriculum: adaptations and optimization in response to COVID-19 and student feedback.: Desir A, Rege RV, Campbell KK, Mihalic A, Nagaraj MB, Farah E, Gopal K, Abdelfattah K, Scott DJ Global Surg Educ 2025 4 1 - 11
ACS-Simulation in Surgical Education (ACS-SISE): improving simulation-based teaching skills of surgeon educators.: Sudan R, Scott DJ, Campbell KK, Acton RD, Campbell AR, Rege RV, Blair PG, Sachdeva AK. Global Surg Educ 2025 4 1 - 8
Rubrics to prompts: assessing medical student post-encounter notes with AI.: Jamieson AR, Holcomb MJ, Dalton TO, Campbell KK, Vedovato S, Shakur A, Kang S, Hein D, Lawson J, Danuser G, Scott DJ NEJM AI 2024 1 1 - 16
Understanding ACGME standards for simulation: a document analysis of institutional and program requirements.: Scott AE, Campbell KK, Carey J, Velez L, Ambardekar A, Scott DJ J Grad Med Educ 2024 16 691 - 700

Honors & Awards

Andrew L. Warshaw Master Educator Award
Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract (2023)
Fellow, American Surgical Association
(2021)
Distinguished Teaching Professor
UT Southwestern Academy of Teachers (2019)
SAGES Foundation Excellence in Medical Leadership
(2010)
Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract (SSAT) Traveling Fellowship
Transgastric, Robotic, and New Techniques in Minimally Invasive Surgery and Simulation, Collaboration with Paul Swain, MD and Ara Darzi, MD, Imperial College School of Medicine, London, UK (2005)
Chancellors Entrepreneurship and Innovation Award
University of Texas System (2004)
SAGES Young Researcher of the Year Award
Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (2004)
Best Doctors in Dallas
D Magazine

Professional Associations/Affiliations

American College of Surgeons
American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery
American Surgical Association
Association for Surgical Education
Society for Surgery of the Alimentart Tract
Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons