Two Miller School Trailblazers Retire After Nearly 100 Years of Combined Service
Dr. Patricia Byers and Dr. David Roth retired from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, concluding nearly a century of combined service marked by groundbreaking advances in trauma care, surgical nutrition and transplant nephrology.
Nearly five decades ago, Patricia Byers, M.D., and David Roth, M.D., met during a clinical surgical rotation at Jackson Memorial Hospital. At the time, Dr. Roth was a young nephrologist inching his way into a specialty of transplant nephrology that didn’t yet exist. Dr. Byers was an intern learning to love surgery, despite the few female role models in surgical specialties.
They were surrounded by the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine health care culture, which sat at the intersection of some of the nation’s most complex medical challenges. Both physicians were deeply motivated by colleagues and mentors who never stopped asking how to improve.
Whether treating catastrophic trauma injuries, rebuilding lives through complex surgical nutrition procedures, advancing transplantation medicine or helping identify entirely new disease processes, Dr. Byers’s and Dr. Roth’s decades of service were pivotal to the Miller School’s and UHealth — University of Miami Health System’s innovation, research developments and compassionate care.
Now, with both physicians retired, they leave behind remarkable careers and generations of trainees, colleagues and patients who were shaped by their work.
“Dr. Byers and Dr. Roth are trailblazers who truly exemplify the strength, innovation and excellence of our great institution,” said Henri Ford, M.D., M.H.A., dean and chief academic officer of the Miller School. “Throughout their extraordinary careers, they transformed the lives of countless patients and learners while advancing their respective fields in profound and lasting ways. Their contributions have left an indelible mark on the Miller School of Medicine and will continue to inspire generations of health care leaders for years to come.”
Nearly 100 Combined Years of Service to South Florida
In May 2026, Dr. Byers and Dr. Roth left the halls of the Miller School and UHealth together for the last time as faculty.
Dr. Roth leaves behind a legacy of accomplishments in kidney transplant nephrology, having helped establish the field in the early 1980s. Dr. Byers, who was the first woman hired as a faculty member in the Miller School Department of Surgery (now the Dewitt Daughtry Family Department of Surgery), leaves after an esteemed career in trauma, critical care surgery and surgical nutrition.
When Dr. Roth completed his medical residency training at Jackson Memorial Hospital, there were no transplant nephrologists. Surgeons dominated kidney transplantation programs. Nephrologists rarely participated in transplant care.
He and a handful of others around the country were simultaneously trying to establish a new care model that integrated nephrology expertise into transplant care.
“Each of us had to prove that we added value in a meaningful way, and that was earned over time,” said Dr. Roth.
Breaking Barriers in Academic Medicine
Dr. Roth arrived in Miami in 1977 after medical school. As a young physician, he was struck by something he hadn’t experienced while training in New York.
“I only ever saw two standards of care: private patients and the unfunded patients. When I came down here to a county hospital, there weren’t two silos of care. There was just care,” he said.
Seeing faculty approach everyone who came through Jackson’s doors the same way, regardless of insurance status or background, became a defining principle throughout Dr. Roth’s career.
“It resonated with me very powerfully,” he said.
Dr. Byers also arrived at the Miller School early in her career and never left. At the time, the institution was still developing many of the programs that would later become nationally recognized. She was only the fourth female resident trained in the Department of Surgery and later became its first female faculty member.
A Pioneer in Her Field
When Dr. Byers first started on faculty, she tried to stay below the radar by deliberately dressing like the surgeons around her, in loafers, khakis, white shirts and blazers.
“The resident before me did that, and everybody left her alone, so I didn’t really want to have any impediments,” she said.
Dr. Byers delayed having children throughout residency because of the demanding schedule. Once she was on faculty, she was the first in her department to navigate working and having children.
“I didn’t really grasp the fact that I was the first woman faculty member until I asked what the maternity policy was, and there wasn’t any policy,” she said.
With time, Dr. Byers was joined by more women in residency programs and on faculty.
“I woke up one day and there were all these women,” she said. “We started accepting residency classes with 50% women and they had their nails done, were eating sushi and dressing the way they wanted. I put my heels back on.”
Witnesses to Major Advances in Modern Medicine
Seeing more women colleagues wasn’t the only change in the daily routine. Together, Dr. Byers and Dr. Roth saw entire eras of medicine unfold at the Miller School.
Dr. Byers recalls her years when patient charts were handwritten, residents spent nights on call every other day and advanced imaging was still limited.
“We know a lot more now about critical care. We have better imaging. The resuscitation of patients has improved dramatically,” said Dr. Byers.
Dr. Byers played a role in advancing the field of critical care. For example, she was an early advocate for administering blood products in trauma resuscitation, long before the practice became standard.
“Back then I was a heretic because I always gave the patients blood and fresh frozen plasma early, rather than the fluids,” she said. “But now they finally realize that giving blood is really the best thing.”
For Dr. Roth, Jackson Memorial Hospital served as an extraordinary window into emerging diseases. For example, HIV didn’t exist when he started working as a doctor. As physicians struggled to understand the new illness, Dr. Roth and his colleagues recognized and reported previously unidentified kidney complications associated with HIV. Later, he helped characterize kidney injury related to cocaine intoxication and became deeply involved in understanding hepatitis C in transplant recipients.
“I was present at certain, critical moments in medicine, and I was able to make a difference because I was paying attention to what was going on,” he said.
Because of the volume and diversity of patients treated at Jackson, many important medical discoveries were first made there. For example, Dr. Roth identified an association between cocaine and rhabdomyolysis and kidney failure, which he published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1988.
“Jackson has always had a mass of humanity coming through its doors, so it was an incubator of medical events,” said Dr. Roth.
Building Programs That Changed Patient Care
Neither physician limited their impact to individual patient care. Dr. Byers helped shape trauma systems across Florida, participating in the development of transport protocols and standards that influenced how trauma patients are evaluated and transported throughout the state.
She also became a national advocate for motorcycle safety after witnessing the devastating injuries associated with crashes. Through a grant-supported initiative, she developed statewide programs focused on prevention, education and first-responder training that have become a model for other states. One project identified airway obstruction as a surprising cause of motorcycle-related deaths that could potentially be addressed before emergency responders arrived.
Dr. Byers made an impact that extended far beyond the trauma bay and operating room. As a leader in surgical nutrition, she recognized early on that recovery isn’t defined solely by what happens in surgery. It depends on supporting patients before, during and long after their procedures.
“She helped shape how we think about healing, advocating for a more comprehensive, thoughtful approach that has influenced generations of surgeons and improved countless patient outcomes,” said Laurence Sands, M.D., M.B.A., interim chair of the Department of Interventional Radiology and professor and chair of the DeWitt Daughtry Family Department of Surgery.
Meanwhile, Dr. Roth helped build the field of transplant nephrology at a time when few saw the need. He helped bridge the gap between surgery and medicine, creating a collaborative model that improved care for patients with kidney disease.
“There was a natural, common space between the surgical approach and the management of people with kidney disease who need a transplant,” he said. “The sum of the parts was much greater than any individual, but I had to prove that.”
The Patients and Discoveries That Defined Their Careers
Despite long CVs of accolades, publications and leadership positions, both Dr. Byers and Dr. Roth remain most proud of how they directly improved patients’ lives.
“Everything I got involved in was timely, practical and directly applicable to patient care,” said Dr. Roth.
For Dr. Byers, some of her most meaningful work came through caring for patients with severe intestinal failure and complex nutritional disorders. These patients often had exhausted every available option before coming to UHealth.
Dr. Byers treated patients who were referred to hospice care with no hope, performing surgeries that sometimes lasted more than 12 hours.
“We put them back together, and they’re back living their lives,” she said.
Those relationships extended far beyond the operating room.
“I know their kids. They know my kids, and we’ve cried over events together,” she said.
Dr. Roth says caring for transplant patients taught him something equally important.
“I came to appreciate the fears and courage patients had to deal with and demonstrate when it comes to kidney failure, facing dialysis and transplant,” he said.
Mentorship That Shaped Generations of Physicians
Dr. Byers credits several influential mentors for helping her succeed, including department leaders who recognized her interest in surgical nutrition and trauma and encouraged her to pursue it. She also points to colleagues who have demonstrated the importance of mastering both medicine and surgical technique.
Throughout her career, she provided similar guidance to others by mentoring struggling residents, advising women navigating surgical careers and participating in national mentoring programs.
Through it all, Dr. Byers says mentorship runs both directions.
“These young people mentor us, too. They’re brilliant and savvy,” she said.
Dr. Roth shares a similar perspective. Across decades of teaching, research and patient care, he witnessed generations of trainees bring fresh ideas and new approaches to medicine. That exchange of knowledge, he says, is one of academic medicine’s greatest strengths.
“He’s the mentor who many aspire to find, the sponsor who would do anything to protect you and your dream,” said Alessia Fornoni, M.D., Ph.D., assistant dean for research training and development and professor of medicine and molecular and cellular pharmacology at the Miller School.
Dr. Byers and Dr. Roth are now spending more time with family, traveling and continuing to advocate for causes they’re passionate about. After decades focused on medicine, both are eager to explore new subjects and activities. As they move on, their influence remains embedded in the health system and medical school they nurtured over nearly five decades, in the trainees they mentored and in the patients whose lives they touched.
Tags: critical care teams, Dr. David Roth, Dr. Patricia Byers, hepatitis C, kidney disease, kidney transplantation, nutrition, transplant, trauma surgical critical care