Puneet Bajaj, M.D.

Biography

Puneet Bajaj, M.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center, and a member of its Division of Rheumatic Diseases. Dr. Bajaj received his medical training at Madurai Medical College, India. He then obtained a master’s degree in public health from Florida International University and completed internal medicine residency training at the University of Alabama in Montgomery. His interest in autoimmune diseases led him to receive advanced training in rheumatology through a fellowship program at Stony Brook University in New York. He has been on the faculty of UT Southwestern since 2014.

Dr. Bajaj has special interest in improving quality of care and has successfully implemented several campus-wide and clinic level quality improvement projects over the last several years. In the past, he has served as Associate Chief Quality Officer and Associate Chief Medical Officer of Southwestern Health Resources (SWHR), which is the clinically integrated network supporting patients and providers through UT Southwestern and Texas Health Resources (THR). During his tenure there, he worked on finding innovative ways to improve patient outcomes through value-based care and population health initiatives. Currently, he serves in the capacity of Quality Officer for the Department of Medicine and is actively engaged in several department-wide quality improvement initiatives.

Dr. Bajaj is an active member of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR). He is currently a member of its Quality Measures subcommittee, and in the past served as a member of its committee on Registries and Health Information Technology. He successfully integrated the ACR’s clinical registry (RISE registry) at UT Southwestern, which was one of the first academic institutions in the nation to do so.

Outside of medicine, he enjoys spending time with his family and participating in outdoor activities.