He was a co-founder of the Dallas Diagnostic Association, and is former Chief of Staff of Medical City Dallas Hospital. After graduating with high honors from the University of Texas at Austin, he received his M.D. degree from Southwestern Medical School (Dallas) in 1967. Following internship, he served as a battalion surgeon in Vietnam, where he was decorated for valor. He later completed his residency in internal medicine at the Veterans Administration Hospital and Parkland Hospital in Dallas. Dossey is past President of the Isthmus Institute of Dallas, an organization dedicated to exploring the possible convergences of science and religious thought. Dossey lectures widely in the United States and abroad about the role of consciousness and spirituality in health. In 1988, he delivered the annual Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Lecture in New Delhi, India, the only physician ever invited to do so.