 |
| By Richard E.
Wainerdi, P.E., Ph.D. |
On October 8,
1945, the charter to form the Texas Medical Center was signed by Claude Isbell,
Secretary of State for Texas. This year, Texas Medical Center is 58 years old.
When it began, there was not a medical school in Houston and the several
hospitals in Houston had been built in the 1920s or even earlier. Two major
forces, however, were about to change the medical landscape for this part of
Texas.
Baylor
University decided to move its medical school from Dallas to Houston, and the
new Texas Medical Center offered it land on which to build. Also, the State of
Texas was considering the establishment of a statewide cancer hospital, and the
Trustees of the Anderson Foundation and the Houston Chamber of Commerce pledged
money to match the state funding for the hospital if it were to be located in
Houston in the new Texas Medical Center. The offer was accepted and the
hospital was named for Monroe Dunaway Anderson.
During the 1960s, Baylor College of
Medicine was separated from the university in Waco, and it has rapidly gathered
support on its own. Today, it is one of the stellar medical research
institutions in the nation. Texas's first Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded
to Dr. Roger Guillemin for his work at Baylor in identifying the significance
of endorphin as a major chemical in the brain. He gave the medal and the
diploma of the 1977 Nobel Prize to Baylor and it is on display in its
lobby.
UT-M. D.
Anderson Cancer Center has also grown in reputation and in
size.
Today, it is
the largest comprehensive cancer center in the world, treating patients and
sending thousands of them home, cured, and attracting the leading research
doctors from major medical and scientific schools, here and
abroad.
Today,
Texas Medical Center has grown from its original two member institutions to
more than 40, including now two medical schools, four schools of nursing, a
dental college, hundreds of degree-granting programs from seven allied
university systems, 19 institutions with research capabilities, and 13
hospitals with over 6,000 beds.
They are supported by agencies of federal, state, county and
municipal government; by churches; by international service organizations; and
by philanthropy from individuals, families, foundations and
trusts.
Its own
board of directors or trustees governs each member institution, but many
activities are done cooperatively. The annual operating budgets, student and
patient expenditures, and capital expenditures for the member institutions are
in excess of $5.4 billion - larger than the capital expenditures reported by 12
states in our nation.
There are more than 61,000 employees working in the Texas
Medical Center, making it the largest single-site employer in Houston. What may
seem astonishing is that there is currently over $1 billion in new construction
in progress on the campus today.
Texas Medical Center is a destination of choice for patients,
scholars, and healthcare professions from the small towns in Texas and the
capitals around the world. The leader of a recent foreign delegation said, "You
have to see it to believe it." In the words of former First Lady Barbara Bush,
the Texas Medical Center is Houston's "gift to the world."
|
|
