Issue link: https://tmcpulse.uberflip.com/i/425954
t m c » p u l s e | d e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4 23 accommodate as many as 50 life science startups. Beyond the five institutes, we also have a bold and exciting vision to transform a large parking lot in the center of campus into a life science research building unlike any we have on this cam- pus. TMC 3 , or "The Third Coast," would incorpo- rate state-of-the-art, multi-institutional research space, hotel, conference space, retail and restau- rant space, as well as mixed-use housing. We hope it will ultimately serve as a real epicenter for the Texas Medical Center, and yield transformative collaboration and research. Earlier this year, we also took part in some engaging new programs and events that we hope will help position the Texas Medical Center as a destination for academics and researchers. In April, we were pleased to have Houston selected as the host city for Medical World Americas, a three-day conference and exposition that offered health care professionals a cross-disciplinary forum for addressing issues and exploring solutions to enhance patient care. More than 50 speakers from within the Texas Medical Center took part. Also this year, we welcomed Harvard Business School professors, Drs. Michael Porter and Robert Kaplan, as guest speakers for a Value- Based Health Care Delivery course. These are the kinds of events that I believe the Texas Medical Center has a great opportunity to not only com- pete in, but to lead. With so many exciting ventures underway, and many more planned for the future, we have redesigned the Texas Medical Center communi- cations platforms—print and digital—to give our community of patients, staff and visitors the infor- mation they need to stay connected and informed of current happenings across campus. We also recently launched the Texas Medical Center app, which offers access to transportation informa- tion, a virtual campus tour, and the latest news and events, from wherever you are. This will also serve as an invaluable platform for emergency communications. Emergency preparedness is a major priority for the Texas Medical Center, and will continue to be in the future. The emergence of Ebola in the national consciousness shined a spotlight on the need for an effective emergency prepared- ness system, and highlighted the importance of cross-institutional communication. Again, we are more than a collection of buildings located near one another. We have over 100,000 employees and 60,000 students on our campus at any given time. Our facilities are integrated and connected in ways that require we come together and prepare for a large-scale emergency. We recently launched a campus wide noti- fication system, using the Public Information Emergency Response (PIER) system. The mass notification system is utilized to globally broad- cast emergency incidents—such as weather, traffic and criminal activity—that occur on campus. With the mass notification system, we are also able to incorporate these emergency communica- tions in an RSS feed on the Texas Medical Center mobile app. Roughly 2,000 people have already subscribed to receive PIER notifications, and we hope to have many more than that in the coming months. Ultimately, we would like to be able to connect the entire campus through a single alert system, fed by notifications from all of our mem- ber institutions. The work that we have done over the past year, and that is planned for the years ahead, is all in an effort to fulfill our founding charter. Seventy years ago, the founding members of the Texas Medical Center agreed that this land was being purchased for three reasons: research, education, and the health of Texas. We have been able to provide infrastructure in the past, but these efforts—indi- vidually and collectively—represent us actually moving closer to our original founding mission. Our plans are not small. Fulfilling them will not happen overnight. But if there is one thing I know about this city, and this state as a whole, it's that it doesn't matter where you come from as long as you're willing to roll up your sleeves to work hard and make things happen. And that is truly the spirit of the Texas Medical Center. We see it every day, and in unique ways: innova- tion, research, education and patient care. We are blessed with an abundance of resources and passion, and I feel so privileged to be even a small part of the medical center. a concept drawing for the proposed tmc 3 life science research building. (credit: gensler) T M C RESEARCH CAMPUS PRIMARY CLINICAL CAMPUS