Issue link: https://tmcpulse.uberflip.com/i/735225
t m c » p u l s e | o c t o b e r 2 0 1 6 2 TMC | PULSE Vol. 3 No. 8 October 2016 President and Chief Executive Officer Robert C. Robbins, M.D. Vice President of Communications Christen David Pulse Editor Maggie Galehouse mgalehouse@tmc.edu Digital News Editor Shea Connelly sconnelly@tmc.edu Staff Writers Alexandra Becker Shanley Chien Christine Hall Britni N. Riley Photojournalist Cody Duty Advertising Coordinator Meagan McCullough NEWSROOM 713-791-8812 news@tmc.edu ADVERTISING 713-791-8894 newsads@tmc.edu DISTRIBUTION 713-791-6130 distribution@tmc.edu TMC Pulse is a monthly publication of the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas. Permission from the editor is required to reprint any material. Editorial/advertising information is available upon request. Texas Medical Center News is a mem- ber of Houston Press Club, American Medical Writers Association, Association of Healthcare Journalists, and American Advertising Federation. PRESIDENT'S PERSPECTIVE ROBERT C. ROBBINS, M.D. President and Chief Executive Officer, Texas Medical Center W hen I came to the Texas Medical Center in 2012, the Rolanette and Berdon Lawrence Bone Disease Program of Texas was the only major collaborative effort across the entire campus. Four years later, that's still true. If there's another such program on a similar scale, I don't know about it. Founded in 2002, the bone disease program harnesses the research and expertise of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine and The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. It is dedicated to finding cures for all types of bone disease. It's also proof that we can all work together for a common good. And it shows that there must be a good reason—a value proposition—to bring three institutions into one unique partnership. In this case, retired tank barge magnate and philanthro- pist Berdon Lawrence, who suffers from severe osteoporosis, offered a substantial endowment to a few TMC institutions willing to work together to fight bone disease. The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard started in much the same way. Several biomedical research organizations in the Boston area—beyond the two in the insti- tute's name—agreed to work together on genomics. The value proposition there was a man name Eli Broad, who put $600 million on the table to make it happen. And he lives in L.A.! Here at the Texas Medical Center, we have big plans for five institutes that will foster collaboration across all 57 member institutions. Our TMC Innovation Institute and TMC Health Policy Institute have already launched. Still to come: Institutes for clinical research, regenerative medicine and genomics. But we're just starting. We can learn from the Rolanette and Berdon Lawrence Bone Disease Program of Texas and from The Broad Institute. Ten years from now, we hope to be just like them.