About Us

About Us

About Us_Top Header copy

Texas Medical Center (TMC) — the largest medical complex in the world — is at the forefront of advancing life sciences. Home to the brightest minds in medicine, TMC nurtures cross-institutional collaboration, creativity, and innovation because together, we can push the limits of what’s possible.

TMC at a Glance

Home to the world’s largest children’s hospital & world’s largest cancer hospital. TMC delivers one baby every 20 minutes, resulting in approximately 26,280 births per calendar year. TMC begins one surgery every three minutes.

10 million
patient encounters per year
180,000+
annual surgeries
750,000
ER visits per year
9,200
total patient beds
50 million
developed square feet
13,600+
total heart surgeries
$3 billion
in construction projects underway
120,000+
total employees
8th largest
business district in the U.S.
Play Button

2023 State of the TMC

The State of the Texas Medical Center event, hosted by the Greater Houston Partnership, was held on Thursday, October 26, 2023.

 

William McKeon, President & CEO of TMC, highlighted 2023 achievements, spoke about exciting new developments, and discussed future opportunities for collaboration.

For the first time in the history of the Texas Medical Center, leaders throughout the TMC community have joined together in a visionary initiative to drive the next generation of life science advancements. Their goal: To become the world leader in health and life sciences by leveraging the collective power of TMC’s renowned institutions in a shared, centrally managed environment. The result is a research collaborative unlike anything TMC has ever known or health care has ever seen.

The initiative is a natural extension of TMC’s original mission to serve the health, education and research needs of Texas and the world. As health care’s largest and most diverse community, TMC is positioned to make a difference in ways no other single institution can. By uniting its unrivaled resources and expertise, the Texas Medical Center can more readily drive the commercialization of breakthrough ideas, expand its reach as a global medical leader and ultimately transform human health.

History

98 years ago

The Texas Medical Center took the first steps toward becoming the world’s largest medical complex.

Since then, TMC has pioneered medical innovations bordering on the impossible. Many of these advancements continue to change people’s lives. This timeline celebrates our milestones and breakthroughs, and the profound impact they’ve made across the entire spectrum of patient care.

Receive PDF

1925

Hermann Hospital opens to the public and admits its first patient.

Photo courtesy of Texas Medical Center.

1936

Monroe Anderson and trustees establish MD Anderson Foundation with $300,000.

1942

The University of Texas creates MD Anderson Hospital of Cancer and Research of The University of Texas, the first member institution of the Texas Medical Center.

Photo courtesy of the John P. McGovern Historical Collections and Research Center at the Texas Medical Center Library.

1943

The City of Houston provides 134 acres next to Hermann Hospital to establish a hospital district.
Baylor University College of Medicine moves from Dallas to Houston and becomes a member of the Texas Medical Center.

Photo courtesy of Texas Medical Center.

1944

President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved the acquisition of a 118-acre site on the corner of Old Spanish Trail and Almeda to be used as naval hospital. The hospital located on the property is now known as Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center.

The facility was transferred to the Veterans Administration and renamed the United States Veterans Administration Hospital, and was designated as a teaching hospital, affiliated with Baylor College of Medicine. Over the years, surgeon Michael E. DeBakey, M.D., played a major role in the hospital and in developing care for veterans, and the name was officially changed to the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center in 2003.

1950

Leopold Meyer starts building a three-story, 106-bed Texas Children’s Hospital.

Photo courtesy of the John P. McGovern Historical Collections and Research Center at the Texas Medical Center Library.

1964

Dr. Michael DeBakey performs world’s first coronary artery bypass procedure at The Methodist Hospital.

Photo courtesy of the John P. McGovern Historical Collections and Research Center at the Texas Medical Center Library.

1968

Dr. Denton Cooley performs one of the first heart transplants in the U.S. at Texas Heart Institute.

Photo courtesy of the John P. McGovern Historical Collections and Research Center at the Texas Medical Center Library.

1971

Texas Children’s Hospital collaborates with NASA to construct plastic isolator bubble for boy born with severe immune disorder.

Photo courtesy of Texas Medical Center.

1976

Hermann Hospital launches Life Flight, the first private hospital air ambulance service.

Photo courtesy of the John P. McGovern Historical Collections and Research Center at the Texas Medical Center Library.

1991

Texas Heart Institute releases first patient in the world with an electric, portable, battery-powered heart pump.

Photo courtesy of Texas Medical Center.

2011

Researchers from Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine discover a way to grow blood vessels and capillaries.

Photo courtesy of Texas Medical Center.

2012

Texas Children’s Hospital delivers Perkins sextuplets—the only surviving sextuplets in Texas—at 30 weeks.

Photo courtesy of Texas Medical Center.

2014

Over 150 member and community leaders gather to discuss the future of the Texas Medical Center and position it as the world’s leader in life sciences.

Photo courtesy of Texas Medical Center.

2014

TMC launches the Innovation Institute, the first of five institutes, developed to foster collaboration across the member institutions.

2015

The Health Policy Institute is launched in 2015. TMC Health Policy is the second of five collaborative programs created by the Texas Medical Center to elevate the collective resources of its member institutions on a national and global scale.

2018

TMC, Texas A&M University – Health Science Center, The University of Texas Health Science Center and The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer center announced plans for TMC3, a collaborative research campus.

2020

CDC confirms the first U.S. laboratory-confirmed case of COVID-19 in the United States of America.

2020

MD Anderson Center Center was the first hospital in the Texas Medical Center to get its first COVID-19 vaccine shipment on December 14, 2020.

Photo courtesy of MD Anderson Cancer Center.

1900
1930
1940
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2024