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Capitol Comment
by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
Texas’ Medical Leadership is Saving Lives
October 12, 2007
The ancient Greek physician Hippocrates considered medicine, “the most distinguished of all the arts.” Indeed, medical research is one of science’s most exciting fields. Each new breakthrough saves lives, improves health and leads to a higher quality of life for Americans. I am proud that Texas is at the forefront of scientific progress in many areas, and is a world leader in medical research.
Earlier this month, Congress passed a bill I authored to award the Congressional Gold Medal to Dr. Michael DeBakey, who is one of our nation’s greatest surgeons and medical innovators. Dr. DeBakey is Chancellor Emeritus of the Baylor College of Medicine and a worthy recipient of the highest civilian award Congress can bestow.
A veteran of World War II, Dr. DeBakey developed the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (M.A.S.H.) units that saved thousands of lives during the Korean and Vietnam conflicts. He was later instrumental in the establishment of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’(VA) Medical Center System. He is also internationally recognized for inventing or refining several very successful medical techniques and devices, including the heart transplant procedure, the roller pump in heart-lung machines and the DeBakey Ventricular Assist Device.
Dr. DeBakey’s accomplishments revolutionized cardiovascular medicine, and are mirrored by the achievements of our state’s many brilliant medical minds. Dr. Denton Cooley, founder of the Texas Heart Institute, participated in the world’s first open-heart surgery, performed the first successful heart transplant in the U.S. and implanted the first artificial human heart. Dr. Julio Palmaz, a radiology professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSC-SA), invented the stent that has become a crucial part of angioplasty procedures.
Our talented Texas researchers are standing on the shoulders of these giants and leading efforts to tackle our nation’s most pressing health problems. The Galveston National Laboratory at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) will open in June 2008, and will spearhead nationwide studies of dangerous emerging diseases such as the West Nile virus, SARS, and avian influenza. UTMB won a very competitive National Institute of Health bidding process to host this Level 4 Biocontainment lab. It is one of only two such facilities in the nation—the other is at Boston University. The information we gain from UTMB’s work will help protect Americans from potentially deadly outbreaks and bioterrorism attacks.
As the only medical school on the U.S.-Mexico border, the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center at El Paso (TTUHSC-El Paso) is ideally placed to address the serious health issues the region faces. It is a leading investigator of new and re-emerging diseases, such as tuberculosis and hepatitis, which occur at a higher rate along the border than in either the U.S. or Mexico. This is why I have provided funding for research at TTUHSC-El Paso, and helped created the Border Health Commission in 1994. Today, I am working with my colleagues to pass The Border Health Security Act of 2007 to continue to combat diseases that are transmitted across the border.
And, Texas’ leadership includes the very latest in medical science. Our Alliance for NanoHealth is leading the way in the developing field of biomedical nanotechnology. This unique partnership is made up of seven outstanding Texas institutions: the UT medical schools in Houston and Galveston, the UT M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Rice University, the University of Houston, Texas A&M University and Baylor College of Medicine. It brings together scientists from many different fields to find ways to treat illness at the cellular and even molecular level. Researchers have learned that action taken on the smallest scale may combat the most destructive diseases. Dr. Mauro Ferrari, one of the founding fathers of this field, has been recruited to be the Alliance’s president.
The cutting-edge discoveries that we make here in Texas and the leadership we provide can help save lives throughout our nation and the world. Medical breakthroughs can also be powerful economic producers, and they help our state continue to attract the world’s best minds. It is my privilege to support the institutions, doctors and scientists that make these advances possible, and I will continue to champion their efforts as your Senator.
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