The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced this week that Dallas will lead a national focused on improving patient experiences.
The network, part of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), will focus on research projects to address health problems like .
The collaboration will be housed in Pegasus Park in West Dallas, located near Parkland Health and UT Southwestern Medical Center. While Dallas will be the hub of the new Texas network, other cities participating include San Antonio, Houston and Austin.
Vice President of Kelly Cloud said this project is one the chamber has been working on for about two years.
鈥淧rior to this announcement, we were only seen as an emerging biotech life science market,鈥� Cloud said. 鈥淚 think this is a validation, and also a sign that we have a lot of amazing assets, and we have a lot of talent.鈥�
Cloud said Dallas is the ideal spot to lead the network because of the diversity of both science research and patient populations.
鈥淚 think the sky鈥檚 the limit,鈥� Cloud said. 鈥淚 think there鈥檚 a lot of opportunities for us to come up with solutions that haven鈥檛 even been thought of yet. It鈥檚 going to bring so much innovation and activity, so it鈥檚 really exciting.鈥�
CEO of Biotech Initiatives Tom Luce helped lead the bid to bring the project to Dallas. He said the city鈥檚 location was also a plus for the network.
鈥淭he fact we鈥檙e in the central part of the country [with] easy access to both coasts, [and] we鈥檝e got a great health care system, we decided to go for it,鈥� Luce said.
As the ARPA-H site gets ready to hire program managers and decide on grant recipients and focuses, Luce said he hopes researchers there will tackle issues like diabetes, infant mortality, cancer and heart disease.
鈥淲e have such a diversity of population that if you can鈥檛 solve the problems of Texas, you can鈥檛 solve the problems of the country,鈥� he said.
While the Texas hub will focus on improving patient care, another new hub in Boston will improve .
Got a tip? Email Elena Rivera at erivera@kera.org
四虎影院 is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider Thank you.
