Welcome to the final issue of Impact for Fiscal Year 2018!
We’ve had a most eventful year—Hurricane Harvey and unusual winter ice storms on the Gulf Coast; tremendous Best Care success; research breakthroughs in such areas as infectious diseases, Alzheimer’s and more; the creation of the Sealy Institute for Vaccine Sciences; expansion at our League City Campus; the recent announcement of our letter of intent to lease an existing hospital facility in Webster, Texas.
We also have faced financial challenges that have given us a glimpse of the future in a changing health care arena and have accelerated efforts to transform how we work to ensure the long-term health of our mission. I’ll be talking more about where we are and where we’re going at the Sept. 19 Town Hall. Check www.utmb.edu/townhall for more information. I hope you can attend, either in person or remotely.
I also want to share that crews are making great progress on the Health Education Center on the Galveston Campus. The building is funded in part through philanthropy—more than $915,000 of which has come from our own employees and students. Employee gifts of $100 or more and student gifts of $50 or more will be recognized in the building itself. The deadline for being included in that recognition is Sept. 28. Visit https://innovationsinmind.utmb.edu/home for more information. We look forward to seeing students in the center when it opens next year.
In the meantime, this issue covers a wide range of stories about how employees far and wide are fulfilling our mission. They include:
- Best Care in Action through a pilot program to conduct Care Management visits via video technology to reduce readmissions to the hospital
- Our researchers’ latest success in growing lungs in the lab
- A Day in the Life of Lela Lockett-Ware, ergonomics expert and UTMB’s Americans with Disabilities Act officer
- Correctional Managed Care employees in Gatesville coming to the aid of their community after an explosion at a local hospital
- The hidden talent of an automotive photographer
- A summary of the past month’s Pulse videos
- Tips for starting the school year off right, by Dr. Jeff Temple
- This month’s trivia question and more
As always, send your story ideas, Hidden Talents and trivia answers to the Impact team. And thank you for all you do for UTMB and our mission.
Dr. David L. Callender
UTMB President