An Evolution of Collaboration at UTMB

By: Austin Weynand, MHS

Galveston during the 2021 ice freeze2

Randall Urban, MD serves as the Vice President of research and the Chief Research Officer at UTMB, and these roles, fittingly, call for broad oversight over investigative efforts conducted in Galveston. He is a fierce proponent of the idea that research works better when all cogs of the academic machine are working in symphony, a tenant of the One Health vision. In other words, he believes that the best results for patients and other beneficiaries occur when educators, scientists, clinicians, and the local community collaborate to achieve great things

To parlay this concept with an example: Dr. Urban is an endocrinologist by training. Diabetes mellitus is a crucial health concern and one quite familiar to him and his patients. The management of diabetes, however, extends beyond treatment of individual patients, precisely because of its status as a multigenerational, public health problem. It requires educators to bring medical professionals into the fold on new developments in treatment. It needs researchers to investigate new therapeutics. Broadly, it entails community engagement to spread awareness for risks and signs of diabetes, access to financial and healthy lifestyle support, and to address social barriers to prevention or treatment. 

Natural disaster can also rally the different health communities to operate in a One Health fashion. When hurricane Ike devastated the island in 2008, many unforeseen consequences hindered a full recovery – such as an outbreak of murine typhus years later. Many homes were left abandoned, and beneath them proliferated possums, who carried ticks with disease that in turn spread to domestic cats and then humans.1 Shrewd collective efforts between experts were needed to combat the spread. In February of 2021, when the ice freeze rocked the state of Texas, the Galveston National Lab lost water pressure to the point that the boilers failed; temperatures within the GNL plummeted, putting the lives of animals and the integrity of the facility in danger. Again, shrewd and timely collaboration between people with specialized skillsets spared the lab from disaster. “You needed everybody’s unique expertise,” Dr. Urban explains.

There have been many more difficult scenarios which challenged UTMB to find solutions in creative ways by synthesizing its disciplines. This is a movement that Dr. Urban has championed since his arrival in the 1990s. Moreover, there are advantages that UTMB has which put it in an excellent position to adopt One Health-centric frameworks. It is an infectious disease superpower, with the ability to share breakthroughs in the understanding and combat of pathogens with the rest of the world. Perhaps most advantageous, it “has the opportunity to be both a medical school and its own health system;” thus, communication between academia and hospitals is much more fluid than it would be otherwise. 

UTMB continues to expand its connections to better serve people in the context of research, practice, and public health. The additions of Jennie Sealy Hospital and off-island clinics in Clearlake and beyond extend its reach, and partnerships such as with Texas A&M’s veterinarians bolster the breadth of expertise. Dr. Urban hopes to continue to grow UTMB as a health entity, and, in times of crisis, as a diverse problem-solving network. 

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