A Houston startup has created a web tool for tracking the coronavirus. Pexels

A Houston tech startup has created a web application to give the residents of Harris County all the local information on COVID-19 in the palm of their hand.

Predictive Solutions uses a map tool to indicate the county's nearby testing locations as well as cases that have been self reported in the area through the tool. While not trying to be comprehensive, the website is trying to track trends with the disease.

"We developed the app to help streamline communication between the City of Houston, the healthcare community, aid organizations and Harris County residents, while mitigating the logistical nightmare of making sure presumed cases get tested," says Stewart Severino, co-founder and CEO of Predictive Solutions, in the news release.

While the web app is something consumers can use and report on, it's also something that federal, state and local officials can use as a data solution to predicting the virus' trends.

"By providing a mechanism for the city to monitor testing locations and enabling users to self-report symptoms, Predictive hopes to deliver a platform that can help officials gain a firm handle on the trending virus, allowing for decision-making that's directly informed by data," says Predictive's co-founder and CTO, Theo Patestos, in the release.

The startup is a portfolio company of H Town Incubator, a new coworking space in town that provides its members with services like health care and legal counsel. The app can be accessed online through desktop or mobile.

"This is only a starting point for presenting the data," says Severino, who's also the CEO of H Town Incubator. "We need city and state officials, as well as the public to help make this application useful. The app is only as good as the data it gathers."

A new coworking space plans to debut on Houston's northside. Photo courtesy of H-Town Incubator

Houston coworking concept to launch to arm members with advisers and health insurance options

new to hou

Freelancers and small business owners might not miss the office politics or mandatory training seminars, but there are quite a few things like mentorship and health insurance that most coworking spaces don't provide. A new Houston company hopes to fill the void.

H-Town Incubator is a 30,000-square-foot coworking space on the northside of town with plans to launch officially in January. The space has desk, cubicle, or office membership options, but also provides its members with advisory services, like legal, accounting, marketing, and more.

"What if an entrepreneur, freelancer, or contractor were given access to an hour or so for a month with legal or accounting," says Stewart Severino, CEO of H-Town Incubator. "You have that real coaching available to you."

Another unprecedented perk is that entrepreneurs can have access to affordable health insurance for as low as $60 a month. Severino says that small businesses can even white label this plan so that their team can have their ID cards labeled with their company's information.

"There are so many underinsured and uninsured people and families out there. It's a big deal," Severino tells InnovationMap. "Because of the co-op we have with our insurance partners, we can put together our own plan and offer that to these individuals."

At this point, about 15,000 square feet of space built out with space for 80 to 100 coworkers to work out of 55 cubicles, 30 offices, and other desk space. The second half of the floor could also be developed for additional offices, desks, and cubicles. The space also has two kitchens and conference rooms that Severino says members won't have any limitations on access, like other models that use credit systems.

"Because we're smaller, we can do that," he says. "We don't have to go that route of being too structured."

With easy access to Bush Intercontinental Airport and neighboring communities like The Woodlands and Spring, Severino says he's already seen both local and international opportunities.

Severino says the idea for the space came organically. He was working out of this office and saw connections happening between various industries. That's how he got the idea to build it into coworking space.

With his 20-year marketing career, Severino says he's seen the smoke and mirrors of "dressed-up" coworking spaces on the market today, he wants to provide something deeper for entrepreneurs.

"When things lack substance, that really bothers me on a personal level," he says. "I want to go out and create something that can serve the individual as a whole."

H-Town Incubator will celebrate a grand opening in mid January, but Severino plans to offer free drop-in days for entrepreneurs to take a trial run. Ultimately, Severino hopes the initiative becomes a collaborative space for companies of all phases and industries to work as resources for each other.

"It will be a dynamic place for sure," he says, adding that he expects to add programming to the mix too.

Ad Placement 300x100
Ad Placement 300x600

CultureMap Emails are Awesome

Baylor College of Medicine names Minnesota med school dean as new president, CEO ​

new leader

Dr. Jakub Tolar, dean of the University of Minnesota Medical School, is taking over as president, CEO and executive dean of Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine on July 1.

Tolar—who’s also vice president for clinical affairs at the University of Minnesota and a university professor—will succeed Dr. Paul Klotman as head of BCM. Klotman is retiring June 30 after leading Texas’ top-ranked medical school since 2010.

In tandem with medical facilities such as Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center and Texas Children’s Hospital, Baylor trains nearly half of the doctors who work at Texas Medical Center. In addition, Baylor is home to the Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Texas Heart Institute.

The hunt for a new leader at Baylor yielded 179 candidates. The medical school’s search firm interviewed 44 candidates, and the pool was narrowed to 10 contenders who were interviewed by the Board of Trustees’ search committee. The full board then interviewed the four finalists, including Tolar.

Greg Brenneman, chair of Baylor’s board and the search committee, says Tolar is “highly accomplished” in the core elements of the medical school’s mission: research, patient care, education and community service.

“Baylor is phenomenal. Baylor is a superpower in academic medicine,” Tolar, a native of the Czech Republic, says in a YouTube video filmed at the medical school. “And everything comes together here because science saves lives. That is the superpower.”

Tolar’s medical specialties include pediatric blood and bone marrow transplants. His research, which he’ll continue at Baylor, focuses on developing cellular therapies for rare genetic disorders. In the research arena, he’s known for his care of patients with recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa, a severe genetic skin disorder.

In a news release, Tolar praises Baylor’s “achievements and foundation,” as well as the school’s potential to advance medicine and health care in “new and impactful ways.”

The Baylor College of Medicine employs more than 9,300 full-time faculty and staff. For the 2025-26 academic year, nearly 1,800 students are enrolled in the School of Medicine, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and School of Health Professions. Its M.D. program operates campuses in Houston and Temple.

In the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2024, Baylor recorded $2.72 billion in operating revenue and $2.76 billion in operating expenses.

The college was founded in 1900 in Dallas and relocated to Houston in 1943. It was affiliated with Baylor University in Waco from 1903 to 1969.

​Planned UT Austin med center, anchored by MD Anderson, gets $100M gift​

med funding

The University of Texas at Austin’s planned multibillion-dollar medical center, which will include a hospital run by Houston’s University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, just received a $100 million boost from a billionaire husband-and-wife duo.

Tench Coxe, a former venture capitalist who’s a major shareholder in chipmaking giant Nvidia, and Simone Coxe, co-founder and former CEO of the Blanc & Otus PR firm, contributed the $100 million—one of the largest gifts in UT history. The Coxes live in Austin.

“Great medical care changes lives,” says Simone Coxe, “and we want more people to have access to it.”

The University of Texas System announced the medical center project in 2023 and cited an estimated price tag of $2.5 billion. UT initially said the medical center would be built on the site of the Frank Erwin Center, a sports and entertainment venue on the UT Austin campus that was demolished in 2024. The 20-acre site, north of downtown and the state Capitol, is near Dell Seton Medical Center, UT Dell Medical School and UT Health Austin.

Now, UT officials are considering a bigger, still-unidentified site near the Domain mixed-use district in North Austin, although they haven’t ruled out the Erwin Center site. The Domain development is near St. David’s North Medical Center.

As originally planned, the medical center would house a cancer center built and operated by MD Anderson and a specialty hospital built and operated by UT Austin. Construction on the two hospitals is scheduled to start this year and be completed in 2030. According to a 2025 bid notice for contractors, each hospital is expected to encompass about 1.5 million square feet, meaning the medical center would span about 3 million square feet.

Features of the MD Anderson hospital will include:

  • Inpatient care
  • Outpatient clinics
  • Surgery suites
  • Radiation, chemotherapy, cell, and proton treatments
  • Diagnostic imaging
  • Clinical drug trials

UT says the new medical center will fuse the university’s academic and research capabilities with the medical and research capabilities of MD Anderson and Dell Medical School.

UT officials say priorities for spending the Coxes’ gift include:

  • Recruiting world-class medical professionals and scientists
  • Supporting construction
  • Investing in technology
  • Expanding community programs that promote healthy living and access to care

Tench says the opportunity to contribute to building an institution from the ground up helped prompt the donation. He and others say that thanks to MD Anderson’s participation, the medical center will bring world-renowned cancer care to the Austin area.

“We have a close friend who had to travel to Houston for care she should have been able to get here at home. … Supporting the vision for the UT medical center is exactly the opportunity Austin needed,” he says.

The rate of patients who leave the Austin area to seek care for serious medical issues runs as high as 25 percent, according to UT.