Houston Methodist will rename its department of medicine the Houston Methodist Charles W. Duncan Jr. Department of Medicine. Photo courtesy Houston Methodist.

Houston-based nonprofit The Duncan Fund has awarded a $25 million gift to Houston Methodist's department of medicine to establish new endowed fellowships, streamline complex care and bring artificial intelligence into the fold to develop more personalized treatment plans.

In turn, the health care system announced that it will rename the department the Houston Methodist Charles W. Duncan Jr. Department of Medicine.

“We are deeply appreciative of the Duncan family’s support, which allows us to further programs at the intersection of personalized medicine and preventive health care to benefit our patients,” Dr. Eleftherios Mylonakis, chair of the department and the Charles and Anne Duncan Presidential Distinguished Chair, said in a news release.

The department of medicine is Houston Methodist's largest, and comprises 14 clinical programs, ranging from general medicine to highly specialized care, as well as research and education.

According to Houston Methodist, the latest grant from the Duncan family will:
  • Coordinate complex, multidisciplinary care by hospitalists
  • Implement programs that leverage data and AI to tailor treatments and preventive strategies
  • Establish five endowed fellowships, including a new fellowship for students known as MedTech Innovator

“Our vision is to redefine how care is delivered in our country by creating a national model for true continuity — one that follows the patient across every transition, from home to hospital and back again,” Mylonakis added in the release. “We are also advancing a deeper understanding of health span, shifting from reactive treatment to a proactive, lifelong strategy that maximizes not just how long we live but how well we live.”

The Duncan family has been a longtime supporter of Houston Methodist—and Houston organizations at large. The late Charles Duncan Jr. sat on the system's board for decades, and his son, Charles “Carlos” Duncan III, serves on the Houston Methodist Hospital Foundation Board. Additionally, the family established the Charles and Anne Duncan Scholars Program and endowed chairs in nephrology and endocrinology.

Charles Duncan Jr. is also the namesake behind Rice University's Duncan Residential College and was one of the founders of the Greater Houston Partnership. He served as Secretary of Energy during the Carter Administration.

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center was recognized for advancements in electronic functionality, AI and robotics. Photo via mdanderson.org

Houston hospital named among smartest in the nation

hi, tech

Houston hospitals are chock-full of smart people. But they’re also equipped with lots of “smart” technology. In fact, five local hospitals appear on Newsweek’s new list of the world’s best “smart” hospitals.

To compile the list, Newsweek teamed up with data provider Statista to rank the world’s top 330 hospitals for the use of smart technology. The ranking factors were electronic functionality, telemedicine, digital imaging, artificial intelligence (AI), and robotics.

The highest-ranked Houston hospital is the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, appearing at No. 6. The hospital was recognized for advancements in electronic functionality, AI and robotics.

“MD Anderson has a significant opportunity and a responsibility to our many stakeholders to create a digital ecosystem that promotes collaboration and advances scientific discovery to enhance patient outcomes,” David Jaffray, the cancer center’s chief technology and digital officer, said in a 2021 news release.

“Through our ongoing focus on enabling the use of new technologies to place quantitative data in context for our researchers,” Jaffray added, “we foster cutting-edge oncology data science to inform our cancer discovery research and to accelerate translation of our research findings into benefits for cancer patients.”

Ahead of MD Anderson on the list are:

  1. Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
  2. Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland.
  3. Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
  4. Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
  5. Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.

Other Houston hospitals on the list are:

  • Houston Methodist Hospital, No. 11.
  • Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center, No. 105.
  • Texas Children’s Hospital, No. 197.
  • Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, No. 266.
Houston hospitals got their report cards. Photo by Dwight C. Andrews/Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau

Here's how Houston hospitals stack up when it comes to safety, according to a national study

Best in class

Close to half of the Houston area's general acute-care hospitals are at the top of their class, according to new safety grades assigned to U.S. hospitals. But one hospital in the region is failing on the safety front, the grades show.

In its fall 2019 report card for acute-care hospitals, The Leapfrog Group gives letter grades of A, B, C, D, and F based on the hospitals' ability to shield patients from avoidable errors, injuries, accidents, and infections. The nonprofit represents hundreds of public and private employers that buy healthcare benefits.

In the Houston area, 19 hospitals earned an A, with 14 receiving a B, seven getting a C, one picking up a D and one being slapped with an F.

Chris Skisak, executive director of the Houston Business Coalition on Health, notes that 23 percent of hospitals in the Houston areas saw their Leapfrog grades go up while just 11 percent saw their grades go down. The coalition is a regional leader for The Leapfrog Group.

"Houston-area hospitals do care about their grades," Skisak says, "and going back to 2016, most obtained a higher grade after receiving a lower grade the previous assessment period. Houston is fortunate to have [about] 50 percent of its hospitals earn consistent A grades."

For the first time in at least four years, The Leapfrog Group did hit one Houston-area hospital — Huntsville Memorial Hospital — with an F. On the spring 2019 report card, the hospital received a D. In the fall of 2018, the mark was a C.

Huntsville Memorial Hospital currently is combating what's been described as a "dire financial situation."

In a November 1 statement, the Walker County Hospital District, which owns the Huntsville hospital, said the separate nonprofit entity that runs the hospital — Walker County Hospital Corp. — was beset by monetary woes and was on the verge of declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy. As a result, the district warned, the hospital might close.

According to The Huntsville Item, a proposed rescue of the hospital would place ownership and management in the hands of a joint venture between the hospital district and Plano-based Community Hospital Corp., a hospital management company. The nonprofit Plano company provides supply-chain services to a Huntsville medical practice, Huntsville Orthopedic Surgery and Sports Medicine PLLC.

In the statement, the district's board says it "remains committed to maintaining a viable hospital for the community and to improving hospital operations and services."

The Leapfrog Group graded a total of 42 hospitals in the Houston area. The nonprofit released its fall 2019 report card on November 7.

Houston-area hospitals that earned an A were:

  • Houston Methodist Baytown Hospital
  • HCA Houston Healthcare Conroe
  • HCA Houston Healthcare West
  • Houston Methodist Hospital
  • Houston Methodist West Hospital
  • Houston Methodist Willowbrook Hospital
  • Memorial Hermann Southeast
  • Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital
  • Memorial Hermann Northeast, Humble
  • Memorial Hermann Katy Hospital
  • HCA Houston Healthcare Kingwood
  • CHI St. Luke's Health Memorial Livingston
  • Houston Methodist Clear Lake Hospital in Nassau Bay
  • HCA Houston Healthcare Pearland
  • Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital
  • CHI St. Luke's Health The Woodlands Hospital
  • Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital
  • Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Hospital
  • HCA Houston Healthcare Clear Lake in Webster

Skisak says the Leapfrog report card "is a valuable resource for employers to share with their employees so that they can self-navigate to the safest and highest quality hospitals."

"The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade offers critical patient safety information to consumers, in an easily digestible way, so that they can make informed decisions about where they seek care in the Houston area," he says in a release.

The Leapfrog Group bases its twice-a-year grades for hospital safety on 28 sets of publicly available data from more than 2,600 U.S. hospitals.

Houston, home to the largest medical center in the world, was ranked among the best cities for health care in the country. Photo by Dwight C. Andrews/Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau

Houston recognized among the best hospital cities in the nation

just what the doctor ordered

As home to Texas Medical Center — the world's largest medical complex — it stands to reason that Houston ranks among the country's best cities for health care. A new study bolsters that notion, but it also points out that several health care measures in Houston need some TLC.

The study, conducted by digital health care provider Medbelle, ranks Houston as the ninth best "hospital city" in the United States. Medbelle sifted through data in three categories (health care infrastructure, quality of health care and access to health care) to develop the ranking. Within those categories, Medbelle examined factors like quality of medical education, number of hospital beds, shortage of nurses, efficiency of cancer treatment, and prevalence of mental health specialists.

"Houston is known internationally as the home of one of the best medical communities in the world," the City of Houston declares.

In the Medbelle study, Boston landed at No. 1 in the U.S.; Tokyo took the global crown. At No. 13, Dallas was the only other Texas city to earn a place on the U.S. list.

Medbelle says it compiled the ranking to highlight regional hospital "ecosystems" rather than specific hospitals. The Houston area has more than 85 hospitals.

Houston's hospital ecosystem scored 94.92 out of 100, yet sits in next-to-last place for access to health care (48.83 out of 100), Medbelle notes. Daniel Kolb, co-founder and managing director of Medbelle, says this means that while Houston enjoys one of the best medical infrastructures in the world, a relatively small percentage of people in the region can take advantage of it.

In 2018, nearly 1 in 5 residents of the Houston area (18.6 percent) lacked health insurance, the U.S. Census Bureau says. That's the highest rate of uninsured residents among the country's 25 most populous metro areas. Affordability and availability continue to exacerbate the health insurance predicament in Houston and around the country.

"The single biggest issue in health care for most Americans is that their health costs are growing much faster than their wages are," Drew Altman, president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, says in a release. "Costs are prohibitive when workers making $25,000 a year have to shell out $7,000 a year just for their share of family premiums."

For those who can afford medical care, the Houston area boasts some of the best hospitals in the U.S. MD Anderson Cancer Center reigns as the country's top cancer hospital, for instance.

In May, The Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit representing large employers in the U.S., assigned its highest grade — "A" — to these nine hospitals in the Houston area:

  • HCA Houston Healthcare (Kingwood)
  • Houston Methodist Hospital
  • Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital
  • Houston Methodist West Hospital
  • Houston Methodist Willowbrook Hospital
  • Memorial Hermann Memorial City Medical Center
  • Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Hospital
  • Tomball Regional Medical Center
  • West Houston Medical Center

From another perspective, U.S. News & World Report ranks Houston Methodist Hospital as the best hospital in the Houston area, followed by Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center, Memorial Hermann Greater Heights Hospital, Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, and Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital.

Meanwhile, Houston-area physicians hold Texas Children's Hospital West Campus in the highest regard among the region's hospitals, trailed by Houston Methodist West Hospital, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Texas Children's Hospital, and Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital.
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2 UH projects named finalists for $50M fund to shape future of Gulf Coast

Looking to the Future

Two University of Houston science projects have been selected as finalists for the Gulf Futures Challenge, which will award a total of $50 million to develop ideas that help benefit the Gulf Coast.

Sponsored by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine’s Gulf Coast Research Program and Lever for Change, the competition is designed to spark innovation around problems in the Gulf Coast, such as rising sea levels, pollution, energy security, and community resiliency. The two UH projects beat out 162 entries from organizations based in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.

“Being named a finalist for this highly competitive grant underscores the University of Houston’s role as a leading research institution committed to addressing the most pressing challenges facing our region,” said Claudia Neuhauser, vice president for research at UH.

“This opportunity affirms the strength of our faculty and researchers and highlights UH’s capacity to deliver innovative solutions that will ensure the long-term stability and resilience of the Gulf Coast.”

One project, spearheaded by the UH Repurposing Offshore Infrastructure for Continued Energy (ROICE) program, is studying ways to use decommissioned oil rig platforms in the Gulf of Mexico as both clean energy hydrogen power generators as well a marine habitats. There are currently thousands of such platforms in the Gulf.

The other project involves the innovative recycling of wind turbines into seawall and coastal habitats. Broken and abandoned wind turbine blades have traditionally been thought to be non-recyclable and end up taking up incredible space in landfills. Headed by a partnership between UH, Tulane University, the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, the city of Galveston and other organizations, this initiative could vastly reduce the waste associated with wind farm technology.

wind turbine recycled for Gulf Coast seawall. Wind turbines would be repurposed into seawalls and more. Courtesy rendering

"Coastal communities face escalating threats from climate change — land erosion, structural corrosion, property damage and negative health impacts,” said Gangbing Song, Moores Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UH and the lead investigator for both projects.

“Leveraging the durability and anti-corrosive properties of these of decommissioned wind turbine blades, we will build coastal structures, improve green spaces and advance the resilience and health of Gulf Coast communities through integrated research, education and outreach.”

The two projects have received a development grant of $300,000 as a prize for making it to the finals. When the winner are announced in early 2026, two of the projects will net $20 million each to bring their vision to life, with the rest earning a consolation prize of $875,000, in additional project support.

In the event that UH doesn't grab the grand prize, the school's scientific innovation will earn a guaranteed $1.75 million for the betterment of the Gulf Coast.

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This article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

Kids, kicks and connectivity: Xfinity makes soccer a shared experience

The Beautiful Game

For soccer mom Lana Chase, weekends were a whirlwind of cleats, carpooling, and cheering from the sidelines. Now that her daughter Miah graduated high school in May, the Chase Family’s love for the game hasn't stopped. It's shifted to their living room, where Comcast’s new Xfinity streaming platform brings the global game home.

“We’re a soccer family through and through,” says Chase. “Miah played soccer from about age 8 until 16, and we love the World Cup! Xfinity makes it easy for all of us to watch what we love together.”

One platform, every goal

Xfinity's new World Soccer Ticket package eliminates the chaos of juggling apps, subscriptions, or subpar streams. Families can now enjoy more than 1,500 matches from across the globe.

With parental controls, age-appropriate content, and smart recommendations, Xfinity turns soccer into family-friendly entertainment. Whether it’s a weekend watch party or a quiet school night, the platform adapts to every household’s rhythm.

“Figuring out where to watch your favorite team or match is often a painful game of chance. Now, with World Soccer Ticket, there’s no better way to watch the beautiful game than with Xfinity,” says Jon Gieselman, chief growth officer for Comcast's connectivity & platforms. “It’s easy, we did the work for our customers and pulled together the most coveted leagues and tournaments – from Premier League, LALIGA and Champions League to the World Cup – and put them in one place. We added some magic to the experience, with innovations like Multiview, 4K, and Sports Zone all easily accessible with one simple click or voice command.”

World Cup in Houston

With the 2026 World Cup on the horizon, the timing couldn't have been better. The world tournament will be the largest Spanish-language coverage ever offered by Telemundo, powered by Comcast NBCUniversal's technology, storytelling, and scale.

Telemundo and Peacock hold the exclusive Spanish language rights to "el Mundial," including all 104 matches streaming live on Peacock, with 92 matches airing on Telemundo and 12 on Universo. Live crews will cover every event in all 16 host cities, including Houston.

Xfinity customers will have access to pregame, halftime, and postgame coverage with unprecedented immersive experiences. The 2026 World Cup will be the most exciting event of the summer.

"We know other soccer families who watch matches with their little brothers and sisters. It’s not just a game, it’s family time. It's an even bigger deal with the tournament being just down the road in Houston next year,” Chase adds.

Comcast’s AI-powered platform personalizes the viewing experience, recommending matches and highlights based on each family member’s preferences.

World Soccer Ticket is available for an all-in monthly price of $85. It includes nearly 60 broadcast, cable news, and English- and Spanish-language sports channels, and a subscription to Peacock Premium so customers can enjoy a huge collection of movies, shows, news, and other live sports alongside all their favorite soccer programming.

Subscribe to World Soccer Ticket here.

Houston digital health platform Koda closes $7 million funding round

fresh funding

Houston-based digital advance care planning company Koda Health has closed an oversubscribed $7 million series A funding round.

The round, led by Evidenced, with participation from Mudita Venture Partners, Techstars and Texas Medical Center, will allow the company to scale operations and expand engineering, clinical strategy and customer success, according to a news release.

“This funding allows us to create more goals-of-care product lines, expand our national footprint, and bring goal-concordant care to millions more patients and families," Tatiana Fofanova, co-founder and CEO of Koda Health, said in the release.

Koda Health, which was born out of the TMC's Biodesign Fellowship in 2020, has seen major growth this year and said it now supports more than 1 million patients nationwide. The company integrated its end-of-life care planning platform with Dallas-based Guidehealth in April and with Epic Systems in July. Users of Epic's popular Mychart system and Guidehealth's clinically integrated networks can now document and share their care preferences, goals and advance directives for health systems using Koda Health's platform. It also has partnerships with Cigna, Privia and Memorial Hermann.

The company shared that the recent series A "marks a pivotal moment," as it has secured investments from influential leaders in the healthcare and venture capital space.

“Koda is the only company combining technology and service to deliver comprehensive solutions that help health plans, providers, and health systems scale goals-aligned care. With satisfied customers expanding their partnerships and policy shifts reinforcing the need for patient-centered care that also contains costs, we couldn’t be more excited to support the Koda team and their vision,” Sean Glass, managing partner at Evidenced, said in the release.

According to the company, a recent peer-reviewed study with Houston Methodist ACO showed that the platform can have a major impact on palliative care results and costs. The findings showed:

  • 79 percent reduction in terminal hospitalizations
  • 20 percent decrease in inpatient length of stay
  • 51 percent increase in hospice use among decedents
  • Nearly $9,000 in average savings per patient

“Patients long for clarity, families deserve peace of mind, and providers demand ease of use,” Dr. Desh Mohan, chief medical officer of Koda Health, added in the release. “At Koda, we make it possible to deliver all three — transforming Advance Care Planning into a compassionate, ongoing dialogue that honors patients and supports families every step of the way.”

Koda Health also closed an oversubscribed seed round for an undisclosed amount last year, with investments from AARP, Memorial Hermann Health System and the Texas Medical Center Venture Fund. Read more here.