Houston health tech innovator collaborates on promising medical device funded by DOD

team work

Yaxin Wang is director of THI's Innovative Device & Engineering Applications Lab. Photo via texasheart.org

The United States Department of Defense has awarded a grant that will allow the Texas Heart Institute and Rice University to continue to break ground on a novel left ventricular assist device (LVAD) that could be an alternative to current devices that prevent heart transplantation and are a long-term option in end-stage heart failure.

The grant is part of the DOD’s Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP). It was awarded to Georgia Institute of Technology, one of four collaborators on the project that will be designed and evaluated by the co-investigator Yaxin Wang. Wang is part of O.H. “Bud” Frazier’s team at Texas Heart Institute, where she is director of Innovative Device & Engineering Applications Lab. The other institution working on the new LVAD is North Carolina State University.

The project is funded by a four-year, $7.8 million grant. THI will use about $2.94 million of that to fund its part of the research. As Wang explained to us last year, an LVAD is a minimally invasive device that mechanically pumps a person’s own heart. Frazier claims to have performed more than 900 LVAD implantations, but the devices are far from perfect.

The team working on this new research seeks to minimize near-eventualities like blood clot formation, blood damage, and driveline complications such as infection and limitations in mobility. The four institutions will try to innovate with a device featuring new engineering designs, antithrombotic slippery hydrophilic coatings (SLIC), wireless power transfer systems, and magnetically levitated driving systems.

Wang and her team believe that the non-contact-bearing technology will help to decrease the risk of blood clotting and damage when implanting an LVAD. The IDEA Lab will test the efficacy and safety of the SLIC LVAD developed by the multi-institutional team with a lab-bench-based blood flow loop, but also in preclinical models.

“The Texas Heart Institute continues to be a leading center for innovation in mechanical circulatory support systems,” said Joseph G. Rogers, MD, the president and CEO of THI, in a press release.

“This award will further the development and testing of the SLIC LVAD, a device intended to provide an option for a vulnerable patient population and another tool in the armamentarium of the heart failure teams worldwide.”

If it works as hypothesized, the SLIC LVAD will improve upon current LVAD technology, which will boost quality of life for countless heart patients. But the innovation won’t stop there. Technologies that IDEA Lab is testing include wireless power transfer for medical devices and coatings to reduce blood clotting could find applications in many other technologies that could help patients live longer, healthier lives.

The next TMCx cohort begins August 5. Courtesy of TMC

TMCx announces its next medical device cohort with 5 startups hailing from Houston

Health tech

The Texas Medical Center's startup accelerator, TMCx, has added 19 companies from all around the world to join its medical device family.

The TMC Innovation Institute team narrowed down 140 applications to 40 for the second round of the process, which includes face-to-face interviews, according to a release. After those, 18 companies were selected to join the TMCx09 class, which focuses on medical devices. The last cohort, which specialized in digital health, concluded on June 6.

Out of the 18 companies, five are from Houston. Four other startups hail from other corners of the United States, while 10 international companies also made the cohort. The program commences on August 5, and will run for four months before concluding in a demo day event in November.

Here are the medical device startup companies joining the TMCx09 cohort.

See update at the bottom of this story.

Vascular devices

Neurescue (Copenhagen, Denmark) — Neurescue has developed a computer-aided aortic occlusion catheter to help save the lives of patients in the emergency care setting.
Venari Medical (Galway, Ireland) — Venari Medical is developing BioVena — a medical device that treats varicose veins and venous leg ulcers with a minimally invasive approach intended to reduce pain.
Obsidio (Solana Beach, California) — Obsidio is developing a universal gel embolic material to shrink lesions or to treat internal bleeds, aneurysms and vascular malformations.

Novel therapies

PATH EX (Houston) — PATH EX is developing an extracorporeal blood cleansing device designed to selectively remove pathogens, including multi-drug resistant bacteria, and endotoxins from circulating blood to diagnose and treat sepsis.
Innosphere (Hafia, Israel) — Innosphere is a medical device company developing brain stimulation solutions for treating cognitive disorders, with a focus on ADHD.

Rehab

AbiliTech (St. Paul, Minnesota) — AbiliTech is restoring independence to patients with upper limb neuromuscular conditions by offering a wearable assistive device that allows the user to perform independent activities of daily living.
Komodo OpenLab (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) — Komodo OpenLab has developed Tecla, an assistive device giving individuals with physical disabilities the ability to communicate, control, and connect with the world.

Surgery

CNX Medical (Houston) — CNX Medical is developing a transcutaneous neurostimulator that is placed in the ear and helps reduce inflammation after abdominal surgery, with a focus on post-operative ileus.
CorInnova (Houston) — CorInnova has developed a soft robotic non-blood contacting biventricular cardiac assist device for the treatment of heart failure that would eliminate the many adverse events associated with current technologies.
Ictero Medical (Houston) — Ictero Medical is developing a minimally invasive ablation solution to treat high-risk patients with gallstone disease and offer patients the benefits of surgery without the risk. The company was among the big winners at the Texas A&M New Ventures Competition.

Diagnostics

Artidis (Basel, Switzerland) — InArtidis has developed a nanomechanical biomarker technology using precise tissue measurement in combination with data analytics to personalize cancer diagnosis.
Inveox (Munich, Germany) — Inveox automates the pre-analytical process in cancer diagnosis to improve patient safety and lab efficiency.
Cambridge Respiratory Innovations Ltd. (Cambridge, United Kingdom) — CRiL has developed, N-Tidal, a device that analyzes CO2 end-tidal breathing to improve respiration monitoring.

Toward home health

Kegg (San Francisco) — Kegg is on a mission to simplify every woman's journey towards taking charge of her fertility with a user-friendly monitoring device.
TestCard (London) — TestCard is a flat pack urine test kit that functions in combination with a mobile phone application, turning a phone's camera into a clinical grade scanner.
Patch'd (New South Wales, Australia, and San Francisco) — Patch'd uses deep learning and wearable devices to predict the onset of sepsis in the at-home patient.

Transplant

Volumetric (Houston) — Volumetric's 3D bioprinting platform creates materials with living cells with applications in biomaterials, cancer research, and eventually human organ replacements. The company's technology started out of Rice University.
Tevosol (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) — Tevasol is developing organ transplant transportation solutions. Their portable warm perfusion machines will help surgeons transplant more organs today and solve organ shortage tomorrow.

------

Diagnostic Photonics withdrew from the program after the article published.

Houston-based Galen Data is growing its clientbase and just formed two new partnerships with medical device companies. Photo via galendata.com

Houston health care data company grows with new medical device partnerships

Digitizing health

Educated as an engineer, Chris DuPont has stepped outside his professional comfort zone to generate funding for his Houston-based startup, Galen Data Inc. DuPont's pool of technical contacts in Houston is "wide and deep," he says, but his pool of financial contacts had been shallow.

Overcoming obstacles in Houston's business waters, DuPont has raised two rounds of angel funding — he declines to say how much — that have enabled Galen Data to develop and market its cloud-based platform for connecting medical devices to the internet, including pacemakers and glucose monitors. DuPont is the startup's co-founder and CEO. Galen Data's platform meets compliance standards set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPPA), cybersecurity organizations, and others.

Galen Data's patent-pending technology lets medical device manufacturers tailor the cloud-based software to their unique needs. DuPont says his company's software is geared toward medical devices that are outside, not inside, hospitals and other healthcare facilities. He declines to divulge how many customers the startup has.

Among the startup's customers is San Clemente, California-based Fresca Medical Inc., developer of a device designed to treat sleep apnea.

DuPont says his company's software allows Fresca to perform such tasks as proactively diagnosing problems with the battery in a sleep apnea device or collecting patient data to back up insurance claims. The software even can monitor trends among various medical devices, he says. Galen Data also is helping Fresca develop its mobile app for patients.

Another customer is Friendswood-based Spark Biomedical Inc., developer of a smartphone-connected device, called a neurostimulator, that eases the symptoms of withdrawal from highly addictive opioids.

Hatched within Houston-based Tietronix Software Inc., DuPont's previous employer, Galen Data launched in 2016 but didn't roll out its first product until 2018.

Galen Data's emergence comes as the market for internet-connected mobile health apps keeps growing. One forecast envisions the global space for mobile health exceeding $94 billion by 2023.

"We want to be at the forefront of that technology curve," DuPont says. "We might be six months early, we might be a year early, but it's starting to happen."

Galen Data vies for customers in a largely untapped market, since the majority of medical devices still aren't connected to the internet, according to DuPont. As a whole, medical device makers have been reluctant to delve into connectivity, given the compliance headaches, DuPont says. That's where Galen Data steps in. It's the startup's job, he says, to ensure its tech platform adheres to myriad compliance regulations.

DuPont says a medical device manufacturer easily could spend $250,000 to $500,000 to create its own compliant, connected tech platform similar to Galen Data's offering — and that doesn't include ongoing operational expenses. Galen Data's platform delivers the same benefits at a fraction of that cost, he says.

The startup strives to accomplish its mission with minimal staffing. Between full-timers (including the three co-founders) and contractors, Galen Data employs fewer than 10 people, DuPont says. As needed, Galen Data taps the software development talent at Tietronix, which owns a minority stake in the startup, according to DuPont.

"I'm very, very capital-efficient with our cash," he says. "I don't like layoffs. We'll never have planned layoffs."

If Galen Data continues to achieve its financial goals (it's not profitable yet), DuPont says, the company's workforce could total 20 to 30 within three years. He foresees opening satellite offices in Austin (a tech hub) and Boston (a life sciences hub) at some point.

As for additional products, DuPont wants to eventually build on Galen Data's existing platform by paving the way for data to be securely transferred from medical devices to electronic medical records.

Anchored in Houston, Galen Data hopes to be a player in what DuPont calls "the next biotech corridor of the United States," encompassing not just Houston but Galveston, Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio.

For Galen Data to thrive in that environment, though, it must conquer what DuPont classifies as his biggest hurdle: raising money from investors in a region rooted in the oil and gas industry. In the first quarter of 2019, Houston startups collected less than 6 percent of the venture capital reported throughout Texas — far below what startups in Austin and Dallas reaped during the same period.

Ramping up investment in Galen Data will require educating local investors about the promising potential of the medical device sector, DuPont says. Meanwhile, he's begun hunting for funding outside Texas.

"It's challenging for a startup to raise money in Houston," says DuPont, who praises local entrepreneurs for their support of Galen Data. "We've done it, but it's been hard."

"If Galen is super successful, hopefully we can invest in other early stage companies," DuPont adds. "That's part of the vision."

Galen Concept Videowww.youtube.com

Houston-based Saranas has received de novo distinction from the FDA for its bleed monitoring technology. Courtesy of Saranas

Houston medical device company gains FDA approval

EarlyBird got the worm

When it comes to early bleeding detection, Houston-based Saranas, which closed $2.8 million in funding last year, is ahead of the game with its Early Bird Bleed Monitoring System. The Food and Drug Administration has recognized the medical device company and granted it De Novo distinction.

"Gaining FDA approval for the Early Bird is a significant milestone for Saranas as it demonstrates our continued commitment to address an unmet need for real-time detection and monitoring of endovascular bleed complications," says Saranas president and CEO, Zaffer Syed in a release. "As the first and only device on the market for early bleed detection, we have the potential to significantly reduce bleeding complications and related healthcare costs, while improving clinical outcomes in patients undergoing endovascular procedures."

The Early Bird technology is designed to detect bleeding from vessel injury caused by a surgery, for instance. One in five patients experienced a bleed complication in over 17,000 large-bore transcatheter procedures, according to the release which cites the National Inpatient Sample Database.

"Bleeding remains an Achilles' heel of advancing minimally-invasive, catheter-based procedures," says Dr. Dimitrios Karmpaliotis, director of Chronic Total Occlusions, Complex and High Risk Angioplasty at Columbia University Medical Center, in the release. "The Early Bird will play a key role in making these procedures safer in the future by providing physicians bleed monitoring in real-time."

In May, Saranas received $2.8 million in funding $2.8 million in funding from investors to enable testing of Early Bird. In all, the startup has collected $12 million from investors. A month after the funding announcement, Saranas was one of 50 startups chosen for the MedTech Innovator program, which nurtures medical technology companies.

Currently in the piloting stage, Saranas plans to commercially launch the Early Bird Bleed Monitoring System in select markets across the United States. Currently, the company hasn't disclosed a timeline for that roll out.

The De Novo distinction's purposes is to review new technologies and mitigate risk as they prepare to enter the market. In December, the FDA proposed new procedures and criteria for the De Novo classification process.

"The De Novo pathway for novel medical devices allows the FDA to conduct a rigorous review of new technologies so that patients have timely access to safe and effective medical devices to improve their health," says FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, in a release. "At the same time, the FDA is modernizing its 510(k) pathway, which is used for clearance of low- to moderate-risk devices that are substantially equivalent to a device already on the market. The De Novo pathway provides a vehicle for establishing new predicates that can reflect modern standards for performance and safety and can serve as the basis for future clearances. Our goal is to make the De Novo pathway significantly more efficient and transparent by clarifying the requirements for submission and our processes for review."

Houston-based after alcohol aid Cheers rebranding from Thrive+ was one of this week's top stories. Courtesy of Cheers

5 most popular innovation stories in Houston this week

Now trending

Editor's note: This week's top stories were mostly roundups — female innovators to know, medical device companies changing the health tech industry, and blockchain startups to keep an eye on. Check out what InnovationMap readers were drawn to in this roundup of roundups.

Houston hangover pill startup seen on Shark Tank rebrands following multimillion-dollar raise

On his failed investor attempt on Shark Tank, Brooks Powell couldn't secure a shark investment for $400,000. Now, he just closed on $2.1 million for his startup. Courtesy of Cheers

When Brooks Powell's Houston-based startup got passed over by the investors on Shark Tank last year, he didn't let it deter him. Instead, the Houston entrepreneur buckled down and started seeking investments off the screen.

It paid off, and Cheers (née Thrive+) recently closed a $2.1 million seed round. The round was lead by NextView Ventures, which has the likes of TaskRabbit, threadUP, and Letgo among its portfolio. Click here to continue reading the story.

5 Houston companies using blockchain to unlock new opportunities across industries

These five Houston startups are linking up industries and blockchain technology. Getty Images

Blockchain has really started to come into its own as more and more companies are applying the technology across industries — from oil and gas analytics and fundraising to even social media marketing. Five Houston companies have made their mark on these different industries by incorporating this burgeoning technology. Click here to continue reading the story.

3 Houston female entrepreneurs to know this week

Reda Hicks (left) of GotSpot Inc, Ghazal Qureshi (center) of Idea Lab Kids, and Abbey Donnell of Work & Mother are this week's innovators to know. Courtesy photos

Another Monday means another set of innovators to know. This one focuses on a few female startup leaders changing the game in the commercial real estate and education industries. Click here to continue reading the story.

5 Houston medical device companies changing the industry

As medicine and technology both advance, these Houston startups are at the forefront of the industry. Getty Images

With the Texas Medical Center at the heart of Houston, health advancement opportunities are endless. Medical breakthroughs are happening across town, but as technology advances, the industry is seeing more and more startups popping up to take new tech tools and applying them to traditional medical devices and procedures. These five Houston startups are developing the future of the industry — one device at a time. Click here to continue reading the story.

Houston-based pitch contest announces 2019 finalists ahead of SXSW competition

Houston-based HATCH Pitch has revealed its four finalists. The startups will take the stage during SXSW in March. Courtesy of HATCH Pitch

For the eighth year, Houston-based HATCH Pitch is headed to Austin for SXSW to host its pitch competition focused on startups making the world a better place. This year's competition, which takes place on March 11, will be between four finalists. Click here to continue reading the story.

As medicine and technology both advance, these Houston startups are at the forefront of the industry. Getty Images

5 Houston medical device companies changing the industry

The future is now

These five Houston startups are developing the future of the industry — one device at a time.

Portable Therapeutix

For years, Squid Compression has helped ease the pain of patients in doctor's offices. Now, anyone can get the treatment on the go. Photo via squidgo.com

The country is currently in an opiod crisis, and one solution is making pain-relieving devices more accessible to patients. That's what Houston-based startup Portable Therapeutix LLC is trying to do with its drug-free solution to pain called Squid Go. The portable device is designed to ease the pain and swelling of sore joints and muscles using cold therapy and compression therapy. It's a follow-up to the company's Squid Compression, a pain management device launched in 2013 for patients at rehabilitation centers, hospitals, doctor's offices, and the like.

To reap the benefits of Squid Go, a consumer uses the device for just 15 minutes. Squid Go — which combines a cold gel pack with proprietary compression technology — features special air pockets that inflate and deflate, gently massaging the body part needing treatment. That massaging boosts circulation and reduces swelling.

"Increased circulation brings more nutrient- and oxygen-rich blood to the area, promoting recovery," says Sam Stolbun, co-founder of Portable Therapeutix. "Meanwhile, [the] gentle compression also drives the pain-relieving cold from the gel pack deeper into the tissues to alleviate soreness and discomfort." Read more about Squid Go here.

Zibrio

Balancing is important throughout your life, and Zibrio has the tools and tips for you to use to stay centered. Pexels

From NASA to your bathroom floor — Katharine Forth has found a new way to track balance. With her company, Zibrio, people can have the everyday ability to figure out how balanced they are.

"The machines typically used for balance measurement can be as large as a telephone booth, so we invented a new way to measure postural control using a much smaller mechanism that fit inside a moon boot," Forth says.

Zibrio is a health company that aims to be the gold standard of measuring balance. The Zibrio scale calculates users' weight like a typical scale and rates their balance on scale of 1 to 10.

The scale gathers data from your weight, your postural control, your muscles and other factors to calculate the rating. Andrea Case-Rogers, chief experience officer at Zibrio, describes a perfect rating of 10 as elusive for most, or "Simone Biles on a good day." Read more about Zibrio here.

Saranas Inc.

Saranas Inc. is testing its technology that can detect and track internal bleeding complications. Getty Images

A Houston-based medical device startup is on a twofold mission to reduce healthcare costs and improve the safety of complex medical procedures involving blood vessels. Saranas Inc. currently in clinical trials for its Early Bird Bleed Monitoring System, which is designed to detect and track bleeding complications related to endovascular procedures. If all goes well, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will approve Early Bird in 2019, Syed says. Then, the device would be made widely available to medical facilities across the country.

"What attracted me to Saranas is that our solution has the potential to meaningfully reduce serious bleeding complications that worsen clinical outcomes and drive up healthcare costs," says Zaffer Syed, president and CEO of Saranas. "In addition, our device may support access of important minimally invasive cardiac procedures by allowing them to be performed more safely."

Dr. Mehdi Razavi, a cardiologist with the Texas Heart Institute at Houston's Texas Medical Center, invented the device. It's being tested by the institute and other medical facilities in the U.S. As many as 100 patients will participate in the clinical trial, which is expected to last several months. Read more about Saranas and the Early Bird here.

EllieGrid

Courtesy of EllieGrid

Talking the right vitamins and medications at the right times shouldn't seem like more trouble than it's worth. Houston-based EllieGrid is a smart pill box that is easy to organize and stylish to use on the go. Plus, with a growing volume of users, the company is able to use its customer data to track medication compliance.

"What's really neat about EllieGrid is that we are starting to learn users' habits as days go by, so that we can trigger alarms at optimal times," says co-founder and CEO Abe Matamoros at The Cannon's female entrepreneurs pitch night.

For co-founder, Regina Vatterott, the company is about reinventing traditional medical devices that can be clunky or inefficient for daily use.

"We want to do more and more with medical devices because we think that people are always people before they are patients," Vatterott says.Read more about EllieGrid here — as well as more about the founder here.

Intelligent Implants

Intelligent Implant's co-founder, Juan Pardo, told the crowd at Demo Day that his company's device allows for 50 percent faster bone growth in patients. Photo by Cody Duty/TMC

Chronic lower back pain can result in a need for spinal fusion surgery — and 40 percent of those surgeries fail, says Juan Pardo, co-founder of Intelligent Implants, which has an office in Houston. Pardo and his team have come up with an implant that tracks post-op healing and introduces electronic stimulation wirelessly.

The device is the same size and shape as the spacer that surgeons currently use, but contains a technology that can deliver electronic stimulation therapy and monitor progress without needing batteries. The doctor is able to adjust treatment remotely, and the device can heal the patient 50 percent faster than the standard care.

Intelligent Implants was announced as the first in-residence company at the Center for Device Innovation by Johnson and Johnson and also launched its large animal studies. The company has a goal to raise $1.6 million, and has already secured $900,000 — $250,000 of which came from the new TMC Venture Fund. Read more about Intelligent Implants and the other Texas companies in its TMC cohort here.

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Rice University opens biotech venture studio in TMC

rapidly scaling

In its mission to amplify and advance biotech innovation, Rice University has announced its latest initiative — a new lab focused on bringing life-saving medical technologies to commercialization.

Established to rapidly build companies based on Rice University's portfolio of over 100 patents, RBL LLC is a new biotech venture creation studio based in Texas Medical Center Helix Park. RBL comes on the heels of establishing the Rice Biotech Launch Pad, a biotech innovation accelerator that opened last year.

Paul Wotton, executive director of the Rice Biotech Launch Pad, co-founded RBL with his colleagues Omid Veiseh, Rice professor of bioengineering and faculty director of the Rice Biotech Launch Pad; Jacob Robinson, Rice professor of electrical and computer engineering; and Dr. Rima Chakrabarti, a physician scientist and venture capital investor with KdT Ventures.

“This is a pivotal moment for Houston and beyond,” Wotton, who serves as RBL’s managing partner, says in a news release from Rice. “Houston has rapidly emerged as a global life sciences powerhouse, blending cutting-edge research with early clinical applications at Rice and the city’s world-renowned hospital systems.

"Investors from across the nation are recognizing Houston’s potential, and with RBL, we’re building on that momentum," he continues. "We’ll not only amplify the work of the Rice Biotech Launch Pad but expand our reach across Texas, creating opportunities for biotech ventures statewide and driving growth for the biotech industry as a whole.”

Strategically located in TMC, RBL will collaborate with medical leaders, investors, corporations, and other players both in the same building and on the greater TMC campus.

“Leveraging Rice University’s Biotech Launch Pad breakthroughs and pairing it with the world-class translational infrastructure of TMC Helix Park well positions RBL to drive unprecedented advances in patient care,” William McKeon, president and CEO of the TMC, says in the release. “This partnership between academia, industry and health care is exactly what’s needed to transform medical discoveries into real-world solutions that improve lives globally.”

RBL is Rice's latest effort to bridge the gap between academia and biotech innovation, an effort led by Paul Cherukuri, Rice’s chief innovation officer, who reportedly spearheaded development of the new initiative.

“RBL is a game-changer for Rice, Houston and the global biotech community,” Cherukuri adds. “This venture not only accelerates the commercialization of our innovations but also sets a blueprint for other universities looking to maximize the real-world impact of their discoveries. By combining scientific expertise with entrepreneurial support from Day Zero together with strategic clinical partnerships in the TMC, we’re creating a model for driving large-scale biotech innovation that universities everywhere should aspire to replicate.”

Since the Rice Biotech Launch Pad was established, Motif Neurotech closed its series A round with an oversubscribed $18.75 million, the hub secured a $34.9 million grant, and a “living pharmacy” founded at the Launch Pad received industry validation.

“RBL provides a powerful platform to translate high-impact scientific discoveries into therapies that will dramatically improve patient outcomes,” Veiseh says. “Our goal is to rapidly bring Rice’s pioneering research into the clinic, delivering life-saving solutions to patients around the world.”

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:

Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland.
Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
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.

Expert: How to best repurpose Houston’s infrastructure for a clean energy future

guest column

Houston, often dubbed the “Energy Capital of the World,” is at a pivotal moment in its history. Known for its vast oil and gas reserves, the city is now embracing a new role as a leader in the clean energy transition. This shift is not just about adopting new technologies but also about creatively repurposing existing infrastructure to support sustainable energy solutions.

Houston’s offshore oil wells, many of which are old or abandoned, present a significant opportunity for carbon capture. By repurposing these wells, we can sequester carbon dioxide, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating climate change. This approach not only utilizes existing infrastructure but also provides a cost-effective solution for carbon management. According to the Greater Houston Partnership, initiatives like these are crucial as Houston aims to lower its climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions. Exxon estimates that just their proposed CCS hub could capture and store 50 million metric tons of CO2 annually by 2030 and 100 million metric tons by 2040.

The proximity of abandoned offshore platforms to the coast makes them ideal candidates for renewable energy substations. These platforms can be transformed into hubs for wind, solar or tidal energy, facilitating the integration of renewable energy into the grid. This repurposing not only maximizes the use of existing structures but also minimizes environmental disruption.

Decommissioned pipelines, which are already in place, offer a ready-made solution for routing renewable energy cables. By using these existing rights of way, Houston can avoid disturbing additional seafloor and reduce the environmental impact of new cable installations. This strategy ensures a smoother transition to renewable energy infrastructure. The U.S. Energy Information Administration notes that Texas, including Houston, leads the nation in wind-generated electricity, highlighting the potential for further renewable energy development.

Onshore oil and gas facilities in Houston also hold potential for clean energy repurposing. Wells that were drilled but never used for oil or gas can be adapted for geological thermal energy storage. This process involves storing excess renewable energy in the form of heat, which can be retrieved when needed, providing a reliable and sustainable energy source. This innovative use of existing wells aligns with Houston’s broader energy transition strategy, which aims to leverage the city’s industrial expertise for a low-carbon future.

Once the land has been remediated, old and abandoned oil fields can be converted into solar farms. This transformation not only provides a new use for previously contaminated land but also contributes to the generation of clean, renewable energy. Solar farms on these sites can help meet Houston’s energy needs while supporting environmental restoration. The Environmental Protection Agency in recent years recognized Houston as the top city in the U.S. for green energy usage, with annual green power usage topping 1 billion kilowatt-hours in 2021.

Houston’s journey towards a clean energy future is a testament to the power of innovation and adaptability. By repurposing existing infrastructure, we can create a sustainable energy landscape that honors the city’s industrial past while paving the way for a greener tomorrow. These strategies highlight the potential for Houston to lead in the clean energy transition, setting an example for cities worldwide.

———

Tershara Mathews is the national offshore wind lead at WSP.

This article originally ran on EnergyCapital.

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