14 Facts About San Antonio’s Growing Medical Technology Industry
The healthcare and bioscience industry is growing. One out of six people are employed in these fields which has a total of $30 billion dollars of annual economic impact. 60 percent of those workers are in health care and 40 percent work in related fields including biosciences.
The ManpowerGroup recently named San Antonio the country’s best city for job seekers, while Forbes ranked it eighth among “best places for business and careers” and fourth among the “next boom towns in the U.S.”
The Brookings Institution identified San Antonio as one of only four cities — the others were also in Texas — to regain all jobs lost during the recession.
San Antonio Military Medical Center’s Medical Education and Training Campus (METC) is the world’s largest allied health training complex with >12,000 trainees per year. The city is also home to the only Department of Defense Burn Center and two Level 1 trauma centers. Fun fact: the photo above is a GSBS Alum: Dr. Elaine Por.
Global-minded companies like Xenex and Canadian medical device company Innovative Trauma Care, as well as German biosciences company Cytocentrics, have noticed and have chosen to make San Antonio their base of operations.
Local operations represent nationally-recognized healthcare facilities, cutting-edge biotech companies, and well respected global enterprises like Medtronic and Becton Dickinson.
In 2013, San Antonio’s major biomedical research institutions were awarded more than $325 million in external research grants.
San Antonio is a regional hub for health care for South Texas and Mexico. At Bexar County Medical Society, there are 4,700+ physician members serving the individuals and families of our community. Members include private practice and employed physicians, medical students, physician residents and military physicians–all serving the residents of Bexar County, Texas.
Baptist Health System, CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Health System, Methodist Health System, and University Health System were each recognized by U.S. News and World Report for clinical excellence in over a dozen unique specialties between them.
The Bioscience and Healthcare industry has added 41,567 net new jobs over the past decade, fueling San Antonio’s growth. This is a 40 percent increase over the decade.
Startling breakthroughs in moderating some of the more devastating effects of aging have been done at the Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies. It is a leading institute in the United States in geriatrics research. The Barshop Institute ranks #1 in National Institute on Aging funding among Texas institutions, and is highly ranked in the country in National Institute of Health funding.
The UT Health Science Center is the largest health sciences university in South Texas. The Health Science Center is home to the Cancer Therapy & Research Center (CTRC) at The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio, one of four designated National Cancer Institute Cancer Centers. The CTRC’s Institute for Drug Development (IDD) is internationally recognized for conducting one of the largest oncology Phase I clinical drug trials programs in the world. Fifteen of the cancer drugs most recently approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration underwent development or testing at the IDD.
Southwest Research Institute and Texas Biomedical Research Institute were awarded $3.4 Million to combine two available medications and test the resulting combination drug therapy against the Ebola virus.
InCube Labs considered Dallas for an expansion, but ultimately chose San Antonio citing San Antonio’s unique city leadership and its commitment to entrepreneurship as a top factor.
This article is based on The Health Cell event’s Growing Medical Technology in San Antonio. The event featured biomedical experts in the medical device, technology commercialization, scientific, and career development fields. If you are interested in learning more about developing medical technologies, check out the new course titled “From bedside to bench to bedside” starting Oct. 11 at UT Health Science Center.