CommonSpirit Health Divisions

Texas Division

Historically, clinical research in the CommonSpirit Health Texas division has been focused on Baylor College of Medicine and their internationally recognized research programs and infrastructure based at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center in Houston. Outside of Baylor St. Luke’s, CommonSpirit and the CommonSpirit Research Institute had little infrastructure and support for research endeavors outside of BCM-managed protocols. To build a new research foundation for the Texas division, the Institute established a Texas Division Research Manager position based in Houston that will support all research endeavors in the division not managed by BCM.

In addition, the Institute partnered with Texas division executive leadership to create the Texas Division Research Council (TDRC). The TDRC was established to pre-review all Texas division research outside of what is managed by Baylor College of Medicine. This process is designed to allow Texas division leadership to decide which protocols best meet their mission, cover costs and otherwise are endeavors that Texas division desires to support.

Research Sites

• CHI St. Luke’s Health Baylor College of Medicine Medical Center

• Baylor College of Medicine

• University of Texas Health Center at the Texas Heart Institute Clinic

• Texas Heart Institute

• St. Luke’s Hospital at The Vintage (Houston)

• St. Luke’s Sugar Land Hospital (Sugar Land)

• St. Luke’s Patients Medical Center (Pasadena)

• St. Joseph Regional Health Center (Bryan)

• Texas A&M

Areas of Research

The medical staff at Baylor St. Luke’s includes full-time Baylor faculty members and advanced practice providers, as well as community physicians. Baylor St. Luke’s is ranked nationally in five adult specialties: Cardiology & Heart Surgery, Neurology & Neurosurgery, Gastroenterology & GI Surgery, Cancer and Geriatrics.

Baylor physicians conduct research at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center, including clinical trials to test whether a new drug, new prevention strategy, or new screening test is safe and effective in people. This may provide patients with early access to experimental treatments and other resources. The college’s partnership with CommonSpirit Health, which has more than 700 care sites and 142 hospitals in 21 states, provides researchers access to extensive clinical data warehouses.