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<\/p>\nFort Worth needs a plan to advance itself as a medical hub of innovation.<\/p>\n
A plan and collaboration are key to advancing medical innovation, medical and business leaders said Tuesday during a Fort Worth Report Candid Conversation public policy discussion.<\/p>\n
Dr. Stuart D. Flynn, founding dean of the Anne Burnett Marion School of Medicine at TCU, said he doesn\u2019t view UNT Health Fort Worth or any other school as a competitor but rather a partner to collaborate with.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re building lanes of excellence,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you want to see competition, go to Dallas, go to Boston, go to the Bay area, go to LA. We have something unique in this city, and it\u2019s very fragile and that is: We actually all work together, like one another and are willing to collaborate.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Flynn and other panelists of the Candid Conversation stressed that when medical systems and institutions work together to advance and share knowledge and research, they advance the city as a whole.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we can bring that aspect of what the community needs with industry, with government, with the citizenry in general, then we have the essence of putting together a hub of activity,\u201d said Dr. Kirk Calhoun, president of UNT Health Fort Worth.<\/p>\n
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Dr. Kirk Calhoun, president of UNT Health Fort Worth, speaks at a panel about medical innovation at Tarrant County College Trinity River Campus on Dec. 2, 2025. (Maria Crane | Fort Worth Report\/CatchLight Local\/Report for America)<\/p>\n
UNT Health Fort Worth conducts about $110 million of medical research every year, and the goal is to reach $200 million annually, Calhoun said. UNT Health and TCU worked together to start a medical school, but that partnership ended in 2022<\/a>.<\/p>\n Calhoun joined UNT Health in 2025 and emphasized the university would work with anyone to further its mission. He brought up the medical school partnership that ended and said, \u201cThose kinds of ideas and so forth are good, but terribly difficult to accomplish.\u201d<\/p>\n They\u2019re difficult, he said, because of the difference in cultures between D.O. and M.D. schools<\/a>. UNT founded a School of Osteopathic Medicine, which produces D.O. doctors, in 1970. TCU\u2019s medical school produces doctors of medicine, or M.D.s<\/p>\n \u201cBut just because a culture is different does not mean you have any permanent enemies or friends, or you fail to work together,\u201d Calhoun said, adding that he and Flynn had coffee three weeks earlier to discuss ways the two universities could work together.<\/p>\n Elyse Stolz Dickerson, CEO and co-founder of Fort Worth-based Eosera, said TechFW<\/a>, initially created by local leaders in 1998 to be an incubator for medical technology, could help create a road map for uniting universities, hospitals and businesses.<\/p>\n A leader with a vision for a medical innovation hub is needed, Flynn said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe haven\u2019t put together a strategic plan that we all agree should be our marching orders with all of this,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n A timely, but small road map with a set of achievable objectives is the first big obstacle, Flynn said.<\/p>\n He said he learned how difficult it was to get buy-in on a plan when he helped launch the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Phoenix, about 100 miles away from the main campus in Tucson. The community was splintered on innovative research, so the opportunity for a hub was lost, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe longer we wait, the more apt this city is to splinter\u201d on those efforts, he cautioned.<\/p>\n Funding could be an issue since most Texans invest in real estate and oil and gas operations rather than in medical innovation, said Dickerson of Eosera, which makes ear care products for consumers.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we don\u2019t incubate enough companies here, we won\u2019t have any success,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Calhoun said a hub could answer critical questions about research and patient care.<\/p>\n \u201cHow do we improve quality? How do we control costs? How do we better access? Those are all critical issues, that if we can solve those problems here in Fort Worth, we have something that generates a benefit across the entire nation,\u201d Calhoun said.<\/p>\n Dr. Tricia C. Elliott, senior vice president of academic and research affairs for JPS Health Network, said she supports the idea of using research and making it practical and applicable for patient care. Medical research and trials often benefit JPS patients, she noted.\u00a0<\/p>\n A focused medical effort, she said, could allow for collaborative projects.<\/p>\n \u201cEach collaborative partner is able to actually have a very pointed impact on that actual health system or whatever it is we\u2019re trying to accomplish,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n A guided hub could shorten medical research into actual practice sooner, Elliott said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re really able to translate that research, translate that medical innovation into practice,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s what you do because everybody is at the table. Having that collaboration to be able to do that and shorten that time to be able to really make it effective for patients in our community is the ultimate goal.\u201d<\/p>\n When Eosera was starting, Dickerson said, she rented lab space from UNT Health Fort Worth to develop her first ear wax solution and conducted clinical trials for the drops at JPS Health Network. TCU provided interns who had an opportunity to see a company\u2019s beginnings, she said.<\/p>\n Health startups need time to grow or they will move to other cities that have more collaborative efforts in place with universities.<\/p>\n Flynn said he heard the word \u201ccompetition\u201d a lot when he arrived in Fort Worth a decade ago.<\/p>\n \u201cI always found that kind of sad,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was the wrong way to try to stand up and make this community grow. I would say that in probably the last four to five years, the word competition has turned into collaboration. I\u2019m very sincere about this. I think this is now the beginning \u2014 the crystal, the nidus \u2014 of us being able to build an actual medical innovation hub.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Until that flip, the hospitals and schools were all acting as independent actors competing rather than leveraging each others\u2019 offerings, he said.<\/p>\n Dickerson said teamwork is important for medical institutions and businesses so competition doesn\u2019t hamper innovation.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to be competitive to succeed,\u201d she said. But, she added, that it\u2019s important to keep one eye on the greater good.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI am better if Fort Worth is better,\u201d Dickerson said. \u201cI am better if more talent wants to stay in Fort Worth when they graduate and work for me. I am better if our institutions are training workforce development.\u201d<\/p>\n JPS could use innovative technologies and practices, including artificial intelligence, to improve care and make the patient experience even better, Elliott added.<\/p>\n Tracking those results, she said, could lead to better outcomes with maternal health and chronic diseases. That could also aid in economic development and talent retention and attraction, she said.<\/p>\n Flynn said Fort Worth is the last big city in the nation at a point \u201cto paint its own picture\u201d \u2014 an opportunity to develop a significant medical hub.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to take 20 or 30 years to see some major fruits of this. \u2026 If we don\u2019t start today, it\u2019s never going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n Eric E. Garcia is a senior business reporter at the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at eric.garcia@fortworthreport.org<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n News decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n Fort Worth Report is certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative<\/a> for adhering to standards for ethical journalism.<\/p>\n Republish This Story<\/p>\n![\"(Maria](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1202-CandidConversation-10-.jpg\")
Elyse Stolz Dickerson, CEO and co-founder of Eosera, speaks at a panel about medical innovation at Tarrant County College Trinity River Campus on Dec. 2, 2025. (Maria Crane | Fort Worth Report\/CatchLight Local\/Report for America)<\/p>\n![\"(Maria](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1202-CandidConversation-12-.jpg\")
Dr. Tricia C. Elliott, senior vice president of academic and research affairs at JPS Health Network, speaks at a panel about medical innovation at Tarrant County College Trinity River Campus on Dec. 2, 2025. (Maria Crane | Fort Worth Report\/CatchLight Local\/Report for America)<\/p>\n![\"(Maria](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1202-CandidConversation-16-.jpg\")
Health reporter Ismael M. Belkoura moderates a panel on medical innovation at Tarrant County College Trinity River Campus on Dec. 2, 2025. (Maria Crane | Fort Worth Report\/CatchLight Local\/Report for America)<\/p>\n
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