Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Elevating Innovation as a Core Mission at The University of Texas Medical Branch with Dr. Vineet Gupta

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Elevating Innovation as a Core Mission at The University of Texas Medical Branch with Dr. Vineet Gupta · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:02
  This is where health care leadership comes together.
• 0:04
  Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings more than 3,500
• 0:07
  hospital and health system executives and nearly 800
• 0:10
  speakers to Chicago
• 0:12
  April.
• 0:14
  This year's event includes keynote conversations with Dallas
• 0:17
  Cowboys legend Troy Aikman and former president George
• 0:20
  w Bush. For the agenda and event details,
• 0:22
  visit beckershospitalreview.com
• 0:25
  and click on the events tab in the
• 0:26
  upper right. We're looking forward to hosting you
• 0:29
  in Chicago.
• 0:31
  This is Laura Dirda with the Becker's Healthcare
• 0:34
  podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
• 0:36
  doctor Vineet Gupta, vice president in the office
• 0:38
  of innovation and commercialization and chief executive officer
• 0:42
  of the medical branch innovations, part of the
• 0:44
  University of Texas medical branch. Doctor Gupta, it's
• 0:46
  a pleasure to have you on the podcast
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  today.
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  Sure. Thank you. Thank you for hosting me.
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  I'm super excited to be here.
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  Absolutely. And, you know, we're excited to have
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  you as well. I think there's so many
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  innovative things happening at, University of Texas Medical
• 1:00
  Branch, and and certainly it'll be fun to
• 1:02
  spotlight a few of those things as well
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  as get your perspective on the future. But
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  before we dive in, can you talk a
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  little bit more about yourself and Medical Branch
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  Innovations?
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  Perfect. Great. Again, Laura, thank you for having
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  me here.
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  You know, just a little bit about UTMB
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  first. You know, as as most people may
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  or may not know, we are one of
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  the largest and the oldest medical systems in
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  Texas,
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  over a 130 years old. We have four
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  main campuses, over a 100 clinics across Texas,
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  and we have a very large economic impact
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  in our region,
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  at least over three and a half billion
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  dollars.
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  We we have 16,000
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  employees. So, you know, I give you that
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  background to just, you know, showcase how large
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  of an enterprise we have.
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  And, you know, with that, you know, it's
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  such a privilege for me for,
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  in the last two and a half years
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  to be leading the innovation enterprise.
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  My background is a PhD in chemistry.
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  I I run a drug discovery lab. We
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  work on
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  kidney disease. We work on,
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  cancer area.
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  I have done startups in my life in
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  the past. You know, I have,
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  more partnerships with pharma, fundraise, and, you know,
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  done a little bit of innovation workflow.
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  And because of that, doctor Reiser, when he
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  joined UTMB about three years ago,
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  he asked me to come in and and
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  start lead this innovation enterprise.
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  Well, that's amazing to hear. And, you know,
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  truly,
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  incredible to think of the impact that University
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  of Texas Medical Branch has on the state
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  and then thinking through, you know, the the
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  work that you've done in your background in,
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  innovation
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  in medicine and then bringing that into your
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  current role. So, you know, could you tell
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  me a little bit about, some of the
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  most important initiatives that you've led in the
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  last year or two? What did you do,
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  and what were the results?
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  Great question.
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  I'm gonna again
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  step back a little bit. And when doctor
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  Reiser started as president at UTMB,
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  he really,
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  elevated innovation as our fourth pillar. One of
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  the first universities
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  where innovation was,
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  brought up as a very key mission area,
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  equal in importance as clinical care,
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  research, and education that happens across many other
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  health systems.
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  And that really,
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  brought to everybody's attention on our campus, you
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  know, the importance of always
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  keeping innovation in mind in their day to
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  day lives, day to day activities.
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  And that really helps drive,
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  mostly
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  translation
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  of whatever they are doing into clinical practice
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  or clinical outcomes.
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  So, you know, so, you know, with that,
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  we set up, over the last, I would
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  say, year and a half, three key initiatives.
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  Number one, really driving a culture change on
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  campus so that people now really start thinking
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  about innovation
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  again, you know, in their day to day
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  dives.
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  We have started holding, you know, open houses
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  monthly. We we have started going to departments
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  to talk to people directly.
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  And and,
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  more importantly, we've also started increasing public private
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  partnerships,
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  which are so important to drive change.
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  So that's first, so driving a culture change.
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  Second,
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  initiative that we started,
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  incorporating
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  is identifying new opportunities for growth for our
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  institution.
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  So we identified four,
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  sort of, you know,
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  teams,
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  flagship strengths, so to speak. The first one
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  is brain health, and we are starting to
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  build on that. Second is healthy aging. Third
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  is, kidney health.
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  And the
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  fourth, which you probably won't be surprised to
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  hear about, is really,
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  incorporating,
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  adopting, scaling health system
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  AI solutions
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  to really,
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  increase,
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  and improve patient care across our health system
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  while responsibly driving down the cost.
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  So that's number three.
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  And then the last piece sorry. That was
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  number two. And then the last initiative we
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  have, we started a lot of entrepreneurship
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  programming on campus,
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  especially directed at students. So I'm gonna pause
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  there for a second and help let you
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  ask.
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  Yeah. I I I think that's fantastic. And
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  thank you for outlining those three pillars for
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  us because, you know, in looking at innovation,
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  it can mean a good many things and
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  isn't always something,
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  concrete or built into the strategy. So it's
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  fascinating to hear that, you know, that's really
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  been elevated,
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  for the organization and something that you're trying
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  to build into the exact culture to make
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  sure that everyone,
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  within the the enterprise is thinking about it
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  in,
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  continuing to live off that journey. Now I'm
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  curious. When you talk about identifying new opportunities
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  for growth and and thinking through that that
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  kind of balance between being innovative
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  as well as being mindful of,
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  you know, the the
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  financial,
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  component of it and making sure you're you're
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  focusing on the right things, the right, types
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  of issues that you're solutioning for. How do
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  you keep everybody in the same,
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  kind of wheelhouse there and and make sure
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  you've got something, you know, open enough where
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  people can be,
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  creative and innovative, but but not lose control
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  to the point where,
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  you know, you're having lots of random projects
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  that aren't really going back to that mission
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  or,
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  you know, is not financially,
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  viable for the organization?
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  Like, you know, that's a very good question.
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  And that's something, you know, I think almost
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  every institution struggles
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  with. And,
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  I think, you know, one way to think
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  about it is, you know,
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  for us,
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  we UTMB has been known for a long
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  time,
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  for providing excellent clinical care in one run
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  and in the research and education enterprise,
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  being a leader in making new types of
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  vaccines and studying all kinds of infectious diseases,
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  that emerge over time.
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  So when we started looking at opportunities for
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  growth for us, we said, okay. Those are
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  great sort of strengths to have to build
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  on.
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  What other programs do we already have so
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  that it doesn't add a new cost burden
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  like you mentioned,
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  yet, elevate something that is already ongoing?
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  And in that realm, you know, the clinical
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  care piece, that's where we looked at health
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  AI solutions
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  and looked at so many of these, you
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  know, solutions that are coming out.
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  Every day somebody comes out with a new
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  AI,
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  based,
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  program
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  app or or solution that says, hey. It
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  can it can really be impactful in people's
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  lives.
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  But the biggest challenge is
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  one has not really taken that,
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  in terms of implementation across a health system
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  to see if it is holds true.
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  So just as an example of how one
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  could balance cost benefit of these types of
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  things, we started programming,
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  and partnering with some of the companies very
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  early
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  where we we identified a core need we
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  had.
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  Let's give an example, you know, website or
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  management, for example. You know, core need we
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  have as a system and what solutions are
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  out there and which one of them potentially,
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  could make an impact for us. So we
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  we partner with some of these companies early,
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  help their
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  AI sort of scale
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  much faster internally with us where we would
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  co develop with them. And then the solution
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  that comes out not only drives helps drive,
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  our efficiency forward, but could also be a
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  role model for other places,
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  if that makes sense.
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  Absolutely. That makes a lot of sense. And,
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  I I appreciate you going into that
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  that a little bit more deeply because having
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  that kind of mindset and then being able
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  to really see how those decisions you're making
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  in in the little things as well as
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  the larger innovations are impacting patients' lives,
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  you know, whether it's on the clinical side
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  or on the,
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  more operational side, revenue cycle, finance. You know,
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  it it all makes a big difference.
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  And so I I think that's really cool.
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  And to have that ability to co develop
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  as well, I can imagine is pretty unique
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  and exciting for many folks. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
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  Super exciting. And then that also then helps,
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  you know, get people
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  also,
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  ramped up. Right? I mean, because they're seeing
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  cool new tools, cool new opportunities,
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  and and,
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  ability to in get involved and and drive
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  that forward.
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  And and so that's in the AI realm.
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  You know, I'll give you another example. You
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  know, we we've started a program on brain
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  health.
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  We were fortunate to get,
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  a a large philanthropic donation last year that
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  led to establishment
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  of a Moody Brain Health Institute from the
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  Moody Foundation,
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  and that helped catalyze,
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  a lot of folks who were doing research
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  in that realm into coming together
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  with a unified mission.
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  And that unified mission is to really make
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  an impact across various areas of brain health.
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  So we have a lot of research going
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  on in Alzheimer's, for example, some labs developing
• 10:05
  new antibodies to treat Alzheimer's, some labs developing
• 10:08
  new diagnostic tests to identify patients faster or
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  identify people who who would
• 10:14
  potentially be resistant to the disease and thereby
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  really establishing a new way to,
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  stratify
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  and personalize treatments in the brain health realm.
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  So know, I give you that example also
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  as, you know, an area we identified that
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  people were already on campus and coalesce that
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  idea around a a new initiative, a new
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  institute so that we can really be more
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  impactful.
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  I love that. I think that's such a
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  strong example of the way that you can
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  really bring folks together and then, tackle a
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  big problem that's also so, so important for
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  the community and integrate resource as well. Now
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  looking ahead for 2026,
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  what are some of the big priorities and
• 10:53
  headwinds that you're focused on?
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  Yeah. Great question.
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  There is so much so much cool stuff
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  happening on campus.
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  And for us, I think,
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  one area really, one way to think about
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  it is just to continue building on these
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  new areas of strength,
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  that we have established. So, again,
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  for us for this year, we are gonna
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  continue focus on building Brain Health Institute and
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  programming around it.
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  We're gonna continue building on kidney health and
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  healthy aging as well as really, really scale
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  more,
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  these, implementation of new health care AI solutions,
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  again, with the goal being, you know, impacting
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  patients' lives positively while driving health care costs
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  down.
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  That makes a lot of sense. And,
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  yeah, I think, you know, when you look
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  at the brain health, the kidney health, and
• 11:44
  healthy aging, you know, the
• 11:47
  no secret everybody in health care is talking
• 11:49
  about the fact that, you know, in in
• 11:50
  most communities, they're seeing,
• 11:52
  you know, that aging population
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  boom and trying to figure out how they're
• 11:57
  going to, provide the right type of services
• 11:59
  and the right level of services while at
• 12:01
  the same time,
• 12:02
  you know, struggling with whether
• 12:04
  it's staffing shortages or or resource,
• 12:07
  narrowing. And so, you know, when you look
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  at the,
• 12:10
  kind of those demographic shifts in in what,
• 12:13
  the aging population needs,
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  How are you seeing that type of care
• 12:17
  in the model, you know, of what you're
• 12:19
  doing at University of Texas Medical Branch,
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  change as well in in you know, how
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  do you do that as an organizational
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  level?
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  Also a very good question.
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  I think,
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  it all starts with bringing,
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  people with diverse viewpoints together.
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  And,
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  I you know, another example from our end,
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  you know, in doing something like this is,
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  we announced yesterday partnership with Blue Zones
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  to be able to create
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  a,
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  a a community based healthy living model
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  that could be,
• 12:58
  utilized
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  at other places where, you know, public private
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  partnerships
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  with community engagement
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  and a health system
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  sort of, you know, partnership there where the
• 13:09
  physicians are also also involved in designing
• 13:12
  new healthy programs,
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  could be a way to,
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  change
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  how we all live and and age age
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  in a more in a positive way.
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  So Blue Zones is one example. And, again,
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  you know, we are trying to,
• 13:27
  incorporate as many players as possible,
• 13:30
  while designing these solutions.
• 13:33
  Absolutely. It makes a lot of sense. And
• 13:36
  you think about those partnerships like Blue Zone
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  and and I'm sure other community partnerships that
• 13:40
  you have,
• 13:42
  how do you make the decisions on who
• 13:44
  is the right people to partner with,
• 13:47
  you know, looking at the value of each
• 13:49
  different,
• 13:50
  interaction. I think now more than ever, it
• 13:52
  seems like health care is a team sport.
• 13:53
  And so how do you look at those
• 13:54
  things and make sure that those relationships are
• 13:57
  actually working the way you need them to?
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  Yeah.
• 14:01
  I think that's also,
• 14:03
  something,
• 14:05
  for success of these programs,
• 14:08
  that partnership and choosing the right partner is
• 14:10
  very important.
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  Usually, most of these things take a long,
• 14:14
  sort of, you know, incubation period.
• 14:16
  What we have done at UTMB is,
• 14:19
  we've taken that incubation period of,
• 14:22
  investigate. So identifying what we want to solve,
• 14:25
  investigating potential solutions,
• 14:27
  and then figuring out who among those is
• 14:30
  our partner.
• 14:32
  That that time scale we have compressed
• 14:34
  by creating,
• 14:36
  small teams of folks with various backgrounds who
• 14:40
  come to evaluate these opportunities.
• 14:44
  And these leadership teams, you know, from across
• 14:47
  different
• 14:47
  different,
• 14:48
  backgrounds. So, you know, it could be from
• 14:50
  operations, could be from finance, could be from,
• 14:53
  research, could be from innovation,
• 14:55
  could be from purchasing. You know, All those
• 14:57
  folks come together in one room, and we
• 15:00
  evaluate things very, very,
• 15:03
  efficiently that way,
• 15:05
  if that makes sense.
• 15:06
  Absolutely. That makes a ton of sense. And,
• 15:08
  you know, it seems like a a really
• 15:10
  smart way to tackle everything that I'm sure
• 15:12
  is coming, in in all directions and and
• 15:15
  opportunities that come your way. Now what do
• 15:17
  you think is the hardest thing you'll have
• 15:18
  to do in the coming year will be?
• 15:22
  41?
• 15:23
  Oh,
• 15:24
  okay. We have we have, we have a,
• 15:27
  you know, in in technology commercialization,
• 15:30
  technology,
• 15:32
  translation,
• 15:34
  as you know, is not a linear
• 15:36
  path for anything.
• 15:38
  So,
• 15:39
  we are really excited
• 15:42
  about,
• 15:43
  taking some of our new discoveries from the
• 15:45
  folks at UTMB
• 15:47
  and trying to part find partners for them
• 15:49
  or converting them into startups.
• 15:52
  And in that setting, while a lot of
• 15:55
  these technologies
• 15:56
  are super exciting,
• 15:58
  for example, I mentioned, you know, there's a
• 16:00
  new antibody for Alzheimer's disease. We're also developing
• 16:03
  a new test for stratifying kidney patients better,
• 16:07
  novel kidney diagnostic tests as an example. So,
• 16:10
  you know, these kinds of technologies,
• 16:12
  we are starting to engage with VCs. We
• 16:15
  are starting to engage with pharma partners. We're
• 16:17
  starting to engage with a lot of other
• 16:19
  types of associations.
• 16:22
  I I I anticipate
• 16:24
  that each one of them will bring its
• 16:26
  own challenges
• 16:28
  that will require us to think outside the
• 16:30
  box a little bit. So
• 16:32
  I I foresee, you know, those those commercialization
• 16:35
  challenges being being perhaps the harder ones, immediately.
• 16:40
  That makes a ton of sense. And, you
• 16:42
  know, I can only imagine how much,
• 16:45
  effort it takes in order to bring some
• 16:47
  of these, you know, parts and ideas in
• 16:49
  in,
• 16:50
  you know, things that you're doing into that
• 16:52
  commercialization process and translating it into something that
• 16:55
  then, you know, is usable and valuable across
• 16:58
  the board.
• 16:59
  And when you look at that commercialization process,
• 17:01
  I mean, how has it evolved over the
• 17:04
  last couple of years? Where are you seeing
• 17:06
  some of new, you know, potential roadblocks or
• 17:09
  or areas that,
• 17:10
  you know, have evolved, that are becoming easier
• 17:13
  or harder?
• 17:15
  Yeah. Also a good question.
• 17:17
  I think, I think times have certainly changed
• 17:21
  in the last few years,
• 17:22
  for the better for us, especially.
• 17:26
  Up up until a few years ago, if
• 17:28
  one wanted to commercialize a a technology or
• 17:30
  convert it into a start up or even
• 17:32
  do partnerships with with large companies, one had
• 17:35
  to go to the coast, you know, either
• 17:37
  to the West Coast or the East Coast.
• 17:38
  That's where most of the funders are. That's
• 17:40
  where most of the people who do this
• 17:41
  stuff reside, and that's where a lot of
• 17:44
  new technologies come out of. So they were
• 17:46
  really not as much paying attention to what's
• 17:49
  going on in Houston, Texas or Galveston, Texas.
• 17:53
  I think those times have changed because, a,
• 17:55
  because people are looking
• 17:57
  more broadly,
• 17:58
  and, b, because I think we,
• 18:00
  have, some very unique solutions that we've created,
• 18:04
  especially at UTMB, for example. You know, the
• 18:06
  solutions in, brain health and kidney health that
• 18:09
  we are developing, those are, state of the
• 18:11
  art,
• 18:12
  new solutions. So now what we are seeing
• 18:15
  is we are able to attract
• 18:17
  a lot of these new funders directly to
• 18:19
  us versus having to really only go to
• 18:22
  the coast to be able to talk to
• 18:23
  them. And I think that's a big change
• 18:26
  good change for us.
• 18:28
  That's amazing to hear and and definitely something
• 18:30
  that,
• 18:31
  you know, is exciting to have that opportunity
• 18:33
  in addition
• 18:35
  new areas and especially in Texas.
• 18:37
  Now before we wrap up, where do you
• 18:39
  see some of the best opportunities for organizational
• 18:41
  growth?
• 18:42
  I think we have many, many opportunities for
• 18:46
  for our our growth areas.
• 18:48
  Definitely, you know, we are going to see
• 18:51
  clinical growth, but clinical growth happening differently than
• 18:55
  it has happened in the past because of
• 18:56
  so many of these new AI tools,
• 18:59
  coming into play.
• 19:00
  So,
• 19:01
  that is one for sure. I think,
• 19:06
  this this
• 19:07
  interface of AI with
• 19:10
  research, with education, and with, clinic,
• 19:14
  all three,
• 19:15
  it's just so much cool stuff that's coming
• 19:19
  out that I mean, every day, you know,
• 19:20
  you see something new. And and, I I
• 19:24
  I already see that it can be how
• 19:25
  it can be implemented on campus. So,
• 19:28
  I honestly,
• 19:29
  AI based sort of solutions, research solutions,
• 19:33
  health care solutions, those were that's where I
• 19:34
  think a lot of growth is happening.
• 19:38
  I love it. Doctor Gupta, thank you so
• 19:40
  much for joining us on the podcast today.
• 19:41
  This has been such a fun conversation. I
• 19:43
  have learned so much, and I look forward
• 19:45
  to seeing you as well in April at
• 19:47
  our annual meeting. I know you'll be speaking
• 19:48
  on a panel, and it'll be great to
• 19:50
  catch up there and continue
• 19:51
  to dig deeper into some of the themes
• 19:53
  you talked about today. So I'm looking forward
• 19:54
  to seeing you. Thank you, Laura. Super exciting.
• 19:57
  I'm super excited about that too, and thank
• 19:59
  you again for inviting me today.