According to the TMC they are the largest medical center in the world. It is a collaboration between many institutions that conduct medical treatments, medical training, and medical research. The area has over 10 million patient encounters every year and employs over 100,000 people. The Texas Medical Center is one of the top ten largest business districts in the United States.
An Ultra High Definition Real Time Walking tour of Fannin Street in the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas.
Come join me on a walk up Fannin Street in the Texas Medical Center. We will start at the intersection of Fannin St. and Holcombe and walk north along Fannin St. until we reach Hermann Park.
To the left you will see the entrances of universities, hospitals and medical buildings and to the right you will see the road traffic and the Metro light rail bringing people to the TMC area. It is a quiet afternoon so there are fewer people coming and going off of the trains into the local hospitals and medical facilities.
There are lots of food places where busy workers can stop and get their lunch such as Mod Pizza, Salata, Antoine’s, Roti Mediterranean, Starbucks, and Chipotle. These restaurants are often packed with doctors and other medical professionals eating, or picking up food to take back to their nearby offices.
There are lots of ambient noises in the Med Center. You will hear road traffic including ambulances coming and going. Air conditioning compressors hum and helicopters pass overhead. The trains from the light rail make noises as they arrive at each of the stations, and make their announcements. The relatively quiet afternoon means that there are some background conversations, but very few.
Many people travel from out of town or all over the world to visit the Texas Medical Center. They come for medical treatments for themselves or their loved ones, to work at one of the local medical buildings or for training.
There are hotels all through the medical center area for people to stay at, as well as many short term rental options in the surrounding area. On this walk we will pass the Marriott hotel, which is directly accessible through light rail or personal car. Parking can be expensive in the area so many people, especially employees, choose to park elsewhere and then take the light rail into the medical center. Some of the buildings on the walk are Houston Methodist, CHI St. Luke’s, Texas Women’s College, and Prairie View A&M College of Nursing.
The first hospital in what would later become the Texas Medical Center in Houston opened and started seeing patients in 1925. Several more hospitals opened in the surrounding area soon after, or relocated from other places in order to be part of the med center. In the 1940’s the President Roosevelt allocated significant amounts of land in order to add a new veteran’s hospital which is now known as DeBakey, named after Dr. Michael Debakey.
During this walking tour you will pass Houston Methodist Hospital, where Dr. Debakey performed the first coronary bypass surgery in 1964. Soon after Dr. Cooley would also perform one of the first heart transplants in the United States.
The Texas Medical Center is located in Houston, Texas. It located next to Rice University and Hermann park. It is also near NRG stadium and Bray’s Bayou. TMC has benefited from its location in Houston in many ways and has a long history of collaborating with local institutions in order to promote research or new medical techniques. One famous example was when doctors worked with engineers from NASA- also located in the Houston area- in order to create a treatment for a boy with a severe immune disorder.
Some of the sounds that you hear include helicopters flying over head. Helicopters have been part of TMC since 1976 when Hermann Hospital first launched Life Flight, which according to the TMC website was the first private air ambulance service.
This walk was completed in September of 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic. Many patients with the coronavirus have been treated in the local hospitals over the last several months. The walk was deliberately completed at a quiet time in order to promote social distancing and not interfere medical professionals trying to get to work.
For more information about the Texas Medical Center, the history of the location, or the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, please see their website at https://www.tmc.edu/ which also includes information about the spread of the disease throughout the greater Houston area.
This walk begins at Fannin at Holcombe, and ends where Fannin approaches Hermann park. It is only a small portion of the entire medical center, but you can really get a feel of what it is like to really experience walking on Fannin and visiting the Texas Medical Center.