EnMed: From Conception to Commencement

The revolutionary EnMed program partners Houston Methodist with Texas A&M University to transform healthcare through interdisciplinary translational research, medical technology development, and the training and development of “Physicianeers”, the first of whom are graduating in May 2023.

In August of 2019, the EnMed program launched as a four-year medical education program that culminates in both a medical doctorate and a Master of Engineering degrees. Christened “EnMed”, the program cultivates a new generation of “physicianeers” with the skills to design and implement innovative medical technologies to transform patient care. Integrating medical education with research focused on innovation and entrepreneurship, the EnMed program empowers a new generation of physician scientists with the clinical skills needed to diagnose and treat patients along with the engineering perspective to problem-solve, invent new technologies, and rapidly advance their innovations from the laboratory to the bedside. In May, the inaugural EnMed commencement ceremony will celebrate the first graduating class of physicianeers. But four years before the EnMed journey began, an innovative partnership between Houston Methodist and Texas A&M set the stage for its conception and success. This unique, first of its kind program, arose from the successful Texas A&M and Houston Methodist School of Medicine partnership that began in 2015. Shortly after, M. Katherine Banks, PhD, current president of Texas A&M University, and dean of the College of Engineering at Texas A&M at the time, approached Houston Methodist with the idea of a partnership to establish an integrated engineering medicine curriculum, ultimately culminating in students completing their clerkships at Houston Methodist hospitals. In 2019, Texas A&M and Houston Methodist jointly launched EnMed, which has made way for a new School of Engineering Medicine.

These students have dedicated countless hours to learning and honing skills necessary to pursue a career in medicine, and it’s great to witness how far they have come. They have all worked so very hard to prepare for this next step in their journey to become a physicianeer, and we will be there to celebrate and marvel at this important milestone.

Amy Wright, EdD, MBA

Assistant dean of student affairs for the School of Engineering Medicine and director of educational partnerships for Houston Methodist

Timothy Boone, MD, PhD, the chief education officer for the Houston Methodist Academic Institute and associate dean, Texas A&M University College of Medicine at the Houston campus, recalls the early conversations and work that went into setting up the program. “In the initial conversations I had with Kathy Banks, she was a big cheerleader for the program, for the potential of the program and for Houston Methodist to be part of it,” Boone said. Before the EnMed program could launch, an infrastructure needed to be put into place. “When EnMed started we wanted to house it all in Houston, so we had to create the first 18 months of teaching, including classroom work like gross anatomy. We had to find a place to meet our specialized training needs. We had to do all this groundwork before we could start a class. And that's when the campus started on Holcombe,” Boone said. It was then that the old Bank of America building in the Texas Medical Center was stripped down to the beams and rebuilt to house everything engineering/medical students would need to work in Houston: classrooms, an auditorium, a simulation center and a “makerspace” with 3D printers so students can generate prototypes. The 18-story office building will be the focal point of the future Texas A&M Innovation Plaza, a 5-acre campus currently under construction. Most didactic training occurs in this building, but wet anatomy labs are done at the Houston Methodist campus.

About the Program The mission of the EnMed program is “To develop a new healthcare professional, trained to be an exceptional physician who is also equipped to invent practical solutions to healthcare problems through the convergence of engineering and medicine. Such innovators will be Physicianeers.” In addition to the clinical training provided through Houston Methodist Hospital, EnMed students gain experience in the process of innovating and translating novel medical technologies into real-world applications in the nation’s first fully integrated engineering and medical education curriculum. Eligibility requirements include a baccalaureate in engineering or computer science from an accredited institution or the equivalent, U.S. citizenship or U.S. Permanent Residency (Green Card holders) and submission of all application materials for acceptance into the School of Medicine and the College of Engineering at Texas A&M. In addition, prospective students must submit a proposal for a two-year Capstone project. Faculty submit statements describing where they see a need in biomedicine at Houston Methodist, or other institutions in the Houston area and the students propose projects addressing one of those needs. The proposed project must be innovative and result in a novel biomedical tool. “The Capstone program is a competitive program that provides two years of funding support for EnMed students to do research at Houston Methodist. The idea is to provide students with an opportunity to put into practice what they are learning by developing innovative biomedical tools.” said Alessandro Grattoni, PhD, Director of the Capstone program. Because of the integrated curriculum, graduates of EnMed will be uniquely positioned to adopt transformational technologies, identify opportunities to innovate during their clinical practice, and possess real-world experience developing innovative medical technologies through cultivation of their own unique ideas. Having grown from an idea in a conversation to a world-class program graduating its first physicianeers in 2023, EnMed is currently led by Roderic I. Pettigrew, PhD, MD, founding dean of the School of Engineering Medicine at Texas A&M. “This is a tremendously exciting initiative founded on a sound concept that has been emerging internationally for years. At its core is the understanding that the most effective and efficient solutions to our most daunting health care challenges will come from approaches that integrate all the sciences and engineering,” Pettigrew said. At Houston Methodist, Boone made it clear that from inception to this years’ graduation, the partnership with Texas A&M was made possible by people at Houston Methodist who championed EnMed along the way and stepped up to take lead roles to make the program work. Today those leaders also include Amy Wright, EdD, MBA, the assistant dean of student affairs for the School of Engineering Medicine and director of educational partnerships for Houston Methodist, and Trevor Burt, EdD, MS, vice president of system education in the Houston methodist Academic Institute. For each of these innovators, watching the inaugural graduating EnMed class prepare for commencement is exciting, especially considering the graduating class achieved a 100% residency match rate. In fact, five of the 22 EnMed graduates matched into Houston Methodist residency programs, a significant increase over the number of matched Texas A&M medicine graduates over the last several years. Wright said, “These students have dedicated countless hours to learning and honing skills necessary to pursue a career in medicine, and it’s great to witness how far they have come. They have all worked so very hard to prepare for this next step in their journey to become a physicianeer, and we will be there to celebrate and marvel at this important milestone.” EnMed graduation will take place May 19-20, 2023, at the Westin Hotel in Houston. Hosted by Dean Pettigrew and moderated by President Emerita of MIT, Susan Hockfield, the event will feature a colloquy moderated by Susan Hockfield, PhD, President Emerita of MIT and presentations by influential figures in a variety of scientific disciplines including four Nobel laureates and Vinton Cerf, PhD, co-inventor of the internet and vice president of Google. Learn more about the graduates here.

Heather Lander, PhD, May 2023

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