On the heels of this fine earlier series on the breakdown of the primary teaching hospital relationship between Baylor College of Medicine and The Methodist Hospital in Houston’s famed Texas Medical Center, the Chronicle’s Todd Ackerman teams with fellow Chronicle reporter Eric Berger to provide this story on the initial impact that the split is having on research planning at both institutions and the threat that the richer Methodist will pluck the prime Baylor researchers for its own research facility.
Mr. Ackerman’s reporting on the Baylor-Methodist split has been outstanding over the past year, and well-known Texas Monthly journalist Mimi Schwartz chimed in with this article ($) in the March edition of the magazine on the background and personalities involved in the negotiations leading up to the split. The Chronicle series and Ms. Schwartz’s article are both providing much grist for the gossip mill in the Medical Center community regarding this historic readjustment of professional relationships in the Medical Center.