After the controversial split earlier this year (previous posts here) with longtime partner Baylor College of Medicine, The Methodist Hospital has been announcing a series of bold moves as it attempts to define its post-Baylor research and teaching role in Houston’s famed Texas Medical Center. Yesterday, Methodist announced its boldest move yet — a 30 year primary affiliation agreement with Cornell University’s Weill Medical School in New York City.
No one can of another teaching hospital-medical school partnership in which such a vast distance separated the from its medical school. According to the Chronicle article on the deal, Methodist President Dr. Ron Girotto downplayed the mileage separating the hospital from Cornell, saying “distance is not an obstacle. Technology today makes anything possible — the sharing of information, quality data and collaboration on research and patient care.”
Cornell’s Weill Medical College’s primary teaching hospital has long been New York-Presbyterian Hospital which is one of the largest hospitals in the country. That affiliation will not change, as Methodist’s deal with the medical school includes a Methodist affiliation with New York-Presbyterian, also.
Still unclear from Wednesday’s announcement is how the affiliation deal will work in practice. Given the distance between Houston and New York, the relationship would appear to limit the typical type of faculty-student relationships that a teaching hospital typically enjoys with a medical school. Under the agreement, Methodist physicians can choose to have faculty appointments at Cornell, which Methodist believes will be a lure in recruiting. Methodist also contends that the affiliation will accelerate the development of the hospital’s new research institute, which it recently announced.
Notably, the affiliation with Cornell and New York-Presbyterian is not an exclusive arrangement, and Methodist will continue to search for other medical school partners. Methodist forsees having multiple affiliations and are open to other ones in Texas. In that connection, talks are still ongoing between Methodist and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, the other medical school in the Medical Center.