Fort Bend County’s grip on the health care industry centers on its innovative high tech advances; from biotech and life sciences to revolutionary progress in orthopedics and sports medicine.
Fort Bend: A Hub for Biotech and Life Sciences
Biotech and life sciences companies are discovering what local residents have long known: Fort Bend County has a lot to offer. For people who call the area home, there’s a high quality of life, outstanding schools, shopping and natural beauty. For life sciences and biotech firms there’s the people who live here.
Local Success Shows the Way
Residents of Fort Bend County have an overall higher-level of educational attainment than many other areas, making them ideal candidates for companies such as OCuSOFT, a local biotech success story. OCuSOFT is one of the largest employers in the area, and has been named a Top Workplace by the Houston Chronicle for seven years in a row.
CEO Cynthia Barratt co-founded OCuSOFT, which has become the brand-of-choice for doctor recommended eyelid cleansers. The story of how OCuSOFT has grown into a multimillion dollar company serves to illustrate how well-suited Fort Bend County is for biotech companies.
Barratt is a “leader in biotech innovation in the country, and a prime example of how well biotech works in Fort Bend County. [The success of OCuSOFT] shows how other companies can follow suit,” said Janice Suchyta, an attorney specializing in healthcare law at Seyfarth Shaw LLP.
Education, Medical Facilities, and Room to Grow
In addition to having a highly educated workforce, there are several major hospitals in or near Fort Bend County, including Oak Bend Medical Center,CHI-St. Luke’s Hospital-Sugar Land, Methodist Hospital-Sugar Land, Memorial Hermann Hospital-Sugar Land M.D. Anderson Regional Center-Sugar Land (located within the CHI-St. Luke’s Hospital-Sugar Land campus).
Having so many health care and medical facilities nearby means life sciences companies have access to experts, research and a population of prospective employees. Jobs associated with the healthcare industry have been on the rise recently, according to Suchyta.
There’s also room to grow in Fort Bend County for companies looking to build brick and mortar facilities. The area is fourth in the U.S. for incoming investment, second in Texas, and first in the greater Houston area. It’s appealing to businesses developing, relocating or expanding.
In addition to the existing workforce, the University of Houston at Sugar Land is expanding, and construction is underway on a 100,000-square-foot building that will house the college of technology. The school will offers several degrees in the biotech and life sciences sector, which will create more highly educated people seeking employment.
“It’s really kind of a perfect storm, with all these different, important pieces coming together at the same time,” Suchyta said, adding that in the years she’s lived in the area it has grown from being a bit of a bedroom community to one with great shopping, outstanding schools, and expanding businesses.
Orthopedics and Sports Medicine at Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospital
Residents of Fort Bend and the surrounding counties need look no further than Memorial Hermann Sugar Land for convenient, specialized care in orthopedics and sports medicine. Through its state-of-the-art facilities, conveniently located in Sugar Land, Richmond and Missouri City, affiliated physicians develop individualized and comprehensive treatment programs for patients of all ages, to prevent, diagnose and treat conditions of the ankle, elbow, foot, hip, hand, head, knee and spine.
Expert Joint Care
The Memorial Hermann Joint Center at Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospital offers surgical and nonsurgical treatment for joint pain. Options include medications, injections, physical therapy and total hip and knee replacement. If surgery is required, its experienced team of board-certified orthopedic surgeons utilize the latest surgical techniques to perform both open and minimally invasive procedures. They work as part of a multidisciplinary team that also includes specially-trained nurses, physical and occupational therapists and other care givers. The team’s top priority is to eliminate the patient’s pain and restore their mobility, as quickly as possible.
Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation
The highly-trained sports medicine specialists at Memorial Hermann Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation help athletes of all ages and abilities prevent injury, recover from injury and improve performance. Services include physical and occupational therapy, sport-specific rehabilitation, nutritional counseling, aquatic therapy and more.
Sports Medicine Outreach Services
Reach a representative of the Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospital Sports Medicine team 24-hours a day via our Sports Medicine Hotline at (281) 725-5333. Sports medicine services include expedited appointments, a Saturday morning sports injury clinic, sports concussion management, school and sports physicals and physician presentations and education for coaches and leagues.
Robotics Surgery Services
Looking for a new treatment that will provide a wide range of robotics surgeries? Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospital’s innovative technology offerings include robotic surgery, which integrates computer technology and surgical skill to simplify a number of existing surgeries, transforming traditionally invasive surgeries into minimally invasive procedures.
Surgeons affiliated with Memorial Hermann Sugar Land provide patients with a robotic option for a range of specialty surgeries, including gynecology, general surgery, bariatrics, urology, pediatric urology and surgical oncology.
Studies of minimally invasive robotic surgery have shown the following benefits in comparison to open surgery: a faster recovery, shorter hospital stay, fewer complications, smaller incisions associated with minimal scarring, less blood loss and less need for narcotic pain medicine.
In addition to patients benefitting from robotic services, there are many benefits for surgeons. Surgeon control and ergonomic comfort helps with patient safety and operating room efficiency. Integrated technology and data continue to transform robotic surgery.
Depending on your medical needs, robotic surgery services may enhance your experience and assist with a faster recovery.
For more information on specialty surgery at Memorial Hermann Sugar Land, visit us at Memorialhermann.org/SLrobotics.