Rice-Baylor merger promises unparalleled opportunities
On March 26, Rice students received an e-mail formally announcing discussions of a possible merger between the university and Baylor College of Medicine. As the Houston Chronicle noted, these were "serious discussions that could lead to a merger of the state's top private university and one of the country's best medical schools." Roughly two weeks ago, President David Leebron and BCM's Interim President William Butler issued a second e-mail detailing an extension of the initial memorandum of understanding to continue the possibility of a merger.In the intervening six months, a report on academic possibilities was released by a joint committee of Rice and BCM faculty, concluding numerous points. From a research perspective, the proposed merger offers many advantages. The Academic Committee Report highlights the potential for collaborations between BCM's pharmacology department and Rice's chemistry department, a concentration of expertise in neuroscience at both institutions and a possibility of exploring fields previously outside the scope of each individual institution. With significant public interest in national health policy and large federal investments in health information technology, there are many possibilities at the interface of engineering and healthcare beyond the capabilities of individual faculty members.