Mr. John Sharp, chancellor of The Texas A&M University System, and Dr. Brett P. Giroir, CEO of Texas A&M Health Science Center, along with Senator Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, today announced the launch of the Healthy Texas Initiative as part of the newly created Texas A&M Institute for Public Health Improvement. The combined efforts of the Texas A&M Health Science Center and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service will develop and deliver evidence-based education, monitoring, and interventions that will prevent disease and improve public health in Texas. The initiative’s pilot program, known as “Healthy South Texas 2025”, marks an unprecedented effort to reduce preventable diseases and their consequences in South Texas by 25 percent by the year 2025.

“We will leverage impactful research spanning agriculture and human health to better serve the state and nation,” Mr. Sharp said. “Just imagine, on one end of the county, our agriculture extension agent is talking to farmers and ranchers about growing healthy crops and livestock. On the other end of the county, our health science center personnel, utilizing the assets of our extension service, are talking to families about how to grow healthy children. This will keep people out of hospitals while saving billions of dollars.”

Focusing on the highest impact diseases in the region, including diabetes, asthma, and infectious disease, Healthy Texas brings together experts from medicine, nursing, pharmacy, biomedical science, public health, architecture, and extension to engage families, enhance education, promote behavior change, and improve quality of medical care and disease outcomes.