Houston, TX – June 9, 2026 – West Health, a nonprofit working in healthcare and aging, has joined Metis, the Houston region’s holistic initiative focused on lifelong brain health to enhance human flourishing and economic growth, helping to lead a significant new workstream on transforming health systems.
Metis is the largest, most advanced “place-based” initiative for brain health in the world, and its chairs include The University of Texas Medical Branch, Rice University, Memorial Hermann Health System, and Accenture. Other Metis steering members include bp, Eric Mullins and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Center for Houston’s Future, the Metis convening entity, leads the day-to-day work of Metis.
West Health’s work will focus on translating the Metis brain economy vision into care that reaches patients inside health systems.
"We are proud to join Project Metis as a co-chair and to help launch this new Health Systems Transformation workstream,” said West Health President Tim Lash. “Houston's health systems are world-class, and they are a critical link between the science and the community. When health systems transform how brain health care is delivered, the impact does not stay inside a clinic. It flows through employers, through workforce productivity, through families who can keep working because a parent got diagnosed and managed early. Brain health transformation is economic transformation.”
Houston's health systems are not just care providers: They are anchors of the regional economy, employers, research engines, and the infrastructure through which brain health innovation will either reach patients or not. West Health brings a proven record of building integrated brain health delivery at scale, including one of the largest single-system deployments of integrated behavioral health in the country at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago and its suburbs.
“We could not be more pleased that West Health – with its record of innovation and results-driven work that benefits consumers and communities – has joined Metis. West Health brings a proven track record of building integrated brain health care delivery inside health systems — not studying it, not funding it from the outside, but building it,” said Center CEO David Gow. “The groundbreaking work we do with West can serve as a model for the nation.”
Other, ongoing Metis workstreams include those on early development, brain health in the workplace, healthy aging, science, and measurement and tracking. Each one will deliver concrete actions that will lead to human flourishing and economic growth.
Key Metis supporters also include Deloitte, HKS, Memo Trevino, the American Psychiatric Association Foundation, Houston Methodist, and the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation.
West Health’s focus on the Houston region makes sense, Gow noted, as our health systems have the scale, talent, and institutional commitment to be the proving ground.
In fact, Houston’s health systems are the backbone of this region's economy — the Texas Medical Center alone employs more than 106,000 people and generates $25 billion in annual economic impact. Healthcare will be the single largest driver of job growth in Houston in 2026, adding an estimated 14,000 jobs.
That infrastructure is one of Houston's competitive advantages — and it is the engine through which brain health transformation will reach people at scale.
A workforce that is cognitively and mentally healthy is more productive, more innovative, and more resilient, Gow said.
“When Houston's health systems get brain health right, the returns flow back into this economy. That connection — between health system performance and regional economic vitality — is exactly what the health systems transformation workstream of Metis is designed to make real,” said Lash.
About West Health: Solely funded by philanthropists Gary and Mary West, West Health is a family of nonprofit and nonpartisan organizations that include the Gary and Mary West Foundation and Gary and Mary West Health Institute in San Diego and the Gary and Mary West Health Policy Center in Washington, D.C. West Health is dedicated to lowering healthcare costs to enable seniors to successfully age in place with access to high-quality and affordable health and support services that preserve and protect their dignity, quality of life and independence. Learn more at westhealth.org.
About Center for Houston’s Future: Center for Houston’s Future, formed more than 25 years ago, works to enhance the long-term well-being of the Houston region --, via strategic initiatives such as Metis; our Business/Civic Leadership Program and by engaging with the community via events and thought leadership. The Center has a long and strong record of convening business, community, civic and academic leaders engage in consensus-building, strategic planning and action.
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