Shared from the 11/14/2018 San Antonio Express eEdition

Medical industry has $40B impact

Health care, biomed research and sales account for more than 1 in 6 S.A. jobs

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William Luther / Staff file photo

San Antonio’s health care and bioscience industry accounted for $40.2 billion in sales of products and services and employed more than 1 in 6 of the metro area’s workers in 2017, according to a study released Tuesday by the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce.

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Billy Calzada / Staff photographer

Researchers at the Voelcker Biomedical Research Academy at the University of Texas Health Science Center dissect a goat’s eye.

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Jerry Lara / Staff photographer

Dr. Gabi Worwa removes her suit after working with the Ebola virus in the Biosafety Level-4 lab of the Texas Biomedical Research Institute in 2014.

Whether due to the famed burn unit at Brooke Army Medical Center, the strides made fighting infectious disease at Texas Biomedical Research Institute or the thousands getting care at area medical facilities and doctors’ offices, San Antonio’s health care and bioscience sector has become a core component of the city’s economy — and it’s still growing.

That sector accounted for $40.2 billion in sales of products and services and employed more than 1 in 6 of the metro area’s workers in 2017, according to a study released Tuesday by the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce.

“The big takeaway here is that health care and bioscience is a major driver of the San Antonio economy; it’s right up there with manufacturing and the military,” said Richard Butler, a Trinity University economist who worked on the study. “But since health care and bioscience overlaps with both of them, you might even say that health care and bioscience is kind of our core.”

The study also shows that the sector has been steadily growing.

In 2015, it produced $36.6 billion in sales of products and services, which was an increase over 2013’s $32.7 billion. Between 2009 and 2017, the industry grew 65 percent.

“This is especially good for San Antonio to have this kind of steady, robust growth in one of our biggest industries,” Butler said at a luncheon attended by about 120 people in Northwest San Antonio. Butler worked with Trinity health care administration professor Mary Stefl on the study.

The biennial study uses data from the Texas Workforce Commission as well as information from UT Health San Antonio, formerly the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, and military entities in San Antonio.

It shows that the health care and biosciences sector is one of the metro area’s largest employers.

In 2017, the industry paid out nearly $10 billion in wages and employed more than 18 percent of the region’s workforce. With both military and civilian health care workers included, 182,112 San Antonians were employed in the industry, about 6 percent more than in 2015.

Since 2009, the industry has added about 41,000 net new jobs, an increase of 29 percent.

The jobs are relatively well-paying. The average salary for health care and bioscience workers in 2017 was $53,718, which is 11.5 percent above San Antonio’s average of $48,186. The figures include only direct wages, not benefits such as savings plans or medical insurance.

About 60 percent of the industry’s economic impact, $24.3 billion, comes from direct health services such as those provided by hospitals, physicians, laboratories and home health providers. Since 2009, the economic impact of hospitals and physicians has more than doubled.

The remaining portion, nearly $16 billion, comes from related industries such as those providing medical equipment, insurance, social services, pharmaceuticals. Also included in this portion are research and education.

Both the direct and related service categories have more than doubled since 2009 and grown sixfold since 1992.

San Antonio has been able to distinguish itself by having a collaborative spirit among the military and the various private and university players, luncheon speakers said.

“The burn unit at BAMC treats primarily civilian patients,” Stefl said. “This is an example of wonderful cooperation between the military and civilian sector in ways that benefit both. It provides training for military doctors and clearly benefits the community.”

Dr. Larry Schlesinger, CEO of the Texas Biomedical Research Institute, said he’d joined with presidents of other local research institutions as well as the military to establish “a new collaborative designed to create an ecosystem for science unrivaled in the U.S.”

“Our secret sauce and leverage, I believe, will be in collaboration, passion and education,” he said of San Antonio, noting a growing niche in precision therapies that use genomic data to tailor treatments. “Nowhere have I worked where the embodiment of cooperation has been greater.”

Schlesinger said the combined $900 million in grants and contract support for Texas Biomed, UT Health and the University of Texas at San Antonio was an important contribution to the sectors’ overall economic impact.

But he reminded the audience that the competition for those research dollars is stiff.

“Research and medicine are facing a crisis of epic proportion,” he said. “Too many of us are fighting for too few resources, and the threats we face from disease are only becoming greater as our vulnerable populations grow, including the very young, old and those who are already battling other diseases.” lbrezosky@express-news.net

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