Health care
BY HANNAH BROL & JESSICA SHORTEN
Health Care Edition
2026
Welcome to Community Impact’s 2026 Health care Guide! While we have reported recently on population growth in the Spring and Klein communities, this year’s health care edition takes a look at how local health care providers are meeting the need and expanding services across the area. In this edition we take a look at Houston Methodist’s rst full year of a new OB-GYN residency program to help expand care to northwest Houston. At the same time, St. Luke’s Health is working to bring a new $34 million free-standing inpatient rehabilitation facility in partnership with Lifepoint Rehabilitation. Be sure to also check out the latest news on all of the hospitals serving the area, including specialty surgery hospital TOPS announcing a new location and the 10-year anniversary of St. Luke’s Health in Vintage Park.
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Jessica Shorten Editor jshorten@ communityimpact.com
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Harris County Public Health exploring local cancer rates
New countywide data that breaks down cancer cases at the census tract level is helping to inform the way providers care for patients in the Spring area, local health care o cials said. How it works In March, Harris County Public Health released the East Harris County Cancer Assessment Report, which focused on 66 census tracts in East Harris County. Along with the report, HCPH launched an interactive dashboard where residents can see where higher-than-expected rates exist for 17 types of cancer countywide. “Higher-than-expected cancer rates exist across all of Harris County compared to the state of Texas,” said Dr. Jo Ann Monroy, senior manager of Data Analytics and Reporting for the O ce of Epi- demiology, Surveillance and Emerging Diseases, or OESED. “By identifying where certain cancer types occur at higher-than-expected rates, clinicians can better understand the communities they
serve, tailor prevention and screening e orts, and consider environmental or demographic factors that may in uence patient risk.” In the Spring and Klein areas, data shows several census tracts exhibited higher-than-expected can- cer rates for bladder, brain, lymphoma, prostate, skin and thyroid cancers. Diving in deeper While the report acknowledges environmental concerns, Monroy noted it does not determine causation and more research is needed. “Continued air and water-quality monitoring, enforcement of existing environmental regula- tions and ongoing remediation of contaminated sites all play a signi cant role in lowering risk over time,” Monroy said. Moving forward, Monroy said HCPH and the OESED plan to obtain additional data from the Texas Cancer Registry as new data is released to further enhance their analysis.
Standardized Incidence Ratios, or SIRs, were calculated using data from the Texas Cancer Registry from 2010- 20 and required at least 11 cases per census tract. Higher-than-expected cancer rates Types of cancer prominent in Spring, Klein
Brain
Thyroid
Lymphoma
Skin
Bladder
Prostate
SOURCES: HARRIS COUNTY PUBLIC HEALTH; OFFICE OF EPIDEMIOLOGY, SURVEILLANCE AND EMERGING DISEASES COMMUNITY IMPACT
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