off the charts

2 Dallas hospitals earn healthy rankings in prestigious list of best in U.S. and Texas

UT Southwestern charted high in many categories.

Photo courtesy of UT Southwestern

A prestigious, annual national report has verified what Texans already know: The state boasts some of the best adult and children’s hospitals in the country. U.S. News & World Report has released its 2022-23 Best Hospitals list, and two Dallas hospitals earned especially healthy rankings.

UT Southwestern Medical Center was rated the No. 2 hospital in Texas. The Dallas institution also scored especially well nationally in urology (No. 11), cardiology and heart surgery (No. 14), diabetes and endocrinology (No. 18), pulmonology and lung surgery, (No. 21), and cancer (No. 25).

Not far down the list is Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, which ranked No. 4 in Texas. One Baylor department ranked nationally: gastroenterology and GI surgery department, No. 34.

Rankings for the annual U.S. News study are based on scores in patient care, patient safety, outcomes, nursing, advanced technology, and reputation.

Elsewhere in Texas
Not surprisingly, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston was rated No. 1 in the nation for cancer care. (MD Anderson has been considered in the top two cancer hospitals in the U.S. since U.S. News launched the survey in 1990.) MD Anderson also scored high national ranks for specialty treatments: urology (No. 5) and diabetes and endocrinology (No. 13). The center continues to maintain its “High Performing” rating on the U.S. News list for colon cancer and lung cancer. It also received “High Performing” ratings for the three newly added adult procedures and conditions: ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, and uterine cancer, per a press release.

Houston Methodist Hospital comes in at No. 15 nationally and No. 1 in Texas for the 11th year in a row. Houston Methodist Hospital ranks in 10 specialties, the most of any hospital in the state, according to the report. Two of these ranked specialties appear in the list’s top 10 (diabetes and endocrinology at No. 9; gastroenterology/GI surgery at No. 8), while six are ranked in the top 20.

Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston ranks No. 2 overall in the Best Children’s Hospitals ranking. The children’s center also remains top in Texas and the Southwest, and at No. 1 in heart treatment for the sixth year in a row.

Also boasting top honors in the state — and No. 10 nationally — is Houston's Menninger Clinic. The acclaimed facility tied for tenth place on U.S. News’ list of best psychiatric hospitals, making it the all-out best in Texas.

Meanwhile, Austin’s St. David’s Medical Center ranked No. 8 in Texas. That the hospital’s rehabilitation department ranked nationally, coming in at No. 37 overall.

The complete list of Texas' top 10 hospitals can be found here.

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Innovation Station

Texas maintains its place among 15 most innovative states in the U.S.

Austin Texas State Capitol and Skyline Aerial Drone Image

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During a SXSW reception March 12 at the Governor’s Mansion in Austin, Gov. Greg Abbott hailed Texas as the No. 1 state for innovation. Personal finance website WalletHub sees it a little differently though.

In a new study from WalletHub, the Most & Least Innovative States (2026), Texas is assigned the No. 13 ranking for innovation among the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

D.C. comes out on top, followed by Massachusetts, California, Colorado, and Washington. Mississippi appears at the bottom of the list.

Texas earns a total innovation score of 49.56, compared with 69.13 for top-ranked D.C. In two broad categories, Texas ranks 12th for human capital and 13th for innovation environment.

To identify the top places for innovation, WalletHub evaluated the 50 states and D.C. by reviewing 25 key indicators of innovation friendliness. The indicators include:

Share of STEM professionals
Forecast for Share of STEM professionals
Forecast for STEM jobs
Eighth-grade math and science performance
Concentration of tech companies
R&D spending per capita
Share of science and engineering graduates age 25 and over
Average internet speed
Venture capital funding per capita

“The most innovative states are especially attractive to people who have majored in science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM, as they offer abundant career opportunities and investment dollars, both for jobs at existing companies and for startups,” WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo said in the report.

“These states also instill young students with the skills they need to succeed in the current workforce, skills which are useful whether or not they pursue a STEM career,” he added.

Texas held steady in the 2026 report, receiving the same ranking as in 2025 (at No. 13), but improving its overall score slightly, up from 48.96. In 2024, Texas was ranked No. 14 in the U.S., marking its first appearance within the top 15 most innovative states. In recent years, Texas has consistently moved up the ladder among most innovative states.

Texas zeroes in on semiconductor industry
On the innovation front, Abbott and other state leaders have focused intently on growing the state’s semiconductor industry, which generates roughly $30 to $60 billion in economic activity per year. Texas ranks among the top states for semiconductor manufacturing, with major operations in North Texas and Central Texas.

To bolster the industry, Abbott signed the Texas CHIPS Act into law in 2023. The law established the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund, which issues grants for semiconductor research, design and manufacturing, and the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Consortium, which advises the governor and state legislators on matters related to the semiconductor sector.

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This article originally appeared on our sister site, InnovationMap.com.

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