Texas CARES expands to Health of Texas

Published: August 28, 2025

Something big is now even bigger.  

Texas CARES has expanded to Health of Texas, broadening its mission from understanding COVID-19 to improving the total health of Texans across the state. “In the past, we looked at what it was like to live through that COVID experience,” said Eric Boerwinkle, PhD, dean of UTHealth Houston School of Public Health. “But now, we’re going to go beyond that and focus on what it takes to be healthy.”  

Texas CARES, or the Texas Coronavirus Antibody REsponse Survey, was established in September 2020 to understand COVID-19's impact in Texas. More than 90,000 Texans ages 6 months to 90 years old have participated in Texas CARES, making it one of the largest COVID-19 surveys in the world.   

Health of Texas invites Texas CARES participants who have completed at least one survey to take part in the new program, which includes three elements:  

1. Health of Texas Community, a Texas-sized total health program that aims to capture a complete picture of state health. "We’re also expanding to biomarkers of chronic disease, including measures of inflammation and many other things,” Boerwinkle said.  
2. Health of Texas Data, which will connect to Texans’ health information. “Health of Texas Data is a unique combination of different data sources that supplement each other so that we can better understand the state of health of individuals in Texas and where opportunities lie to improve the care they are receiving,” said Cecilia Ganduglia Cazaban, MD, DrPH, director of UTHealth Houston’s Center for Health Care Data. “In this case, we’re talking about medical, pharmacy, and dental claims data that we are housing at the school of public health.”   
3. Health of Texas Horizon, which is a new opportunity to develop solutions for emerging health needs, potentially including obesity, diabetes, maternal and child health care needs, education, and more. “Health of Texas Horizon will allow us to identify timely needs, better understand specific rural or urban area community needs, and allow us to work with local and statewide communities on addressing these specific needs that will be identified by the program over time,” said Melissa Valerio-Shewmaker, PhD, MPH, professor and associate dean of Faculty Affairs at the school of public health.   

Health of Texas is a collaborative effort led by UTHealth Houston School of Public Health. 

Interested individuals can determine if they are eligible to participate by contacting the Health of Texas team at 713-500-9441 or [email protected]. Watch this video to learn more about Health of Texas: https://go.uth.edu/AboutHealthofTexasVideo. Follow Health of Texas on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X.