The Crystal Ball of Health Reform Implementation: What is next and what will it do to me?
Senator Frist addresses what steps the Obama administration must take in order to create a strong foundation in implementing the new health reform bill. We can advance the goal of maximizing value in healthcare delivery, open the door to continuous quality improvement, redirect existing monies to where they can do the greater good, and define the platform for a time when we can proudly say that in America every American has affordable access to quality healthcare.
A Heart to Serve: A Non-Partisan View of Solving the World's Most Intractable Problems
Senator Frist shares his unique experience as a heart transplant surgeon and U.S. senator to inspire people to make a difference wherever they are and whatever position they are in by helping others, risking failure, challenging the status quo, and above all, having a heart to serve. One of the brightest and most forward-thinking senators, Frist tackles controversial issues to offer feasible solutions. His simple philosophy for peace, for example, is service. "People don't usually go to war against someone who helped save their children," Frist writes. "While the world often sees America's tougher side ... when people see America's more compassionate, humanitarian side, the barriers come down, and peace becomes a viable possibility." With heartfelt love for family and country, warmhearted humor, and a doctor's comforting tones, Frist speaks openly about the values and experiences that shaped his life, and challenges and inspires everyone to find a place where they, too, can make a difference.
ADDITIONAL SPEECH TOPICS
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A Political Pioneer
Senator-Doctor Frist is a true “citizen-legislator.” After 20 years in medicine, Sen. Frist launched his remarkable political career in 1994. After defeating five opponents in a hard-fought primary, Sen. Frist faced a popular three-term senator who was in line to become the next Democratic majority leader. The campaign unfolded as a battle between a career politician and a populist outsider. Bill Frist won by a resounding 13 points and became the first practicing physician elected to the Senate since 1928. Sen. Frist rose to the position of Majority Leader with fewer total years in Congress than any person in history. His tenure as Senate Majority Leader from 2003 to 2007 put him in the position to push through numerous government initiatives, including tax cuts for all Americans, prescription drugs for seniors, the nominations of two Supreme Court Justices, the U.S. global HIV/AIDS initiative, and introduction of the concept of “medicine as a currency for peace” into official public diplomacy.
A Medical Pioneer
Consistently recognized as one of the most influential healthcare experts in America, Dr. Frist has performed over 150 heart and lung transplants – including the first lung transplant and the first pediatric heart transplant in Tennessee and the first successful combined heart-lung transplant in the Southeast. After completing his surgical training in Boston and California, Frist returned to his hometown of Nashville to establish a center for the new therapies of heart and lung transplantation. In 1986 he became Director of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center's heart and lung transplantation program. Three years later he founded the multi-organ Vanderbilt Transplant Center. Under his visionary leadership, the center became recognized as one of the premier, full service transplant facilities in the United States. In addition to writing large scale national health policy, Dr. Frist has also written over 100 peer-reviewed articles, chapters and abstracts on medical science.
A Heart to Serve
In his new book, A Heart to Serve: The Passion to Bring health, Hope, and Healing, Senator Frist shares his unique experience as a heart transplant surgeon and U.S. senator to inspire people to make a difference wherever they are and whatever position they are in by helping others, risking failure, challenging the status quo, and above all, having a heart to serve. One of the brightest and most forward-thinking senators, Frist tackles controversial issues to offer feasible solutions. His simple philosophy for peace, for example, is service. "People don't usually go to war against someone who helped save their children," Frist writes. "While the world often sees America's tougher side ... when people see America's more compassionate, humanitarian side, the barriers come down, and peace becomes a viable possibility." With heartfelt love for family and country, warmhearted humor, and a doctor's comforting tones, Frist writes openly about the values and experiences that shaped his life, and challenges and inspires everyone to find a place where they, too, can make a difference.
A Voice for Global Health and Democracy
Senator Frist currently focuses on domestic health reform, global health policy, extreme poverty, maternal health/child survival, healthcare disparities, information technology, and genocide in Darfur. Sen. Frist annually leads medical mission trips to Africa, he is co-chair of Save the Children’s Survive to Five Campaign, and was the co-chair of the ONE Vote ’08, which was part of Bono's ONE campaign to reduce global poverty. ONE Vote ’08 was an unprecedented, non-partisan campaign that worked towards making global health and extreme poverty foreign policy priorities in the 2008 presidential election. Sen. Frist's current board service includes Africare, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Commission to Build a Healthier America, the U.S. Holocaust Museum’s Committee on Conscience, the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project, and Hope through Healing Hands. Sen. He currently Chairs Tennessee Score, a highly visible, statewide, citizen-led coalition to reform k-12 education in Tennessee.
Senator Frist was the 2007-2008 Frederick H. Schultz Professor of International Economic Policy at Princeton University. He is currently a distinguished professor at the Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management where he is leading a first-of-its-kind academic experience. He created a unique class which combines business students with fourth year medical students to examine the financing, delivery and quality of healthcare. Senator Frist said connecting students from these two disciplines will help them get a stronger understanding of the complexity of all aspects of healthcare reform.
Hope Through Healing Hands
Hope Through Healing Hands is Sen. Frist’s global health care initiative. The organization's mission is to promote improved quality of life for citizens and communities around the world using health as a currency for peace. Through the prism of health diplomacy, the organization envisions a world where all individuals and families can obtain access to a skilled, motivated, and supported health worker, within a robust health system-domestic and abroad. Specifically, they support partnership in service and training for sustainability. Under the umbrella of health diplomacy, Hope Through Healing Hands' initiatives surround global issues such as child survival/maternal health, clean water, extreme poverty, and global disease such as HIV/AIDS, TB, and Malaria. Strategically, the organization promotes Global Partnership by working hand-in-hand with leading organizations who best address these issues in developing nations.
Tennessee Score
Senator is currently the Chairman of Tennessee Score (The Tennessee State Collaborative on Reforming Education, which is an initiative to jumpstart long-term educational change in Tennessee to ensure that every child graduates high school prepared for college or a career. SCORE will achieve this goal by (1) developing a strategic plan for K-12 education reform in Tennessee via a statewide Steering Committee of key stakeholders (2) launching a number of Project Teams to initiate both statewide and local education projects and (3) running a grassroots campaign to promote the state's new standards, identify education activists across the state, and create conversations among local community leaders about how each community can improve its local schools.
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