Nashville: Health Innovation Hits the Right Notes at ViVE 2025

Nashville may be celebrated as Music City, but its most profound and enduring legacy is rooted in health. Beyond the vibrant melodies of Grand Ole Opry, the city’s true harmony resonates throughout its health industry. More than 8,000 health leaders – its largest gathering ever –are expected to attend ViVE (powered by CHIME and HLTH), and more than 25 percent of those hail from the C-Suite, emphasizing the gathering’s growing importance and these pressing times.

ViVE wisely returns to Nashville and marks the third time “Music City” hosts this conversational community.  The city can rightly declare itself the nation’s capital of health provider service innovation.  Home to more than 900 health-related companies, including giants like Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Meharry Medical College, and LifePoint Health, and investment firms such as Cressey & Company, Nashville is a beacon of digital health and provider transformation, and ViVE, making the “Health Hub” home base is an added proof point.  

Rich Scarfo, president of HLTH, spoke about ViVE 2025 and Nashville: “We’re excited that ViVE is back in Nashville because I think it’s sort of a testament not only to our city’s ability to host conferences of that scale but really our status as a healthcare hub and our growing concentration of healthcare technology companies.”

Nashville: The Nation’s Health Powerhouse

These statistics underscore the pivotal role of Nashville in the US health eco-sector:

• Economic Impact: The health industry contributes nearly $68 billion annually to the local economy, reflecting its significance as a primary economic driver.
• Employment: Healthcare is the region’s largest employer, supporting more than 332,000 jobs and 167,916 direct positions annually.
• Global Reach: Nashville-based health companies operate facilities across all 50 states and 20 countries, managing more than 500,000 healthcare beds worldwide, an estimated 34 percent of investor-owned hospitals in the US.
• Investment Magnet: In the past decade, more than $1.6 billion in venture capital has been invested in Nashville health-sector enterprises, fueling continuous innovation and growth.

The Genesis of Nashville Health Provider System Leadership

The city’s ascent as a national health-sector hub is rooted in its commitment to medical innovation and role-model leadership:

Founding of HCA Healthcare: In 1968, Dr. Thomas F. Frist Sr. and his son Dr. Thomas F. Frist Jr., both physicians and visionaries, together with businessman Jack C. Massey, co-founded the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) in Nashville. This pioneering venture introduced a new model of hospital management, leading to the establishment of the world’s largest private operator of health facilities. Their philosophy has also fueled countless other enterprises in Nashville that support the national health system.

Early Medical Institutions: The city’s commitment to healthcare dates back to the early 20th century. In 1916, Dr. John Henry Hale and his wife, Millie E. Hale, established the Millie E. Hale Hospital, providing essential medical services to the Black-American community during segregation. The hospital closed in 1938 when Dr. John Henry Hale was appointed the chief of surgery at Meharry Medical College.

Educational Foundations: Institutions like Meharry Medical College have been instrumental in training Black American physicians and dentists since the 19th Century. While Nashville is its home, it contributes to the well-being of all Americans. It is built on the foundation of training exceptional physician leaders, advocating for continued health access, and tirelessly addressing health disparities.

National Health-Sector Leaders: The Frist family has impacted national health beyond creating HCA and spin-off entrepreneurial enterprises.  Frist Sr., son Willian (Bill) Frist, MD, trained as a cardiothoracic transplant surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital and Stanford University School of Medicine and later founded the Vanderbilt Transplant Center. From Nashville, he went on to champion the Medicare Modernization Act as a Senate Majority Leader.   

Today, Former Senator Frist is a Special Partner with Cressey & Company and Chairman of the firm’s Distinguished Executives Council, where he continues to influence Nashville’s reputation as a health innovation hub.

Nashville’s concentration of national health leaders includes Meharry Medical College President James E. K. Hildreth, MD, a global infectious disease expert. Dr. Hildreth is renowned for his HIV/AIDS research and leadership in public health. He was the first African American to become a full-tenured professor in basic research at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Jeffrey R. Balser, MD, PhD, is among the significant Nashville leaders whose vision and voice steer US health. As the President and CEO of Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and the Dean of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, VUMC has expanded its role as one of the nation’s top academic medical centers, excelling in clinical care, research, and education. Dr. Balser is recognized for his transformational influence on digital transformation and community health initiatives.

ViVE 2025: Innovation and Collaboration

ViVE comes to Nashville at a critical time in public health and health innovation.  The new Administration is going through a significant DOGE-driven cost-cutting initiative.  Billions are being slashed from the nation’s National Institutes of Health research budget – sometimes without fully considering what is at stake for the nation’s health and well-being.

There are sweeping suggestions that indirect institutional support costs are unneeded or that funds are being used inappropriately. Can this be determined as quickly as one month into the new White House administration? Research requires laboratories, equipment, and staff. Claiming that these institutions are fat cats fleecing the system and disregarding taxpayer dollars likely sends the wrong message that knowledge and innovation – the fabric of US global competitiveness – are overrated. Will this challenge to US health innovation be part of the ViVE conversational vibe?

Attending ViVE – Look for These Discussions

• Will science and medical advancements grind to a painful halt, and if research programs are cut, what is lost that translates into better access and care?
• Can the US lose its global leadership in biomedicine?
• When high-paying science jobs are cut, economic strength is compromised in places like Nashville, which is among the region’s largest health employers; what trickle-down impact does it have on jobs?

In the shadow of research budget cuts, a system that spends $4 trillion on health and is sorely needed to address information fragmentation, ViVE and Nashville are at the right time and place. Building upon the success of previous years, ViVE 2025 is poised to be a transformative event that fosters collaboration and conversation among health leaders, investors, and digital health pioneers when needed most.