Hope Through Healing Hands

Trump’s call to end HIV is a worthy mission both at home and abroad (CNN)

CNN | In his State of the Union address, President Donald Trump brought attention to a disease that has almost disappeared from the headlines: HIV/AIDS. He pledged to end the epidemic in the United States by 2030, setting commendable, ambitious goals for domestic prevention and treatment efforts. I support President Trump’s pledged investment in domestic…

15 Years Later: How Well Are We Doing Addressing AIDS (Forbes)

FORBES | This World AIDS Day, we celebrate the astounding progress made in the past 15 years! Thanks to PEPFAR— the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief—14.6 million people living with HIV (59%) have access to antiretroviral therapy. More than 2.4 million babies have been born HIV-free. Countless lives have been saved. This progress…

Make water a top global priority. It’s the best, cheapest way to save lives (USA Today)

USA TODAY | This summer has seen the unprecedented and simultaneous outbreak of six of eight diseases posing the greatest threats to public health, according to the World Health Organization. You’d think that after the alarmingly fast spread of Ebola in West Africa just a few years ago, we’d have learned our lesson. Instead, the…

Medicine As Currency For Peace: How Global Health Funding Could Change The World (Forbes)

Forbes | I first met the virus as a young surgical resident in training. I read the initial 1981 report of five people in California who died of a mysterious, unnamed disease. The virus outsmarted and outran us. The first year, we watched helplessly as a few hundred people died. The next year, a few thousand,…

To Whom Much is Given, Much is Expected: Why U.S. Should Lead on Global Health (TEDMED)

TEDMED | A life-changing story has been missed by the media and the general public. But it will be highlighted in the history books in future generations. The story is that for less than 1% of our federal budget, the United States since 1990 has led the world in reducing by half those living in…

Notes from the Road: Hadza and Clean Water

Tracy and I are in Africa for two-weeks: Tanzania, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Kenya. The trip will bring together work from Hope Through Healing Hands (global community health) and The Nature Conservancy (intersection nature and health) in conjunction with Pathfinder International (global women’s health). As chairman of Hope Through Healing Hands, I will explore how we can globally impact peoples’ well-being and…

Notes from the Road: Tuungane Program

Tracy and I are in Africa for two-weeks: Tanzania, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Kenya. The trip will bring together work from Hope Through Healing Hands (global community health) and The Nature Conservancy (intersection nature and health) in conjunction with Pathfinder International (global women’s health). As chairman of Hope Through Healing Hands, I will explore how we…

Notes from the Road: Africa 2018

It’s been many years since my first trip to Africa, but each trip changes me. I already know this trip will be no different. Tracy and I are here for two-weeks this time: Tanzania, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Kenya. The trip will bring together work from Hope Through Healing Hands (global community health) and The Nature…

Reach Act will save lives, continue America’s moral leadership (Knoxville News Sentinel)

KNOXVILLE NEWS SENTINEL | Nearly 15 years ago, Congress passed a historic, bipartisan bill that has since provided life-saving HIV/AIDS treatment to nearly 12 million people and reversed the spread of this devastating disease worldwide. The President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief, better known today as PEPFAR, has been heralded as a model for how…

Reconsider severe international affairs budget cuts (The Tennessean)

TENNESSEAN | While music, faith, health care, and even hot chicken have made Nashville famous, we also have a robust hub of research, work, and advocacy for global health and development. Thanks to the dozens of humanitarian organizations providing excellent services for vulnerable populations worldwide, Vanderbilt’s Institute for Global Health research and development, and the missions…

Bill Frist: Foreign Aid Saves Lives—And Makes America Safer (Christianity Today)

CHRISTIANITY TODAY | For the past two decades, we have had a front-row seat in the bipartisan movement to end worldwide preventable, treatable diseases like AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, and to make poverty history. Since 1990, the world has cut in half maternal and child deaths, infectious diseases, and poverty as well as turned the…

The Case for Keeping America’s AIDS Relief Plan (New York Times)

NEW YORK TIMES | Among global public health advocates, there is a growing concern that President Trump may cut back, or even eliminate, programs that have played a critical role in fighting diseases worldwide. While every administration should strongly review our nation’s overseas commitments, and there are undoubtedly programs that we should cut, I hope…

It’s time for the U.S. to lead on combating global malnutrition (The Hill)

THE HILL | One single public health crisis accounts for nearly half (45%) of all child deaths under age five. Every 4 seconds, a person dies from this cause – approximately 21,000 every day. And shockingly, nearly one in nine people globally is affected.  What is this epidemic that has taken so many lives? That has…

The Last Shall Be First: Haitian Women Taking Steps To End Poverty (Forbes)

FORBES | How is it possible that the people of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere have to shoulder repeatedly the impact of one natural disaster after another? And what can we do as one of its closest neighbors – and by far the wealthiest country in the hemisphere – to best empower the…

Want a more resilient world? Give mothers access to the tools they deserve (The Hill)

With Michelle Nunn, CARE President and CEO THE HILL | In 2010, the world watched in horror as more than 200,000 people lost their lives to a devastating earthquake in Haiti. And we shuddered again earlier this month when Hurricane Matthew – the most powerful storm to hit Haiti in more than 60 years – killed…

Hurricane Matthew & Haiti A Week Later

Hurricane Matthew, a category 4 storm, made landfall at about 7am this morning on the southwestern tip of Haiti.  Tracy and I just left Haiti a week ago, where we traveled with Hope Through Healing Hands and CARE to assess progress made since the massive 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck in January 2010, resulting in…

Why We Need To Discuss Healthy Timing And Spacing Of Pregnancies (Huffington Post)

HUFFINGTON POST | Did you know that the number of women who die each year as a result of pregnancy is on the rise in the United States? A discussion needed in our country and across the globe is the health and wellbeing of women and children. Read more at Huffington Post.  

Back to Haiti

NOTES FROM THE ROAD | It’s no secret that I believe investing in global health is absolutely essential, and investments in women and girls—particularly maternal and child health—does nothing less than change a country’s trajectory. Next week, Tracy is joining me as I lead a delegation from all over the United States on a learning…

Spring Update (Newsletter)

So much of my work is a balance of progress and conservation. Now, more than ever, that’s playing out at home. Tracy and I are working to turn Old Town, our Williamson County home on the Old Natchez Trace, into a thriving farm while preserving and honoring the property’s centuries-old history. We welcomed new members to…

Charleston Helps Mothers and Children Globally (The Post and Courier)

This week, global health non-profit Hope Through Healing Hands (HTHH) seeks to galvanize the work already being done in Charleston and South Carolina around an important health initiative. HTHH will co-host a luncheon with faith leaders, nonprofit leaders, university leaders, and others in Charleston to discuss how we can better unite on behalf of child…

Health Diplomacy in Latin America

Strategic Health Diplomacy (SHD) recognizes that targeted global health initiatives can be an important foreign policy tool for the United States.  Healthier populations are productive, safe, and less vulnerable to instability. By addressing global health in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), the United States can save lives and improve its national strategic interests. Read…

Season’s Greetings

Merry Christmas all! Tracy and I hope this holiday season brings peace and joy and 2015 was a rewarding year. It’s been a fall of new beginnings for us in many ways. After three sons, and two grandsons, our family welcomed our first granddaughter, Amelia Fearn Frist, just over a month ago. We launched a…

Retreating From Global Leadership Puts America at Risk

The 2016 presidential campaign is well under way, and the candidates are already jousting over who is best suited to respond to an increasing number of obstacles abroad, ranging from the refugees crisis in Europe and the Middle East, to the threat of ISIS, to Russian aggression under President Vladimir Putin. As Democrats and Republicans,…

What PEPFAR’s Numbers Mean for National Security

As of last year, PEPFAR supported anti-retroviral treatment for 7.7 million people, mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa, and an astounding 95 percent of at-risk babies were born HIV-free. In 2013, Secretary of State John Kerry announced that the one-millionth baby had been born HIV-free because of PEPFAR-supported prevention of mother-to-child transmission. No nation in history has been…

In Search of the Family Doctor

Over the course of three visits to Cuba in the past year I have learned much about this nation, its people, its art, and its healthcare system.  We’ve toured polyclinics, hospitals, and medical schools. I’ve met with professors and medical students.  We’ve gotten the government’s healthcare statistics and double checked those with providers on the…

A Conversation on Haiti

Last week, Hope Through Healing Hands and I had the honor of welcoming the former Prime Minister of Haiti, Laurent Lamothe, to Nashville. I’ve been to Haiti many times, and was thrilled to hear the latest updates on the quantifiable successes in Haiti over the last few years, namely in providing housing for those displaced by the…

Ebola Doctor and Survivor Ian Crozier Advocates Global Awareness and Treatment (Hope Through Healing Hands)

HOPE THROUGH HEALING HANDS BLOG | On Tuesday, March 31, Hope Through Healing Hands had the honor of hosting Dr. Ian Crozier, an Ebola physician and survivor at an event with Siloam Family Health Center. I had the privilege of talking with Ian as he shared his experiences with the packed auditorium. His message is one that…

November Update

The fall has been exceptionally busy around here with several international trips and speaking engagements, but I was able to be home for Thanksgiving and got to enjoy some of the beautiful autumn color that Middle Tennessee has to offer. I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving holiday. Here’s an update on some of…

Opportunity to Act for Maternal and Child Health

I just welcomed my second grandson, and the dichotomy between the health care we enjoy and the realities in the developing world is never more stark than when I visited the proud new parents and their precious little one in the hospital—everyone  healthy and well. The biggest killer of women between 15 and 19 in…

Ebola: Contagious vs Infectious

Read my earlier Ebola primer. As the CDC treats the nation’s first two Ebola cases there are a lot of questions and concerns about the disease in America—Could it become an epidemic here? How contagious is it? How is it caught? Although my medical specialty is cardiothoracic surgery, I have spent a good deal of…

Healthy Timing and Spacing of Pregnancies: My Conversation with Melinda Gates

Yesterday morning, I had the privilege of sitting down with Melinda Gates, Scott Hamilton, Jenny Eaton Dyer, and a room full of caring people to talk about Hope Through Healing Hands’ Faith-Based Coalition for Healthy Mothers & Children Worldwide. Chatting with both Melinda and Scott is always such a pleasure—especially about such an important issue…

Retrospective on Rwanda

I’ve been home from Rwanda and Kenya only a few days and I’m already on another flight, heading back to Aspen, this time for the Aspen Ideas Festival Spotlight: Health, co-sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. It’s on flights that I have time to reflect on a few takeaways, drawn from the myriad impressions…

Notes from the Road: Building Infrastructure for Long Term Growth

*I’m in Rwanda this week representing Hope Through Healing Hands with Dr. Paul Farmer, Partners in Health Rwanda, and Harvard Medical School. These dispatches from the road are my personal journal–recording what I’ve seen and learned on this trip. See my pre-trip thoughts, Monday’s blog, and Tuesday’s notes. This morning we met with patients and physicians at Centre Hospitalier…

Notes from the Road: Cancer Care in Rural Africa

*I’m in Rwanda this week representing Hope Through Healing Hands with Dr. Paul Farmer, Partners in Health Rwanda, and Harvard Medical School. These dispatches from the road are my personal journal–recording what I’ve seen and learned on this trip. See my pre-trip thoughts, and Monday’s blog.  Who says you can’t treat patients suffering from cancer…

Off to Rwanda: Considering Child Nutrition

I was in Aspen earlier this week working on some of the challenges facing healthcare and the health industry in the US, but it’s time to switch gears. Sunday, I leave for Rwanda to lead a one week group trip with my friend Dr. Paul Farmer to see some of the work being done by…

Investing in Healthy Mothers and Children Worldwide

Earlier this week, a project we’ve been working on for months finally came to fruition! Hope Through Healing Hands announced a partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to launch the Faith-Based Coalition for Healthy Mothers and Children Worldwide. Since 2004, Hope Through Healing Hands has made investments to support infrastructure, sustainable health development,…

Why the U.S. must lead on Disabilities Treaty

(Reuters, November 5, 2013 ) By Bill Frist In an HIV clinic in Africa, a man born deaf holds a single sheet of paper with a plus sign. He looks for help, but no one at the clinic speaks sign language. In fact, the staff doesn’t seem interested in helping him at all. He returns…

Helping Haiti Build Back Better

(The Washington Times, July 13, 2012) As a board member of the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, I traveled to Haiti last month to check on the post-earthquake progress being made through the fund’s projects. What I saw confirms that developmental aid can have a greater impact than the humanitarian aid most people know. Moments after…

Health As A Currency For Peace

Hope Through Healing Hands Water PSA

Frist Visits Refugee Camp in East Africa

This week I traveled with Second Lady Dr. Jill Biden to refugee camps in eastern Kenya along the Somali border to witness the impact of the most acute food security emergency on earth.We need your help, and your help I promise will make a difference. Yesterday we visited intake centers just on the border where…

Tennessee Global Health Coalition PSA and Recap

On Monday, Hope Through Healing Hands partnered with the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health to put on a Summer Social for the Tennessee Global Health Coalition. Global Health Coalition PSA from Bill Frist on Vimeo.