Delivering Peace Through Global Health Policy

Aspire: Teamwork for Excellent Care

Teamwork drives Aspire’s care goals of treating the whole patient, and our team works together to make sure nothing is neglected.

Aspire: Commitment to Clinical Care

Aspire is committed to aligning the values of our patients with the care they receive. Excellence in clinical care is more than just medical knowledge, it’s treating the whole patient: physical, mental, and spiritual.

Aspire: Commitment to Compassion

Our team at Aspire is committed to compassionate care. Each individual is deserving of respect and the kind of care we would want for ourselves.

The Supremes Latest Hit: The ACA Survives Another Test

The day after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the ACA, I sat on a panel at the Aspen Ideas: Spotlight Health conference to discuss what challenges lie ahead for ACA.

The Mother and Child Project

Hope Through Healing Hands is thrilled to launch the Mother & Child Project book.

Why This Matters: SCORE’s 2015 Education Report

WBIR’s HomeGrown: Bill Frist, heart surgeon & former senator

From the operating room and Capitol Hill to third world countries, Bill Frist has built his life on saving lives and serving others.

“I’ve been blessed in many ways,” he said.

The youngest of five children, the heart and lung transplant surgeon and former Senate majority leader credits his father, a doctor, and his mother, a teacher.

“A family with strong values.”

And, medicine seemed to be the family business.

“My older brother was a doctor and my middle brother was a doctor. I never really thought about doing anything else,” he explained.

Frist remembers being 6 or 7 years old and making house calls with his dad.

“You find somebody who’s sick and the lights are dark in bed and then their face lights up when they see dad. That sort of compassion, intimacy, that sort of personal touch is something that has stuck with me forever.”

Health Insurance Explained by the YouToons

The Kaiser Family Foundation’s YouToons are at it again–this time explaining the types and options of health insurance. Take a look. You might recognize a voice!

Talking Ebola

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The Story of “Touch” the Dog

As all the friends at Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary know, dogs have a unique power to touch lives and promote healing, and Touch has become a model for that.

Touch is a collaboration between Senator Bill Frist, M.D., Mississippi artist Charlie Buckley, and Tracy Roberts, an expert in adolescent education and the power of pet therapy. What started as a blank slate has grown—through the layered imprints of over 200 hands!—into a work of art and a symbol for the power of touch and connection in communication and healing.

As a surgeon, Senator Frist understands the power of touch, both in the operating theater and at the bedside. In her history with therapy dogs, Ms. Roberts has seen animals transform crisis situations and bring peace and comfort in startling ways.

But animals also play powerful roles in private as well. In his creation, Touch toured several schools, making connections with students, hearing their secrets and teaching them about verbal and nonverbal communication.

Online (Touch has a Facebook page! – www.facebook.com/touchthedog), friends from all over the country have shared their personal connections to their animals and told stories of love, support, and friendship that their dogs have offered.

Every hand print—every story—is coming together to make Touch who he’ll be.

Touch’s many colors are a bold reminder of the impact dogs have on our lives. The dogs at Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary might not have quite as much paint, but they, too, have touched many lives.

It’s an honor for Touch to represent their stories as well.