Bill Frist - Other Professional and Charitable Activities

Other Professional and Charitable Activities

In June 1989, Frist published his first book, Transplant: A Heart Surgeon's Account of the Life-And-Death Dramas of the New Medicine, in which he wrote, "A doctor is a man whose job justifies everything . . . Life a gift, not an inalienable right."

With J. H. Helderman, he edited "Grand Rounds in Transplantation" in 1995. In October 1999, Frist co-authored Tennessee Senators, 1911–2001: Portraits of Leadership in a Century of Change with J. Lee Annis, Jr. In March 2002, Frist published his third book, When Every Moment Counts: What You Need to Know About Bioterrorism from the Senate's Only Doctor. While generally well received, the book later spurred accusations of hypocrisy regarding his remarks about Richard Clarke. When Clarke published his book Against All Enemies in 2004, Frist stated "I am troubled that someone would sell a book, trading on their service as a government insider with access to our nation's most valuable intelligence, in order to profit from the suffering that this nation endured on September 11, 2001." In December 2003, Frist and co-author Shirley Wilson released the self-promoting book, Good People Beget Good People: A Genealogy of the Frist Family.

In 1998 Frist visited African hospitals and schools with the Christian aid group Samaritan's Purse. Frist has continued to make medical mission trips to Africa every year since 1998. He has also been vocal in speaking out against the genocide occurring in Darfur.

During 2007-2008, Frist was the Frederick H. Schultz Professor of International Economic Policy in Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.

In 2008, he became a partner in Chicago-based Cressey & Co. investing in the nation's health care market. In 2009, Frist began teaching at Vanderbilt’s Owen School of Management and at the Medical School where he taught before his 1994 election, while becoming a chairman of the Nashville-based nonprofit organization Hope Through Healing Hands that centers on health and education around the world. He also launched a statewide education reform initiative targeting K-12 education called SCORE (State Collaborative on Reforming Education). He is currently adjunct professor of Surgery in the Department of Cardiac Surgery at Vanderbilt and clinical professor of Surgery at Meharry Medical College.

In May 2009, Frist joined forensic chemical and drug-testing laboratory Aegis Sciences Corp. as a health care advisor and member of its board of directors. His new responsibilities include assisting in Aegis’s development of a strategic alliance with Vanderbilt University Medical Center, providing counsel on the company’s research and development for new laboratory-based toxicology assessments, and advise Aegis on general health care issues.

On November 2009, Frist joined the board of directors of engineering, construction and technical services firm URS Corp. to bring his expertise and unique perspective on a wide range of economic issues.

In March 2010, Frist was appointed a member of the six-person board of the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, which had raised $66 million to date for immediate earthquake relief and long-term recovery efforts in the Caribbean country. Frist had also traveled to Haiti with Samaritan's Purse in January 2010 and with the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund in June 2012.

Frist also serves as a Senior Fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center, where he is a co-leader of the Health Project

In July 2012, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RJWF) announced that Frist had been elected to its Board of Trustees, effective in January 2013. RJWF is the largest health-oriented foundation in the United States. His other board service includes First Lady Michelle Obama's "Partnership for a Healthier America" campaign to eliminate childhood obesity within a generation, the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows, and the Advisory Committees for Global Health at Duke and Harvard. He is also on the advisory board for technologically innovative healthcare companies ZocDoc and aTherapy.

Frist also leads medical mission trips to recent disaster sites around the globe, including New Orleans after Hurricane Katrine, Sri Lanka after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake.