Bill Frist

William Harrison Frist (born February 22, 1952 in Nashville, Tennessee) is a Republican U.S. Senator from Tennessee and a cardiac surgeon. Since 2003, he has served as Senate Majority Leader. He is frequently mentioned as a potential candidate for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.

Childhood and medical career

Frist is a fourth-generation Tennessean. His great-great grandfather was one of the founders of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and his father was a doctor.

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Frist graduated from Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville, TN and then from Princeton University in 1974, where he specialized in health care policy at the Woodrow Wilson School of International and Public affairs. In 1972 he held a summer internship with Tennessee Congressman Joe Evins, who advised Frist that if he wanted to pursue a political career, he should first have a career outside of politics. Frist proceeded to Harvard Medical School, where he received a Doctor of Medicine with honors in 1978.

Related Topics:
Montgomery Bell Academy - Princeton University - 1974 - Health care - Woodrow Wilson - 1972 - Internship - Harvard Medical School - Doctor of Medicine - 1978

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Frist joined the lab of W. John Powell Jr., M.D., at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1977, where he continued his training in cardiovascular physiology. He left the lab in 1978 to become a resident in surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital. In 1983 he spent time at Southampton General Hospital, Southampton, England as senior registrar in cardiothoracic surgery. He returned to Massachusetts General in 1984 as chief resident and fellow in cardiothoracic surgery. From 1985 until 1986, Frist was senior fellow and chief resident in cardiac transplant service and cardiothoracic surgery at the Stanford University School of Medicine. After completing his fellowship, he became a faculty member at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he began a heart and lung transplantation program. He also became staff surgeon at the Nashville Veterans Administration Hospital. In 1989, he founded the Vanderbilt Transplant Center.

Related Topics:
1977 - Cardiovascular physiology - 1978 - Surgery - 1983 - England - Cardiothoracic surgery - 1984 - 1985 - 1986 - Cardiac transplant - Vanderbilt University Medical Center - Heart - Lung - 1989 - Vanderbilt Transplant Center

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He is currently licensed as a physician, and is certified in general surgery and heart surgery. He has performed over 150 heart transplants and lung transplants, including pediatric heart transplants and combined heart and lung transplants.

Related Topics:
Heart surgery - Heart transplant - Lung transplant - Pediatric

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Controversy over medical school experiments

While in medical school, Frist obtained cats from animal shelters, under pretense of adoption as pets, for school research experiments in which he killed the animals. In a 1989 autobiography, Frist described his deception in obtaining these shelter cats as "heinous and dishonest". He attributed his behavior to the pressures of school. The incident sparked controversy after a 2002 Boston Globe story repeated the account.

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