Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare CEO Sam Hazen sees a big opportunity for the largest health system in the U.S. in an unlikely place: research, according to the Nashville Business Journal.
During an interview with Bobby Frist, CEO of HealthStream, at the Nashville Health Care Council’s inaugural Nashville Healthcare Sessions conference, Mr. Hazen said HCA has "untapped potential" in healthcare research, which could increase the city's profile as a hub for the healthcare industry.
"I don't think we've done research at scale like we cover other things. So research, to me, beyond just cancer, is where I think there are opportunities and that requires partnerships," he told Mr. Frist.
HCA Healthcare had $60.23 billion revenue last year and operates around 180 hospitals and 2,300 care sites across the U.S. and the United Kingdom. The health system isn't known for research or clinical trials like academic medical centers are, but it does have a research institute to dig deeper into multiple areas, including behavioral health, heart care, orthopedics, oncology, robotics and more. The system has research infrastructure at 27 sites of care and the institute participates in 250 industry-sponsored clinical trials.
The health system also entered into a joint venture with McKesson to improve cancer treatment for patients, an effort announced last year. The partners planned to create an integrated oncology research organization to accelerate drug development, expand clinical research and make clinical trials more accessible for oncology providers and patients.
Mr. Hazen said similar partnerships with technology companies and educational institutions will help grow the health system's research capabilities, according to the report. He also touted the transformative potential of artificial intelligence in healthcare and HCA's partnership with Google Cloud to use generative AI for improving nurse and physician workflows.