Dr. Bill Frist becomes U.S. Senate Majority Leader.

In his eighth year as a U.S. Senator from Tennessee, Dr. Bill Frist is tapped as Senate Majority Leader, a role in which he serves until his term ends in 2007.

The son of HCA cofounder Dr. Thomas Frist Jr., Sen. Frist is the only physician in the Senate at the time. As such, his background as a heart and lung transplant surgeon allows him the opportunity to play key roles in health care reform, AIDs research, bioterrorism and advancing biomedical research.

Sen. Frist continues to play an active role in Nashville’s health care community. He serves on many boards, including Teladoc; Aspire; the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows; First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Partnership for a Healthier America” campaign to fight childhood obesity; and the Nashville Health Care Council. Sen. Frist helped launch the Council Fellows program and serves as co-director.