Bill Frist among 6 inducted into Tennessee Health Care Hall of Fame

Former U.S. Sen. Bill Frist was among six health care pioneers inducted Tuesday into the Tennessee Health Care Hall of Fame.

He joins Dorothy Lavinia Brown, the first African-American female surgeon in the South; Donald Pinkel, the first director and CEO of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital; Harry R. Jacobson, former Vanderbilt University Medical Center CEO; Joel Gordon, a veteran health care businessman; and Stanford Moore, aNobel Prize-winning biochemist.

The induction took place at a noon ceremony inside theCurb Event Center on the Belmont University campus. The Tennessee Health Care Hall of Fame, created by Belmont and its McWhorter Society along with help from the Nashville Health Care Council, has inducted 14 members since its inaugural class in 2015.

The hall of fame looks to honor pioneers of Tennessee’s large health care sector.

Frist, 65, served as the first heart and lung transplant surgeon at Vanderbilt. He served in the U.S. Senate from Tennessee from 1995 to 2007 and as majority leader from 2003 to 2007.

Reach Alex Hubbard at dhubbard@tennessean.com.