Advancing care through
research at HCA Healthcare
At HCA Healthcare, research is not just a function — it’s part of a strategy to drive innovation, improve patient outcomes and strengthen our position as a learning health system. We strive to capture the full scope of our research efforts across the organization by connecting the dots between clinical excellence, operational performance and scientific advancement. Our leaders, teams and partners foster a shared understanding of how research and clinical trials can be used to support our mission to care for and improve human life, and to create value across the enterprise.
In 2025, our research activity reinforced our shared focus and commitment to keeping patients at the center of everything we do while emphasizing four key areas that are at the core of research at HCA Healthcare:
- Our investment in our people
- Our commitment to learning
- The power of our strategic partnerships
- The scale of HCA Healthcare
Across HCA Healthcare, our research programs span multiple strategic focus areas, yet we are united in our daily pursuit to elevate the standards of patient care and improve outcomes through research and clinical trials.
Research Subcommittee
In 2025, we established a cross-functional Research Subcommittee, as part of our Clinical Committee’s governance structure, to unite voices from every corner of the enterprise. This group was created with a clear purpose: to shape our strategic direction, foster collaboration and ensure that research efforts are inclusive, connected and truly impactful.
By bringing together diverse expertise, the subcommittee serves as a catalyst for aligning research activities with the enterprise’s highest priorities. The subcommittee reflects our commitment to advancing innovation and creating meaningful connections across disciplines.
The Research Subcommittee is already influencing how we think, plan and execute research — laying the foundation for a future where collaboration drives discovery and every initiative contributes to better outcomes for patients and communities.
Inaugural Research Showcase Day
Our first Virtual Research Showcase in 2025 highlighted innovative research across the enterprise, featuring engaging presentations and cross-functional collaboration. Teams shared impactful stories that demonstrated how research is driving clinical excellence and strategic growth. The virtual format enabled broad participation, with colleagues joining from across the country. This showcase marks a pivotal step in amplifying our research strategy and elevating the visibility of research within our enterprise.
HCA Healthcare Research Institutee
The HCA Healthcare Research Institute is the multispecialty clinical research arm of our organization. Since 2009, the Research Institute’s expert network of affiliated physicians works with trusted pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners to unlock insights from real-world data and conduct clinical studies leading to breakthroughs in science, medicine and care for all people.
Reducing stroke risks through clinical trials
Through the HCA Healthcare Research Institute, HCA Healthcare’s Mission Hospital, located in Asheville, North Carolina, completed the first in-human phase of a clinical trial testing an innovative device that aims to reduce stroke risks during a transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). Following the successful completion of the initial 10 cases at Mission Hospital and five additional cases at HCA Healthcare-affiliate TriStar Centennial Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, Phase II will expand the trial to select hospitals nationwide. This expansion includes additional HCA Healthcare facilities such as Methodist Hospital, Los Robles Regional Medical Center and Heart Hospital of Austin.
HCA Hecalthcare Research Institute by the numbers
54
Research Institute sites
25K+
patient visits
227
sponsors and partners
6,627
enrollments
*YTD Data through Q4 2025
HCA Healthcare Health Sciences and Population Health Research
The HCA Healthcare Population Health Research Program has nearly two decades of conducting pragmatic research trials embedded in real-world hospital operations that have allowed HCA Healthcare to discover and implement best practices for our patients and influence healthcare policy across the country. This program maintains long-standing partnerships with top private, public and academic entities, including Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), University of California Irvine and other academic institutions and government health agencies. The large-scale, multi-hospital studies have led to significant changes in the practice of hospital medicine not only at HCA Healthcare, but across the country and, in some cases, the world.
Helping clinicians improve antibiotic selection for patients with infections
Among our most recent clinical trials, the INSPIRE (INtelligent Stewardship Prompts to Improve Real-Time Empiric Antibiotic Selection) studies sought to help physicians tailor antibiotic selection for hospitalized patients with some of the most common infections, with the goal of reducing unnecessary antibiotic use. This is important because unnecessary antibiotic use contributes to antibiotic resistance and negatively affects patient outcomes. Conducted as four studies across the most common infection types (pneumonia, urinary tract infections, abdominal, skin/soft tissue), these trials tested the impact of “smart prompts” within the electronic health record that provided real-time, patient-specific risk data to clinicians about the best type of antibiotic treatment for a particular patient with a specific infection at a particular hospital. In total, these four trials involved nearly 1 million patients in HCA Healthcare hospitals and showed that this program of just-in-time recommendations results in consistent, rapid reduction in broad-spectrum antibiotic use.
The results of the INSPIRE I and II trials (pneumonia and urinary tract infections) were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in 2024. In 2025, the INSPIRE III trial (skin and soft tissue) was published in JAMA Internal Medicine and the INSPIRE IV trial (abdominal) was published in JAMA Surgery. Collectively, the INSPIRE III and IV trials were chosen by the Clinical Research Forum as one of the top 20 studies in 2025.
The INSPIRE studies address the overuse of powerful antibiotics by providing actionable, data-driven decisions at the moment of ordering. Currently, the “smart prompts” used in these studies are being expanded to more HCA Healthcare facilities as a part of our ongoing efforts to personalize patient care and provide the right care to patients at the right time.
HCA Healthcare Sarah Cannon
Cancer Network
HCA Healthcare Sarah Cannon Cancer Network, a global leader in cancer care, strives to improve standards of care to meet the evolving cancer care needs of the communities we serve.
Physician-led, Sarah Cannon’s network fuels collaboration across multidisciplinary teams and shares insights that address various aspects of oncology. Sarah Cannon works with its research partners to provide those facing cancer with specialized treatment options including access to hundreds of robust clinical trials. We collaborate with nationally and internationally renowned peers across the country through our collaboration with HCA Healthcare Research Institute and Sarah Cannon Research Institute (SCRI), and additional partners.
The Sarah Cannon Transplant and Cellular Therapy Network is the largest provider of cellular therapy in the U.S. The network performs more than 1,600 blood and marrow transplants and cellular therapies annually across 13 programs located throughout the U.S. and the U.K. With 1,200 colleagues across the HCA Healthcare ecosystem, the Sarah Cannon Transplant and Cellular Therapy Network team of experts are leading care and innovation for patients throughout every step of their journey.
Nurse-led Research
With more than 100,000 nurses, we have a unique opportunity — and responsibility — to lead the future of healthcare through nurse research.
In 2025, we hosted our inaugural Nursing Research Day, a collaborative event with Galen College of Nursing that united nurses, students and faculty to highlight how inquiry and innovation are transforming care delivery. Nursing Research Day brought together more than 700 HCA Healthcare nurses, Galen nursing students and faculty from across the country, showcasing research projects that are driving evidence-based care across HCA Healthcare.
One of the projects tested whether catheter replacement is necessary prior to obtaining a urine sample. After analyzing thousands of urine sample results from more than 150 acute care hospitals, Nursing and Infection Prevention leaders at HCA Healthcare found no significant difference in test outcomes or infection rates when catheters were changed at or after the three-day mark. The data collected from this research informed the adoption of a new practice that reduces patient discomfort, minimizes potential complications and enhances overall patient experiences. The nurse-led research project was featured at the 2025 American Nurses Association conference.
Payer-provider partnerships
The HCA Healthcare Population Health Research Program seeks research partnerships with health plan researchers, with the goal of combining research data to answer questions that could not be answered elsewhere. The first of these partnerships, aimed at improving quality of care and reducing re-hospitalizations and mortality for patients with sepsis, is underway.
GME Research
HCA Healthcare Graduate Medical Education (GME) Research is committed to cultivating a scholarly environment that encourages innovation in both medical education and clinical research. In alignment with the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), our purpose is to support resident and fellow physicians across the HCA Healthcare system as they engage in meaningful scholarly activities. Learn more about HCA Healthcare’s Graduate Medical Education programs.
GME research by the numbers:
7,749
scholarly activity projects
5,550
faculty
5,758
residents and fellows
365
programs
Trauma Research
The HCA Healthcare Center for Trauma and Acute Care Surgery Research (CTACSR) has a vision to advance knowledge of trauma and acute care surgery through rigorous and high-quality scientific research. CTACSR provides support to HCA Healthcare’s Level I and aspiring Level I trauma centers through study coordination, analytic expertise and scientific consultation.
One 2025 publication highlight for CTACSR was a multicenter study on trauma activation criteria in older adult trauma patients that was published in Trauma Surgery & Acute Care Open. The study involved 37 Level I and II trauma centers (both HCA Healthcare and non-HCA Healthcare operated) across the country, including data on nearly 217,000 trauma patients. This seminal publication provides results to help drive improvements in national guidelines and recommendations for trauma activation criteria development and trauma triage performance.