THIS was the room and Nashville is THE place where healthcare solutions happen!

Make no mistakes about it, being in the room when two hard-charging, well-respected billionaire leaders engage in a clearly unrehearsed fire-side chat about the changes they would like to see and make in healthcare, anything can happen--and it did! I was sitting on the second row from the stage as Senator Bill Frist, M.D. hosted a conversation with Larry Ellison, founder of 甲骨文 when the "mic-drop moment" happened--Larry announced to the room of nearly 500 invitation-only attendees at the 2024 Oracle Health Summit that he planned to move Oracle's Worldwide Headquarters to Nashville!

Maybe it was his comfort and ease in that moment of sitting across from Bill Frist, himself, a healthcare phenom, who welcomed Ellison to Nashville with a warm southern charm as though he was welcoming Larry into his own home. Or perhaps being surrounded by some of the highest-ranking leaders in healthcare technology in the United States who he knew shared his passion for improving the global healthcare ecosystem, is what disarmed Ellison. Whatever it was, Larry had everyone in the room sitting on the edge of our seats, riveted to every syllable he uttered. As someone who has worked in countless functions and many facets across the arc of healthcare my entire career --including, life sciences, medical devices, med-surge and supplies, medical services (e.g. skilled nursing, memory care, post-acute home care, etc.) consumer health, telehealth, diagnostics, and health technology, for example, I kept wondering, "When did he learn all of this?" Larry described his bold intention to fix the fragmented informatics and data issues within healthcare, with such clarity of purpose, those listening did not only hear what he said, we could actually feel the sincerity of his commitment and imagine the integrated healthcare north star (or in the case of Nashville, the southern star) to which he is guiding Oracle. His depth of knowledge and command of complex, yet globally nuanced, challenges across a broad array of healthcare topics and stakeholders--patients, providers, payers, regulators, manufacturers, politicians at state and federal levels alike--as well as the global implications of the untenable escalation of healthcare costs in western nations was awe-inspiring.

Senator Frist asked Ellison what was driving his big, bodacious dive into the deepest, most tumultuous challenges of healthcare? Without missing a beat, Larry responded, "If we can do it, we must do it...I want every single employee at Oracle to be committed to healthcare. We are all Oracle Health."

While it is well known that healthcare spending is nearly 20% of the GDP in the United States, over the years, spending has also increased significantly in most western nations. Larry noted that he saw this rise in healthcare expenditures as a threat to democracy. He explained that if western nations continue healthcare spending at these rates, inevitably it will diminish our ability to invest in other critical areas, thereby becoming an existential threat to democracy itself.

Social media and news outlets have been buzzing non-stop since Ellison dropped the bombshell near the end of the hour-long, post-lunch conversation. However, personally, as a six-generation Nashvillian, beyond the shock and awe of the relocation news, something that made my heart swell with particular pride, was Ellison's answer--or better yet, his declaration of fact-- to Senator Frist's closing question, "Why Nashville?"

For decades Nashville has been a hub for [the] health services [sector], but I believe it will become the center of the whole healthcare ecosystem. It is a place where our people want to live and raise their families. We have an amazing location by the river which we have plans to make more of a park and an important, integrated part of the community...Nashville ticks all the boxes!"

If today is any indication, Ellison is approaching healthcare's inoperability issue with the same resolute force of will that's led to Oracle's dominance in enterprise software and to Ellison being the fifth-wealthiest person in the world, according to Forbes. It is exciting for healthcare and equally exciting for Nashville! And to the Oracle Team, "Welcome to town, y'all."