Who we are

HCA Healthcare Research Institute is the multispecialty clinical research arm of HCA Healthcare focused on advancing care through our affiliated network of providers and sites.

As part of a learning health system, we are unlocking insights into real-world data and clinical studies that lead to scientific breakthroughs and transform patient care.

Across the HCA Healthcare Enterprise, the Research Institute supports the following areas of patient-centered research:

  • Behavioral Health
  • Cardiac & Vascular
  • Musculoskeletal
  • Neuroscience
  • Non-Therapeutic
  • Oncology
  • Pulmonary & Thoracic
  • Robotics
  • Transplant – Solid Organ
  • Women and Children’s

The Research Institute also conducts large-scale trials for early disease detection via liquid or tissue biopsy.

Over the last decade, we have grown to provide research infrastructure to more than 27 sites of care across 12 divisions to support seven service lines. In 2022, HRI participated in more than 250 industry-sponsored trials and recorded nearly 6,000 visits.

See HCA Healthcare’s Impact Report for more.

What we offer

As a connector between providers, medical device, and biotechnology partners, we offer a centralized service support model to activate clinical research.

The Research Institute’s expertise includes program development, clinical trial pipeline management, regulatory affairs, quality assurance, contract and budget negotiation, financial reporting, data integrity, Medicare coverage analysis, site management, and patient recruitment. By centralizing these capabilities into our organization, the Research Institute is an efficient and effective liaison between physician and sponsor, ensuring timely start-up, impactful enrollment, and accurate data submission.

These services provide value to participating HCA Healthcare facilities, and physician investigators:

  • Improvement to research pipeline: quality and volume
  • Decreased start-up timelines
  • Increased efficiencies through technology automation
  • Expanded subject matter expertise and physician engagement

Clinical research

  • Sponsor liaison
  • Study feasibility and cost analysis
  • Site placement
  • Research team management
  • Performance reporting

Benefits of our centralized research services

The Research Institute serves as a valuable partner and liaison between research study sponsors and our network of sites. Our centralized offerings include:

  • Study start-up — one point of contact for service management
    • Assistance with site selection
    • Budget development and finalization
    • Clinical trial agreements — negotiation/execution
    • Institutional Review Board (IRB) submissions
  • Clinical oversight — quality assurance, physician leadership and clinical operations staff