From medical advances that brought the world some of the most renowned orthopedic innovations to medical breakthroughs in the fight against childhood cancer, Memphis is an epicenter of life-changing advances in bioscience.
Get a snapshot of Memphis's Healthcare & Life Science sector.
SEE FULL REPORT84K
Healthcare and Life Science Employees
86
Medical Device Companies
2B
Economic Presence in Medical Equipment Supplies Manufacturing
Unmatched logistics capabilities coupled with a welcoming business climate and a strong industry cluster make the Greater Memphis region a natural location for a wide range of medical device companies and medical device OEMs.
Memphis is home to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, University of Tennessee’s Health Sciences Center and more than 50 life sciences companies. Major manufacturers in Memphis include Medtronic, Smith & Nephew, Microport, Stryker and Olympus. The region’s intellectual capital in the device sector frequently produces spinoffs and startups, supported by one of the nation’s Top 25 accelerator programs ZeroTo510, housed at the Memphis Bioworks Foundation.
The region’s life science industry is backed by a collection of world class research assets including Baptist Health Sciences University, a large and growing bioscience research campus complemented by the Memphis Medical District. The Memphis Medical District is a 250-acre area of Downtown Memphis that boasts 9 of the region’s key life sciences institutions, including St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center, Regional One, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, Southern College of Optometry, Baptist Memorial Health Care and Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital. Within a 150-mile radius, 39 colleges and universities provide life science and healthcare-related educational opportunities.
Each fiscal year, the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) faculty and staff receive nearly $85 million in sponsored program funding, including support from the National Institutes of Health and private foundations. UTHSC is the leading State institution for research on the causes, treatment, and prevention of diseases. Collaborative relationships with healthcare partners including St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare help pave the way for innovative patient-centered research and development with a clinical and translational focus.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital’s mission to find cures for children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases through research and treatment attracts some of the world’s most renowned physicians and scientists to the hospital’s Memphis headquarters. A recent partnership with the World Health Organization has enhanced the hospital’s talent pipeline and brought a global focus on the open source research happening in the hospital.
ZeroTo510, a Memphis-based Medical Device accelerator has launch six medical device companies with products now on the market. The Memphis-based accelerator program was named one of the nation’s top accelerators for three consecutive years.
Innovation is an early-stage venture capital fund founded by Memphis BioWorks in 2017, focuses on starting and funding high-growth companies in the biosciences, technology and agtech fields.
| Industry Presence | 2018 Jobs | 2023 Jobs | 2028 Jobs | Job Growth % (2018 - 2023) | Predicted Job Growth % (2023 - 2028) | 2023 Location Quotient |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General Medical and Surgical Hospitals | 28,624 | 29,418 | 31,439 | 2.8% | 6.9% | 1.49 |
| Office of Physicians | 12,898 | 14,310 | 15,300 | 10.9% | 6.9% | 1.22 |
| Individual and Family Services | 5,514 | 6,478 | 7,224 | 17.5% | 11.5% | 0.54 |
| Nursing Care Facilities | 5,392 | 4,839 | 5,006 | -10.2% | 3.4% | 0.85 |
| Outpatient Care Centers | 3,557 | 3,789 | 4,109 | 6.5% | 8.4% | 0.88 |
| Child Day Care Services | 3,805 | 3,775 | 3,536 | -0.8% | -6.3% | 0.98 |
| Office of Other Health Practitioners | 2,432 | 3,409 | 3,978 | 40.2% | 16.7% | 0.73 |
| Home Health Care Services | 4,076 | 3,310 | 3,332 | -18.8% | 0.6% | 0.50 |
| Office of Dentists | 2,871 | 3,149 | 3,388 | 9.7% | 7.6% | 0.76 |
| Residential Intellectual and Developmental Disability, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse Facilities | 4,116 | 2,855 | 2,724 | -30.6% | -4.6% | 1.12 |
| Top 10 Industry Total | 73,285 | 75,332 | 80,035 | 2.8% | 6.2% | |
| Healthcare & Life Science Industry Total | 82,234 | 84,413 | 89,725 | 2.6% | 6.3% |
| Industry Presence | 2018 Jobs | 2023 Jobs | 2028 Jobs | Job Growth % (2018 - 2023) | Predicted Job Growth % (2023 - 2028) | 2023 Location Quotient |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Note: Above industries reflect 4-digit NAICS industries within the Memphis TN-MS-AR Metropolitan Area. Employment estimates derived from Lightcast Q4 2024 dataset QCEW Employment.
Location quotient (LQ) is a way of quantifying how concentrated a characteristic of a particular region is compared to the nation. These characteristics could be an industry’s or occupation’s share of employment, resident demographic, online profiles or job postings. The LQ is the calculation that reveals what makes that particular region “unique” in comparison to the national average. For example, if an industry in Greater Memphis accounts for 2.5% of regional jobs but only 1% of jobs nationally, then Greater Memphis has an LQ of 2.5, which means that this industry is 2.5x more concentrated in the region than the typical region.
| Occupation Description | 2018 Jobs | 2023 Jobs | 2028 Jobs | Job Growth % (2018 - 2023) | Projected Job Growth % (2023 - 2028) | 2023 Location Quotient |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Registered Nurses | 13,294 | 12,897 | 13,712 | -3.0% | 6.3% | 0.99 |
| Home Health and Personal Care Aides | 6,598 | 7,339 | 7,826 | 11.2% | 6.6% | 0.48 |
| Nursing Assistants | 5,231 | 3,860 | 4,106 | -26.2% | 6.4% | 0.69 |
| Medical Assistants | 3,321 | 3,630 | 3,960 | 9.3% | 9.1% | 1.17 |
| Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants | 2,079 | 3,207 | 3,391 | 54.2% | 5.7% | 1.05 |
| Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses | 3,713 | 2,812 | 2,917 | -24.3% | 3.7% | 1.09 |
| Medical and Health Services Managers | 1,810 | 2,086 | 2,429 | 15.3% | 16.4% | 0.99 |
| Clinical Laboratory Technologists and Technicians | 2,713 | 1,991 | 2,001 | -26.6% | 0.5% | 1.47 |
| Dental Assistants | 1,187 | 1,154 | 1,245 | -2.8% | 7.9% | 0.77 |
| Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors | 733 | 1,035 | 1,151 | 41.2% | 11.2% | 0.64 |
| Top 10 Healthcare & Life Science Occupations Total | 40,679 | 40,011 | 42,737 | -1.6% | 6.8% |
| Occupation Description | 2018 Jobs | 2023 Jobs | 2028 Jobs | Job Growth % (2018 - 2023) | Projected Job Growth % (2023 - 2028) | 2023 Location Quotient |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Note: Above industries reflect 4-digit NAICS industries within the Memphis TN-MS-AR Metropolitan Area. Employment estimates derived from Lightcast Q4 2024 dataset QCEW Employment.
Location quotient (LQ) is a way of quantifying how concentrated a characteristic of a particular region is compared to the nation. These characteristics could be an industry’s or occupation’s share of employment, resident demographic, online profiles or job postings. The LQ is the calculation that reveals what makes that particular region “unique” in comparison to the national average. For example, if an industry in Greater Memphis accounts for 2.5% of regional jobs but only 1% of jobs nationally, then Greater Memphis has an LQ of 2.5, which means that this industry is 2.5x more concentrated in the region than the typical region.
