Louisville is a nationally recognized metropolitan medical hub, with five nationally recognized hospitals, including a major University-based research and teaching hospital, and thirteen hospitals in total in the Louisville area. Louisville is the site of the first medical institution west of the Allegheny Mountains, and birthplace of the Western Journal of Medicine.

Louisville's hospitals have national reputations in critical fields, including leading-edge hand surgery (producing the first three successful hand transplants in the United States), a nationally recognized heart hospital, a top spinal-cord injury research program and a well-recognized organ transplant center.

Known best worldwide for the Kentucky Derby, Louisville is about much more than horses. Louisville’s quality of life is enhanced by good schools, a vibrant cultural life, a lively and varied arts scene, great restaurants, more parklands per capita than any other U.S. city, excellent health care and unique museums including the Louisville Slugger Museum, the Frazier Historical Arms Museum, the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft and the J.B. Speed Museum of art.