News
Leech finds combination drug treatment of mifepristone and misoprostol most effective for miscarriage management
Sep. 5, 2023—Since November 2018, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has recommended a combination of two drugs for pregnant women who have a miscarriage before 13 weeks of gestation. According to a Vanderbilt University Medical Center study published in JAMA, only 1% of 22,116 commercially insured women ages 15-49 with medically managed miscarriages received the recommended...
Schaffner recommends COVID booster shot for adults over 65 to target the XBB.1.5 strain
Aug. 30, 2023—While the FDA and CDC have yet to weigh in on fall COVID boosters opens in a new tab or window, experts in infectious disease and public health are already discussing who should get them, and who may not need to. High-risk groups get a resounding “yes” — but when it comes to younger, healthy adults, the...
Creech supports ongoing vaccinations for Covid-19, RSV, and the flu in preparation for upcoming winter season
Aug. 24, 2023—Last year’s respiratory virus season in the US was a bad one. After two years of extraordinarily light flu seasons, which infectious disease experts attributed to Covid-19 pandemic precautions like social distancing and masking, influenza came roaring back, hitting early and hard. Then respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, which had been showing up at odd...
Godfrey investigates racial and ethnic disparities in kidney transplantation processes
Aug. 23, 2023—The National Academy of Sciences, concerned about equity in the transplantation process, has called for transplant programs in the United States to investigate and make every effort to address disparities by 2027. At Vanderbilt University Medical Center, researchers began the work by examining five years of retrospective kidney transplantation data – about 11,000 referrals to the Vanderbilt...
Halasa finds most infants receiving ICU-level care for RSV had no underlying medical condition
Aug. 21, 2023—Most infants admitted to the intensive care or high acuity unit for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections during fall 2022 were previously healthy and born at term, according to a new study reported in JAMA Network Open. The findings from this study support the use of preventative interventions in all infants to protect them from RSV,...
Grogan and Barocas named as leaders for Vanderbilt-Ingram research programs
Aug. 18, 2023—Seven new leaders have been appointed to guide Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center’s research programs. “The researchers who have been appointed to lead these programs are committed to continuing the record of excellence established by their predecessors,” said Ben Ho Park, MD, PhD, Benjamin F. Byrd Jr. Professor of Oncology and director of Vanderbilt-Ingram. “These programs are...
Young supports new lactation consultation services through TennCare for breastfeeding mothers
Aug. 17, 2023—For mom Angela Slaven, breastfeeding didn’t come easy. “I wanted to breastfeed really bad and when I had him I wasn’t able to,” she said. After struggling with her first child, she decided to use the help of a lactation consultant for her second. “And I just had a lot more support there in the...
VUMC receives $51 million in NIH grants to improve efficiency of conducting clinical trials across the U.S., says Self
Aug. 16, 2023—Researchers in the Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (VICTR) have been awarded two five-year federal grants totaling $51 million to harness new and existing approaches for boosting recruitment and removing roadblocks to the efficiency of conducting clinical trials throughout the country. The grants, from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, part of...
Effective medications for opioid use disorder rarely used, says Leech
Aug. 15, 2023—Most individuals diagnosed with opioid use disorder are not on recommended medications and even fewer remain in care, according to a research letter published today in JAMA Internal Medicine by lead author Ashley Leech, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC). In 2021, there were more than 100,000 overdose...
EG.5 Omicron variant Covid-19 strain now dominates U.S. infections, says Schaffner
Aug. 14, 2023—A new variant now makes up a plurality of COVID-19 cases in the United States, federal data shows. EG.5, an offshoot of the omicron variant and descendant of the XBB strain, has been circulating in the country since at least April. However, as of Aug. 5, it accounts for 17.3% of COVID infections, according to...
Poehling discusses concerns over new RSV vaccine costs
Aug. 11, 2023—It’s still summer, but doctors are already thinking about this coming RSV season. That virus is the leading cause of hospitalization in babies. But there is good news. The FDA approved a new drug for preventing RSV. And just yesterday, the CDC OK’d giving this new therapeutic to babies in their first RSV seasons. But...
VUMC receives $28 million to lead national study on COVID-diabetes link; Rothman to serve as principal investigator
Aug. 10, 2023—Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have received a four-year, $28 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, to study the relationship between COVID-19 and diabetes. Several studies have found that infection with SARS-CoV-2 and a COVID-19 diagnosis are associated with a...
Several logistics need sorting before CDC-endorsed RSV vaccine for infants can be safely distributed, says Talbot
Aug. 9, 2023—The Centers for Disease Control on Thursday adopted an expert panel’s recommendation to administer an antibody shot to protect infants against respiratory syncytial virus. Why it matters: The $495 shot becomes the first in the U.S. to protect all infants from RSV, the most common cause of hospitalization of children under the age of 1 in the U.S. Details: The...
Antoon investigates how often children diagnosed with flu experience serious neuropsychiatric side effects
Jul. 31, 2023—While the incidence of influenza-associated neuropsychiatric events in children in the United States is unknown, the controversy over the use of a common antiviral medication typically administered to treat flu in children has sparked concern among parents and medical professionals alike. The dilemma about whether the treatment causes neuropsychiatric events or if the infection itself...
Self to pursue director of clinical and translational research position at VUMC and continue Vanderbilt’s drug repurposing program
Jul. 28, 2023—The odds of bringing a new, safe and effective drug to market are very low. Even for drug candidates that make it to human testing in clinical trials, 90% ultimately fail, often because they cause unexpected and serious side effects. The gauntlet of testing has thwarted so many promising therapies that it has been dubbed...