News
Medicare Part D plans need to be reformed, says Dusetzina
May. 18, 2022—A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine highlights how some older Americans diagnosed with cancer can face unlimited out-of-pocket spending for prescription drugs under the current structure of the Medicare Part D benefit. The analysis, authored by Stacie Dusetzina, PhD, Ingram associate professor of Cancer Research and associate professor of Health Policy, illustrates how...
Horst named Medical Director for Telehealth at VUMC
May. 17, 2022—During the COVID-19 pandemic, outpatient telehealth appointments at Vanderbilt University Medical Center reached a peak of 2,700 in one day as clinicians worked to ensure patients received uninterrupted care as the public health crisis continued. In response to the pandemic, Tennessee legislators passed a law in August 2020 requiring health insurers to cover telehealth the...
Rosenbloom discusses adolescent confidentiality policies for health care services
May. 16, 2022—When it comes to health care for adolescents, patient autonomy and parental responsibility are at times forced into opposition, and when adolescent patients in the U.S. seek care for sensitive issues — sexually transmitted infections, mental health problems, drug use, contraception, etc. — the health care team’s ability to render treatment without involving a parent...
Moderna COVID-19 vaccines prove safe for young children, says Creech
May. 16, 2022—Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine is safe and generates robust immune responses in children ages 6 to 11 years, a national clinical trial co-led by Vanderbilt University Medical Center vaccine expert C. Buddy Creech, MD, MPH, has found. The two-dose vaccine (given approximately one month apart) led to antibody responses in more than 99% of the 4,000 children...
Antoon receives career development award to investigate neurological and psychiatric side effects of flu treatment
Mar. 8, 2022—For more than a decade, a rare side effect reported by patients with influenza has puzzled clinicians and researchers. In some cases, patients with flu have experienced neuropsychiatric symptoms, such as behavior changes, hallucinations and even attempted suicide. The question: Are these neurologic or psychiatric complications due to the infection or are they related to...
Halasa honored with Craig-Weaver Chair in Pediatrics
Mar. 3, 2022—Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier and Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs C. Cybele Raver honored faculty from across the university at an endowed chair investiture ceremony on campus Feb. 24, conferring the university’s highest scholastic rank on those who had received the designation during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. “As a milestone...
McNaughton analyzes digital health interventions and their associations with patient engagement and clinical outcomes
Feb. 25, 2022—Digital health interventions — delivered via technologies including text messages, apps and websites — are increasingly common for supporting chronic disease self-care. Although studies have focused on improving patient engagement with these interventions, limited research has addressed the association between engagement and clinical outcomes. Lyndsay Nelson, PhD, Andrew Spieker, PhD, and colleagues evaluated multiple statistical approaches...
Halasa elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation
Feb. 25, 2022—Three faculty members of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine have been elected this year to membership in the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), an elite honor society of physician-scientists from the upper ranks of academic medicine and industry. They are: Natasha Halasa, MD, MPH, Craig Weaver Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric...
Imdad discusses probiotics and their effects on children’s growth
Feb. 22, 2022—The use of probiotics during a child’s key growth period of between birth and 59 months has little effect on the promotion of growth in apparently healthy children from high income countries (HIC), such as the United States, according to researchers at Upstate Medical University. However, probiotics taken by apparently healthy children between the ages...
Ahonkhai leads team in developing problem-solving therapy game for children with HIV
Feb. 15, 2022—Aima Ahonkhai has heard the story many times: young people with HIV, feeling at a dead end. As an infectious disease clinician who works with many young people living with HIV in both the US and Nigeria, Ahonkhai, MD, MPH, has seen the toll the disease takes on young people’s mental health—often to the detriment...
Gibas discusses direct-care workers and staff shortages in assisted living facilities
Feb. 4, 2022— As the U.S. population continues to age, the demand for direct-care workers who provide care, services and support to the elderly and the disabled is expected to rise dramatically. A recent survey by the National Center for Assisted Living found 99% of nursing homes and 96% of assisted living facilities are experiencing staffing shortages. An additional...
Were designs smartphone app to support health care in low and middle income countries
Feb. 3, 2022—To assist health care in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), Martin Were, MD, MS, associate professor of Biomedical Informatics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and a member of the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health, devised a smartphone application called mUzima. Uzima is Swahili for life and mUzima’s slogan is “mobile for life.” Running on Google’s Android smartphone operating system, the open-source...
Williams leads Flu Vaccine Project to assist underserved populations in Middle Tennessee
Feb. 1, 2022—Before the current rise in flu cases in Middle Tennessee, a group of doctors and nurses at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt set out in the fall to protect children from flu before it ever arrived. The team, led by pediatrician Elizabeth Williams, MD, MPH, dubbed its project “The Mobile Flu Fighter!” The...
Williams elected to American Pediatric Society
Jan. 18, 2022—Three pediatric faculty members, Kevin Ess, MD, PhD, Zachary Warren, PhD, and Derek Williams, MD, MPH, have been elected to the American Pediatric Society (APS), one of the nation’s oldest and most renowned academic societies. The APS, founded in 1888, was the first North American honorary society for academic pediatricians. Members are recognized for leadership,...
Talbot and VUMC team awarded by CDC to continue Bacterial Resistance Project in International Hospitals
Jan. 17, 2022—Vanderbilt University Medical Center has partnered with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to combat the crisis of antimicrobial resistance and other healthcare threats through a newly created Global Action in Healthcare Network (GAIHN). GAIHN is one of two global networks funded by $22 million in CDC grants that pairs nearly 30 organizations...