News
Guillamondegui receives the Carol Ann Gavin directorship in trauma and surgical critical care
Dec. 22, 2021—Ten leaders from across the enterprise in clinical care, research, education and administration have been named as holders of endowed directorships. “Endowed directorships are an investment in high-quality leadership, allowing us to honor individuals from across our organization who are making significant contributions to the Medical Center and advancing their fields of expertise,” said Jeff...
Creech discusses Moderna pediatric trials and child immunity to Covid
Dec. 21, 2021—When I showed my 3 year old my Covid booster-shot bandage a couple of weeks ago, he asked me, “Why is it on your arm?” He’s used to getting vaccinations in the thigh and then plied with treats afterward. When it comes to getting a Covid shot to defend against the prospect of an Omicron...
Talbot and Creech offer ways to stay safe from Covid during the holidays
Dec. 20, 2021—Just as the winter holiday season is arriving, so is the new COVID-19 variant omicron, leaving many uncertain about the safest way to gather with family and friends during the ongoing pandemic. Last year’s festivities were largely either virtual or canceled altogether, but this year declining COVID-19 cases, rising vaccination rates and the rollout of...
Schaffner discusses Omicron COVID vaccines and their effectiveness
Dec. 6, 2021—Lab studies show that the mutations found in COVID-19’s Delta variant make the virus more resistant to existing vaccines, a potentially ominous development as the new Omicron variant starts to wend its way around the world. Full vaccination with the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccines still produces enough antibodies to neutralize Delta, British researchers found. But...
Staub and Katz discuss expanding outpatient services for antibiotics in Vanderbilt’s hospitals
Nov. 29, 2021—Members of the Vanderbilt Antimicrobial Stewardship Program (VASP) have a motto: The right drug for the right bug at the right time for the right duration. Milner Staub, MD, MPH, and Sophie Katz, MD, MPH, are taking the motto, traditionally used in the inpatient setting, and the program a step further to optimize the appropriate...
COVID vaccines more likely to prevent death, says Self
Nov. 29, 2021—Even if they get a breakthrough infection, vaccinated people don’t get as sick with Covid-19, two different teams of researchers reported Thursday. Both studies show the vaccines strongly protect against severe disease and death, even months after people were first vaccinated and as the more transmissible Delta variant renewed the spread of the virus. One...
Luu helps endow new scholarship for aspiring Master’s of Public Health students
Nov. 8, 2021—Whether they are practicing health care, starting a new venture or making philanthropic decisions, Alexandria Luu, MPH’20, and Cherry Chen, MD, are driven by values. “Giving others opportunity and supporting what is important to us is really at the heart of it all,” said Luu. In February 2021, the couple endowed the Luu Chen Scholarship...
Talbot supports Pfizer’s new COVID vaccine for children aged 5-11
Nov. 8, 2021—U.S. health officials on Tuesday gave the final signoff to Pfizer’s kid-size COVID-19 shot, a milestone that opens a major expansion of the nation’s vaccination campaign to children as young as 5. The Food and Drug Administration already authorized the shots for children ages 5 to 11 — doses just a third of the amount...
Reid receives NRG Oncology early-stage investigator award
Nov. 2, 2021—Sonya Reid, MD, MPH, assistant professor of Medicine, is a recipient of an NRG Oncology Underserved Minority Scholars Award. Reid is one of three inaugural recipients of the award, which was established by NRG Oncology this year to address cancer equity by intensively training early-stage investigators about clinical trials through the National Cancer Institute Community...
Dusetzina analyzes problems with drug costs
Oct. 29, 2021—For patients with certain cancers, out-of-pocket spending can exceed $15,000 a year. Legislation could take aim at prices and the amounts Medicare patients are charged. Many Democrats in Congress ran on a promise to lower prescription drug prices, and their big social policy bill may offer their best chance to do it. As they struggle...
Issacs discusses growing prevalence of functional tics and the impacts of TikTok
Oct. 29, 2021—An international phenomenon of involuntary movements and vocalizations in adolescent girls, similar to the tics seen in Tourette syndrome, is now believed to be a functional movement disorder. The causes of this epidemic are unclear, but TikTok and other social medial platforms may be important contributors. Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt typically sees...
Dusetzina discusses pharmaceutical companies and prescription drug marketing
Oct. 25, 2021—Congress’s ambitious plans to expand health coverage are crashing up against one of the great questions in health policy: Can they force the pharmaceutical industry to hold down prescription drug prices without sacrificing the medical innovation that could lead to new treatments and cures in the future? Two things help determine how much a pharmaceutical company makes from a...
Indigenous communities deserve consent too, says Tsosie
Oct. 22, 2021—In 2017, a team of scientists successfully extracted the DNA of members of a Pueblo community who were buried starting around 1,300 years ago in what is now Chaco Canyon in New Mexico. The DNA suggested that these people had lived in a matrilineal society, with power passed down through generations of mothers. The paper was a...
Halasa questions the relationship between COVID and Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C)
Oct. 22, 2021—Like most other kids with covid, Dante and Michael DeMaino seemed to have no serious symptoms. Infected in mid-February, both lost their senses of taste and smell. Dante, 9, had a low-grade fever for a day or so. Michael, 13, had a “tickle in his throat,” said their mother, Michele DeMaino, of Danvers, Massachusetts. Hospital staffers...
Schaffner shares future hopes for COVID vaccines and elderly populations
Oct. 22, 2021—Fatal breakthrough Covid-19 infections among people who have been fully vaccinated, like former Secretary of State Colin Powell, are rare. But experts say such deaths show the need for society as a whole to protect its most vulnerable: those of advanced age and those with compromised immune systems. Powell, who died Monday of Covid complications, met both...