News
Schaffer comments on approved COVID-19 vaccine as distribution begins
Dec. 14, 2020—The mRNA vaccine platform is novel in regulated use, but has been under investigation for nearly 2 decades. As William Schaffner, MD, professor of Prevention Medicine at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center told Contagion, the expedited progression of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines including BNT162b2 and Moderna’s mRNA-1273 are preceded by 10-15 years’ worth of clinical assessment. As...
Creech comments on potential COVID-19 vaccine side effects
Dec. 7, 2020—Covid-19 vaccine side-effects that range from fevers and chills to headaches and joint pain could keep some doctors and nurses from working amid a nationwide surge in hospitalizations. Health systems are gearing up to vaccinate key hospital staff with the Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc. coronavirus shots, which could start shipping in the U.S. in a matter of weeks, pending emergency-use...
Prisons should be COVID-19 vaccine priority says Schaffner
Dec. 7, 2020—After a federal advisory committee recommended this week that health care workers, nursing home residents and staff be the first to receive COVID-19 vaccines, discussions turned to who should be next in line, as initial supplies remain limited. Prisoners should be high on the list, according to the American Medical Association, the nation’s largest physician group, which this month called...
NYT talks to Diamond about New Sports Guidelines for Young Athletes After Covid-19
Dec. 7, 2020—The American Academy of Pediatrics posted updated guidance Friday on young people and sports in the pandemic, making a strong recommendation that participants should wear face masks for all indoor sports. It made exceptions only while swimming and diving, since it’s harder to breathe through wet masks; during gymnastics and cheerleading, where masks could get caught...
Pungarcher comments on efforts to help homeless out of cold during COVID-19
Dec. 7, 2020—As below-freezing temperatures swept into Middle Tennessee this week, cold weather canvassers with the group Open Table Nashville prepared for a winter unlike any other. Every year, the non-profit patrols Metro to help shuttle people experiencing homelessness to the Metro cold shelter. It’s an effort to get people off of the streets during dangerously cold...
MPH Duggan and Welch work to make health systems age-friendly
Dec. 7, 2020—Older adults face the greatest risk of preventable harms resulting from their healthcare experience. Age-Friendly Health Systems, an initiative of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and The John A. Hartford Foundation, aims to ensure that all older adults receive high-quality, evidence-based care to minimize preventable harm. “For older adults, who make up a third of hospitalized...
Buntin led JAMA Health Forum to become full-fledged journal in 2021
Dec. 7, 2020—Just a year after its founding as an online channel of information, the Journal of the American Medical Association’s (JAMA’s) Health Forum will become a full-fledged journal in January 2021. Melinda Buntin, PhD, Mike Curb professor of Health Policy and chair of the Department of Health Policy at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, is deputy editor of the journal. JAMA...
Health Policy Panel discusses current landscape
Dec. 7, 2020—The difficulty of policymaking with a divided government and electorate was the underlying theme of the Research into Policy and Practice webinar sponsored by the Department of Health Policy at Vanderbilt University Medical Center as panelists and attendees gathered virtually to take measure of the post-election American landscape, over which hangs the pall of a...
Schaffner praises CDC quarantine revisions
Dec. 3, 2020—The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has shortened the recommended length of quarantine after exposure to someone positive for COVID-19. Vanderbilt’s Dr. William Schaffner, a global expert on infectious diseases, praised the CDC’s new guidelines. “A lot of us have been hoping we get a good revision of quarantine,” he said.
Creech leads COVID-19 vaccine trial as company seeks emergency approval
Dec. 3, 2020—Moderna Inc. is seeking emergency approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to distribute its COVID-19 vaccine. A group of Tennesseans has already taken that specific vaccine as part of a clinical trial. “We’re in uncharted territory in terms of the timelines because we are trying to find that Goldilocks place of not too...
The CDC is creating an equitable COVID vaccine distribution plan says Schaffner
Dec. 2, 2020—The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is meeting on Covid-19 vaccine distribution. CNBC’s “Power Lunch” team discusses how it will be decided who gets vaccines first with CNBC’s Meg Tirrell and Dr. William Schaffner, a CDC adviser and professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Talbot casts vote on COVID vaccine distribution plan
Dec. 2, 2020—Health care workers and nursing home residents should be at the front of the line when the first coronavirus vaccine shots become available, an influential government advisory panel said Tuesday. About 3 million people are living in nursing homes, long-term chronic care hospitals, and other U.S. long-term care facilities. Those patients and the staff members...
Chicago trauma center is closing the racial gap says Rogers
Nov. 26, 2020—The University of Chicago’s Level 1 adult trauma center — the first on the city’s South Side in 30 years — is making a dent in racial disparities, according to a new study. A study released Wednesday by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) shows reduced ambulance run times across the city, but...
Patrick finds that younger parents less likely to vaccinate against COVID-19
Nov. 23, 2020—Younger parents were much less likely than older parents to say they planned to vaccinate their children and themselves against COVID-19, according to a research letter published online in medRxiv by authors at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine....
Apple looks at the importance of wellness throughout medical training
Nov. 18, 2020—Rachel Apple, M.D., M.P.H., served as a chair and president of the Wellness Committee in medical school, started “PGY-Mom” at VUMC to support the unique needs of resident physician moms and founded Vanderbilt Physician Parent Group “Wellness has been important to me throughout my medical training. Although I have always aspired to find the right...