News
Four MPH faculty awarded grants through VU’s Trans-Institutional Programs initiative
May. 24, 2018—Among the seven interdisciplinary projects awarded grants through Vanderbilt University’s transformational Trans-Institutional Programs initiative in 2018, two are from Vanderbilt MPH Program faculty members and graduates. The grants are meant to seed and expand research and teaching collaborations across disciplines. The awards also support projects and groups that collectively aim to answer big questions and address grand challenges. Vanderbilt...
U.S. Surgeon General Adams addresses the opioid crisis
May. 24, 2018—U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams, M.D., M.P.H., recently visited Vanderbilt University to speak at the spring Health Policy Grand Rounds.
Diamond partners with TN Dept. of Health to launch first youth sports safety rating system in US
May. 24, 2018—MPH alumnus Alex Diamond, D.O., M.P.H., professor of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation and Pediatrics and director of the Program for Injury Prevention in Youth Sports (PIPYS) at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, collaborated with the Tennessee Department of Health to launch a new rating system that allows parents to check if youth sports leagues in Tennessee...
Williams’ study finds sharp rise in suicide risk for children
May. 21, 2018—The number of school-age children and adolescents hospitalized for suicidal thoughts or attempts has more than doubled since 2008, according to a new Vanderbilt-led study published in Pediatrics. MPH graduate Derek Williams, M.D.,M.P.H., assistant professor of Pediatrics, is among the authors on the study.
MPH faculty find early discharge of NAS infants prolongs treatment
May. 21, 2018—Infants who are diagnosed with drug withdrawal after birth who are treated with medication as outpatients at home are treated three times longer than infants treated solely as inpatients, according to a new Vanderbilt study. The findings were published in The Journal of Pediatrics with senior author Stephen Patrick, M.D., M.P.H., director of the Vanderbilt Center for Child...
McKernan uses novel approach in treatment of interstitial cystitis
May. 21, 2018—MPH student Lindsey McKernan, Ph.D., assistant professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, uses novel four-pronged approach — medical management, stress management, nutrition and physical therapy — in treatment of interstitial cystitis (IC).
NYT: MPH’s Patrick and the Children of the Opioid Epidemic
May. 11, 2018—In the midst of a national crisis, mothers addicted to drugs struggle to get off them — for their babies’ sake, and their own. The standard of care for a pregnant women addicted to opioids is medication-assisted treatment: a long-acting opioid substitute — traditionally methadone — that binds to the body’s opioid receptors to prevent...
MPH alumni Harris and Talbot: Records point to drug-drug interaction
May. 11, 2018—Daptomycin is an antibiotic used to treat serious bacterial infections. Statins are drugs prescribed on a long-term basis to prevent or reduce cardiovascular disease by lowering LDL-cholesterol. In a retrospective study, researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center found that VUMC patients who continued taking a statin while taking daptomycin had 2.6 times greater risk of...
MPH’s Gillaspie: New robot expands options for thoracic surgery patients
Apr. 26, 2018—The thoracic surgery team at Vanderbilt University Medical Center recently added a new tool to its collection of minimally invasive techniques to provide patients the most advanced robotic-assisted surgical procedures. “The new robot is an expansion of our minimally invasive surgery program,” said Erin Gillaspie, MD, assistant professor of Thoracic Surgery at Vanderbilt and director...
MPH alumnus Diamond’s Safe Stars youth sports kickoff set for May 2
Apr. 26, 2018—Representatives from Vanderbilt Sports Medicine and Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt will take part in the kickoff event for Safe Stars, a new rating system that allows parents to check if youth sports leagues in Tennessee follow state-recommended safety protocols. Safe Stars is the nation’s first statewide rating system for all types of...
Public Health at Vanderbilt: Speakers discuss use of evidence in state health policymaking
Apr. 20, 2018—“State Health Policy: Does Evidence Really Make a Difference” was the title of the spring Research into Policy and Practice Lecture, April 11 in Light Hall. The semi-annual lecture is sponsored by the Department of Health Policy. Speakers included Christopher Koller, president of the Millbank Memorial Fund and former health insurance commissioner for the state...
MPH’s Schaffner: New CDC recommended shingles vaccine schedule
Apr. 17, 2018—Federal officials have recommended a new vaccine that is more effective than an earlier version at protecting older adults against the painful rash called shingles. But persuading many adults to get this and other recommended vaccines continues to be an uphill battle, physicians and vaccine experts say. Vaccine coverage under the Medicare program for people...
MPH’s Schaffner comments on the influenza B strains causing a second wave of flu
Apr. 12, 2018—The Centers for Disease Control's (CDC) weekly influenza report for the week ending Mar. 24 showed an overall decrease in cases of the flu around the U.S. Good news, but it comes with a catch: Though the number of folks with flu is decreasing in general, reports of influenza B viruses have overtaken reports of...
MPH’s Graves: ACA marketplaces functioning in their role as public safety nets
Apr. 12, 2018—The Trump administration released a report on Tuesday saying that 11.8 million Americans enrolled in health coverage for 2018 through the law’s insurance marketplaces, down just a tick from the 12.2 million sign-ups in 2017. “At this point, the marketplaces are really functioning more broadly in their role as an extension of the public safety...
MPH alumna’s study reveals safety signal from genes that mimic drugs
Apr. 12, 2018—Prospective mothers taking a new class of cholesterol-lowering drugs might incur higher risk of spina bifida in their future children, according to a study published in the journal Drug Safety by researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The first two drugs in the new class, alirocumab and evolocumab, were approved by the Food and Drug...