News
MPH faculty member’s projects among TIPS 2017 recipients
Jul. 18, 2017—The 2017 recipients of Vanderbilt University’s Trans-Institutional Programs (TIPs) initiative bring together more than 140 faculty members with graduate and undergraduate students from all 10 schools and colleges, creating multifaceted teams to approach complex challenges. Three Vanderbilt MPH faculty members' projects have been awarded funding. Click here for the full list of 2017 Trans-Institutional Program...
MPH’s alumni Creech, Self, and Williams: New approach for staph-related skin abscesses explored
Jul. 14, 2017—New multicenter research that includes Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) investigators, could change treatment approaches to simple skin abscesses, infections often caused by Staphylococcus aureus (staph) bacteria. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, shows that adults and children who have simple abscesses 5 centimeters or smaller in diameter have higher cure...
MPH’s Graves: Uncovering waste in US healthcare: Evidence from ambulance referral patterns
Jul. 11, 2017—Hospitals that spend more on initial care following patient emergencies have better outcomes than hospitals that spend less at first and rely more on additional forms of long-term care, according to a new study co-authored by MIT economists. The paper, "Uncovering waste in US healthcare: Evidence from ambulance referral patterns," appears in the July issue...
MPH’s Graves explains how new health care bill effects insurance shoppers
Jun. 29, 2017—Many Tennesseans shopping for insurance could pay more money under the Senate's health care reform bill, although the underlying factors driving the costs change over the next decade. The Senate bill would allow plans to cover 58 percent of the actuarial value — or the percentage of the plan that is expected to cover of...
MPH’s Schaffer comments on why the shingles vaccine hasn’t caught on
Jun. 29, 2017—People who live to age 85 have a 50-50 chance of developing the excruciating rash known as shingles, yet the vaccine that cuts the risk remains unpopular. In 2015, only about 34 percent of adults 65 and over had ever gotten the shot, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reporting Wednesday. The...
MPH’s Jones Honored With National Pumphandle Award
Jun. 27, 2017—Tim Jones, MD, has been named the 2017 recipient of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists’ Pumphandle Award. Jones serves as Tennessee state epidemiologist and assistant commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Health Communicable and Environmental Disease and Emergency Preparedness, or CEDEP division. The CSTE Pumphandle Award, which recognizes outstanding achievement in the field...
MPH alumnus Diamond: Tennessee first state to set up safety ratings for youth sports leagues
Jun. 26, 2017—A new rating system called Safe Stars will soon allow parents to check and see if youth sports leagues in Tennessee follow state-recommended safety protocols.A collaboration between the Tennessee Department of Health and the Program for Injury Prevention in Youth Sports (PIPYS) at Vanderbilt, Safe Stars is the nation’s first statewide safety rating system for...
Nikpay: Uninsured emergency department visits down after Medicaid expansion
Jun. 20, 2017—Fewer uninsured patients are walking through the doors of Emergency Departments in states that expanded Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), even though the total number of visits has increased since 2014, according to an Annals of Emergency Medicine study released Monday. Lead author Sayeh Nikpay, Ph.D., assistant professor of Health Policy at...
MPH’s Schaffner receives UpShot Award in vaccine communication
Jun. 15, 2017—The National Vaccine Program Office (NVPO) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has selected William Schaffner, M.D., professor of Preventive Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), to receive its 2017 NVPO UpShot Award in Vaccine Communication.
Vanderbilt MPH alumna’s study shows cesarean patients are prescribed more narcotic pain medications than needed
Jun. 14, 2017—Most women who undergo a cesarean childbirth are prescribed more opioid (narcotic) pain medications than needed upon release from the hospital, a Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) study shows.The study, published online June 8 in Obstetrics and Gynecology and in print in July, studied 179 cesarean patients from VUMC over an eight-week period to examine...
NYT: MPH’s Graves comments on the individual healthcare market challenge
Jun. 12, 2017—In recent years, millions of middle- and working-class Americans have moved from job to job, some staying with one company for shorter stints or shifting careers midstream.The Affordable Care Act has enabled many of those workers to get transitional coverage that provides a bridge to the next phase of their lives — a stopgap to...
MPH’s Schaffner explains how unsafe delivery of the measles vaccine can kill
Jun. 5, 2017—In a remote village in South Sudan, 15 children died from severe toxicity caused by contaminated measles vaccines, government health investigators said Thursday. The National Adverse Events Following Immunization Committee, supported by the World Health Organization, and UNICEF vaccine safety experts examined the cases and those of 32 other children who suffered fever, vomiting and...
In NEJM, Heimburger’s looks at the benefits of NIH’s Fogarty International Center
May. 30, 2017—A new perspective in The New England Journal of Medicine on the benefits of preserving the NIH's Fogarty International Center for Americans and for the world by former Fogarty Scholar Dr. Paul K. Drain, former Fogarty Fellow Dr. Ramnath Subbaraman, and Fogarty grantee Dr. Douglas C. Heimburger.
MPH alumnus Barocas honored by Society of Urologic Oncology
May. 22, 2017—Daniel Barocas, M.D., MPH, associate professor of Urologic Surgery, recently received the Society of Urologic Oncology’s (SUO) Young Investigator Award at the group’s 2017 annual meeting in Boston. The award is “recognition by the Society of excellence in clinical practice and/or basic research that has contributed to improvement of clinical care and progress in science.”
MPH alumna Hartert: RSV-HRV viral interference
May. 22, 2017—Viral interference – the influence of one virus on infection by another virus – is important in understanding respiratory viral circulation and the impact of vaccines. Tina Hartert, M.D., MPH, visiting student Niek Achten, and colleagues, studied viral interference between respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and human rhinovirus (HRV), the most common viruses associated with acute...