News
MPH’s Nikpay looks to the past to suggest how future Medicaid reforms may work
Feb. 2, 2017—The United States’ early experience with federally financed health care during the 1950s and early ‘60s can provide insight into the possible outcome of proposed Medicaid reforms, write Andrew Goodman-Bacon, assistant professor of economics at Vanderbilt University, and Sayeh Nikpay, assistant professor of health policy at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
NYT: Guidelines part of failed response to Zika says Schaffner
Jan. 18, 2017—Almost a year ago, the World Health Organization declared the Zika epidemic a global health emergency, calling for an epic campaign against a virus that few had ever heard of. As it spread to almost every country in the Western Hemisphere, scientists and health officials at every level of government swung into action, trying to...
MPH alumnus to head University of Chicago Medicine’s adult trauma center amid gun violence crisis
Jan. 13, 2017—Dr. Selwyn O. Rogers Jr., a top surgeon and public health expert with 16 years of trauma care experience, will lead the University of Chicago Medicine's development of the South Side's only Level 1 adult trauma center, scheduled to open in 2018. As chief of the Section for Trauma & Acute Care Surgery and founding...
MPH’s Schaffner offers advice for flying with a cold
Jan. 6, 2017—The sniffles, the sneezing, the cough you try to muffle, the dirty looks from fellow passengers: The last think you want to do is board a plane with a cold. If you can't postpone your trip and your symptoms are under control, know that flying with a cold can hurt. "If you have allergies or...
MPH’s Graves: ACA insurance expansion tied to faster emergency care
Jan. 3, 2017—Some low-income U.S. patients may have an easier time choosing a hospital for emergency care thanks to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), a new study suggests. The study only looked at for-profit hospitals. Previous research suggests that poor and uninsured patients sometimes travel longer distances in an emergency to avoid for-profit hospitals...
MPH’s Gonzales awarded RWJF grant to study health and economic effects of LGBT-related laws
Dec. 20, 2016—Gilbert Gonzales, Ph.D., is co-investigator on a research team funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to study the health impacts of recent laws and public policies affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, as well as on local economic and business outcomes.
MPH’s Shrubsole and Smalley link lifestyle factors to formation of high-risk polyps
Dec. 12, 2016—Lifestyle factors like cigarette smoking and red meat consumption are known to be associated with an increased risk of colon polyps that can lead to colorectal cancer. Polyps are small growths on the lining of the colon, and while some polyps are harmless others can progress to cancer. Martha Shrubsole, Ph.D., research associate professor of...
MPH’s Creech: Mumps outbreak trigger and how to protect yourself
Dec. 12, 2016—Mumps is spreading across the nation at a rate not seen in a decade. Vanderbilt University Medical Center Vaccine Research Program Associate Director Dr. Buddy Creech explains what triggered the outbreak and how to protect yourself from the infectious disease.
MPH alums Williams and Creech test shorter antibiotic course in children
Dec. 7, 2016—Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) are leading a multicenter clinical trial to evaluate whether a shorter course of antibiotics — five days instead of 10 — is effective at treating community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in children who show improvement after the first few days of taking antibiotics. Buddy Creech, M.D., MPH, associate professor of...
MPH faculty member, Yu Shyr, elected as AAAS fellow
Nov. 28, 2016—Nine Vanderbilt University faculty members have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science this year. Yu Shyr, Ph.D., Harold L. Moses Professor of Cancer Research, and professor of biostatistics, biomedical informatics, cancer biology and health policy, for distinguished contributions in integrative methods development for biostatistics and bioinformatics and high impact applications of...
MPH’s Schaffner: Universities on alert as mumps cases surge in US
Nov. 22, 2016—Mumps outbreaks across the U.S. have sickened nearly 3,000 people, close to three times as many as in 2015, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At the University of Missouri, for example, a current outbreak has so far led to 31 confirmed cases of the disease and 27 other suspected cases....
MPH’s Gonzales weighs in on domestic partner health care options
Nov. 14, 2016—Unmarried couples looking for domestic partner health care benefits may encounter some unwelcome changes this open-enrollment season. After the June 2015 landmark Supreme Court decision that declared bans against same-sex marriage unconstitutional, many Fortune 500 companies started to rethink their health care coverage for unmarried partners. Now that same-sex partners can get married, the thinking...
Vanderbilt MPH Program celebrates 20th anniversary
Nov. 10, 2016—The Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Master of Public Health (MPH) Program marked its 20th anniversary during Reunion Weekend in October 2016.
In MMWR, MPH graduate reports on the first confirmed cases of Rift Valley Fever in Uganda since 1968
Nov. 3, 2016—Vanderbilt MPH Program graduate Annabelle de St. Maurice, M.D., M.P.H., reports on the first confirmed cases of Rift Valley fever in Uganda since 1968 in the November 4, 2016 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). De St. Maurice is an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
MPH’s Moon awarded NIH grant to strengthen research capacity in Ebola-affected countries
Oct. 27, 2016—Troy Moon, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases and VIGH, has been awarded a research training grant from the NIH to evaluate and build a research capacity program in implementation science and clinical trial management to address Ebola, Lassa fever and other viral hemorrhagic fevers in Sierra Leone. This...