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Virtual reality vision testing
Mar. 27, 2024—If there’s one thing patients with glaucoma dread, often as much as the daily eye drops they must use multiple times a day, it’s visual field testing that is both cumbersome and time consuming. Patients with glaucoma must be monitored up to three times a year by visual field tests that map out their side...
5 things that set VEI apart
Mar. 27, 2024—1.We are committed to patient-centered care ― giving our patients the best care, at the right time, in the right place, by doctors and team members encompassing all of the subspecialties of ophthalmology. 2. Our collaborative culture fosters teamwork and the pursuit of excellence in all of our mission areas ― patient care, research and...
An inclusive culture
Mar. 27, 2024—Vanderbilt Eye Institute (VEI) faculty members lead diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts to address socioeconomic disparities in eye care and support the career development of a diverse pool of talented trainees and faculty. Several faculty members volunteer at the free medical student-run Shade Tree Clinic providing free eye care to underinsured individuals. They have...
A ‘Site” for Sore Eyes
Mar. 27, 2024—Four years ago, Roger Lasater went outside to look at the stars and the moon. “They just disappeared,” he said. Lasater, 78, of Ashland City, Tennessee, was in the beginning stages of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a chronic eye disease that affects the part of the retina (macula) responsible for central vision. As the name...
Technology- based teamwork
Jul. 18, 2023—The past few decades have seen a great improvement in surgical technology and instruments, but the future holds limitless opportunities for advancements that will lead to safer, more precise surgeries with better outcomes for patients. Many of those improvements — both small and large — are being designed and tested at Vanderbilt University Medical Center,...
Positive Impact on Patients
Jul. 18, 2023—A transformative gift from the Potocsnak family has established the Potocsnak Center for Undiagnosed and Rare Disorders at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The center will allow VUMC to accelerate research and serve more patients looking for answers and cures to diseases that, in some cases, have been undiagnosed for decades. “I am incredibly grateful to...
Outreach a focus of house staff alliance
Jan. 3, 2023—A diverse group of Vanderbilt residents, fellows and medical students shared why and how they chose to become physicians with more than 200 high school students at four Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) in the spring. The outreach event, sponsored by the House Staff Diversity and Inclusion Alliance (HSDIA) and the Vanderbilt University School of...
“I do believe I can change someone’s world.”
Jan. 3, 2023—Kathleen Gallagher, MD’19, is trained to do what most people can’t imagine – triage, evaluate and care for the casualties of combat. Gallagher, a third-year general surgery resident at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and graduate of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, served as a medic in the U.S. Army National Guard when she was an...
Alumni Profile: Bronwyn Uber Harris, MD’10
May. 16, 2022— Digital Doctor When Bronwyn Uber Harris, MD, enrolled at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in 2006, she knew she wouldn’t be following a conventional path. Instead, she would use her degree for her true passion — innovating how medical care is provided, which at the time she thought was new medical devices. Harris, who...
Alumni Profile: Mary Laird Warner, MD’90
May. 16, 2022— Clinician Leader In 1993, Mary Laird Warner, MD’90, president-elect of the Vanderbilt Medical Alumni Association, moved to Denver for a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine following her internship and residency in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins. A lover of the outdoors and the mountains, the move to Colorado was one she was...
What’s wrong with me?
Oct. 18, 2021—For many years and dozens of doctor visits, Amy and her older sister have battled an undiagnosed genetic muscle disease. Since adolescence, when they overexert themselves with exercise, their muscles start to break down, leaving them with significant muscle weakness, soreness and twitching, full body fatigue, headaches and nausea. With the soreness and pain comes...
Alumni Profile: Alice Coogan, MD’88
Oct. 5, 2020—Charting her own course As a student at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in the 1980s, Alice Clark Coogan, MD, thought she’d end up in obstetrics and gynecology. Her soon-to-be husband and classmate, Phil Coogan, had chosen orthopaedic surgery. “At the time, surgery residency was every-other-night call and OB was every third, so we’d see...
Program helps children with hand, upper extremity issues
Oct. 5, 2020—Brinkley Sandvall, MD, who runs the Hand and Upper Extremity program at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, bonds quickly with her young patients — children who have acquired or congenital hand and upper extremity differences. “I feel like this is the greatest job — it’s the intersection of what I can do, what...
Inside VUSM Admissions
Mar. 12, 2020—On a cold December Monday morning, six women and seven men, all smiling and similarly dressed in black or grey suits, chat quietly around a U-shaped conference table on the third floor of Annette and Irwin Eskind Family Biomedical Library and Learning Center, home to Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (VUSM). Out of 6,000 applicants,...
Keeping Pace
Sep. 9, 2019—Nashville, once a mid-size city with a Southern small-town feel, is experiencing explosive growth. It’s bursting at the seams with unparalleled new construction, exciting new employment opportunities and a bustling food and entertainment scene. But along with Nashville’s rapid growth comes uncertainty and struggle — a need for affordable housing, better schools, mass transportation options...
Risky Ride
Sep. 9, 2019—There’s a fierce debate raging in the new Nashville – whether the influx of a growing number of electric scooters is a fun addition for tourists and residents or a dangerous trend that affects public safety. In July, after some Metro Nashville Council members called for a complete ban of electric scooters on Nashville streets,...
Baby Boom
Sep. 9, 2019—More women. More babies. With more people choosing Nashville and its surrounding communities as home, Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology has seen a rapid growth in the number of visits for women’s care and babies born at VUMC. “In 2010, we saw about 50,000 outpatient visits,” said Ronald Alvarez, MD, Betty...
Master of Genetic Counseling program debuts inaugural class
Sep. 9, 2019—In August, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine welcomed its first class of students seeking a Master of Genetic Counseling (MGC) degree, one of the fastest growing health professions in the country. Vanderbilt’s program, developed and taught by genetic counselors in collaboration with the interprofessional faculty at Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt University Medical Center, is built...
Outgrowing Childhood Diseases
Mar. 1, 2019—Before the 1950s, it was rare for a baby born with cystic fibrosis (CF) to survive to more than 5 or 6 years of age. In 1962 the median survival was about 10 years with few surviving into their teen years, according to the National Institutes of Health. During the 1980s, the average lifespan increased...
The Emotional Toll
Feb. 28, 2019—Living with a disease for a long time can affect more than just physical well-being, a Vanderbilt University Medical Center psychologist cautions. “Sometimes we see young adults in remission (from cancer) and considered long-term survivors, but they might be having issues with daily life, relationships, obtaining and maintaining gainful employment, and living independently,” said Shari...
Home away from home
Mar. 1, 2018—Eric Quintana, MD, comes from a close and large extended Hispanic family in New Mexico – his paternal great-grandparents had 17 children; and he has three siblings and 30 first cousins. Quintana is the only member of his family to become a doctor, or to graduate from college. In June 2017, when he became a...
Study explores nicotine patch to treat mild cognitive impairment
Feb. 28, 2018—Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) is one of 29 sites participating in a national study to determine whether a daily transdermal nicotine patch will have a positive effect on attention and early memory impairment in older adults diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). Paul Newhouse, MD, director of the Center for Cognitive Medicine at VUMC,...
Healing Minds
Sep. 22, 2017— Schizophrenia not only affects the person struggling with hallucinations, delusions and disorganized thoughts. It wreaks havoc through the entire family. Charlotte Test, of Dallas, Texas, knows that all too well. Test and her late husband Donald Test Jr., who died in 2016, have a very personal connection to the devastating effects of schizophrenia. Donald...
Childhood Illness Inspires Sisters’ Pursuit of Medicine
Sep. 22, 2017— Identical twins Shelby and Sydney Payne, VUSM 2019 and 2020, respectively, use the word “adventure” and its derivatives a lot in conversation. It’s fitting because their lives have been full of it. The twins grew up with “adventurous and entrepreneurial” parents and moved quite often. They were born near Fort Lauderdale, Florida, moved to...
House Calls to the Homeless
Aug. 19, 2016—Vanderbilt Street Psychiatry Program provides hands-on approach to mental health
In Search of Answers
Feb. 22, 2016—It’s human nature to need answers. We don’t like uncertainty. That includes getting answers about your health. You go to your health care provider; you want to leave with a diagnosis. But not all health care encounters work out that way. For about 25-30 million Americans, a diagnosis never comes, because the disease is rarely...
The IOM committee’s findings regarding CFS:
Aug. 21, 2015—• There is indeed a disease; • Three features are present in virtually every patient with CFS: 1. Profound fatigue (devastating and ongoing) not alleviated by rest. “We’re not talking ‘it’s 3 a.m. and I’m feeling tired kind of fatigue.’ This is devastating knocked out fatigue,” said Ellen Wright Clayton, M.D., J.D. 2. Post-exertional malaise...
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Aug. 19, 2015—Dee Rogers has a busy and stressful job at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. So it would be normal to be tired at the end of the work day. But in 2014 she began to notice that she didn’t feel rejuvenated even after a good night’s sleep or weekend’s rest. On Saturday, she’d get up, eat...
Called to Serve
Feb. 10, 2015—Within days of arriving in Liberia in September 2014, Boris Pavlin, M.D., ‘03, cared for three patients with Ebola—a mother, father and young son. It was his first face-to-face contact with the rare and deadly infectious disease that was raging through West Africa. Pavlin, an epidemiologist with the World Health Organization, was stationed in Sinoe...
A nation takes notice
Feb. 10, 2015—Ebola virus disease, previously known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, is caused by infection with four of the five Ebola virus strains, and can cause disease in humans and nonhuman primates (monkeys, gorillas, and chimpanzees). Ebola was first discovered in 1976 near the Ebola River in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Since...
The Long Road Back
Feb. 10, 2015—In early September 2014, Ian Crozier, M.D.,’97, supervised the jet evacuation of a critically ill patient from Kenema, the epicenter of the raging Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone. An exhausted Crozier told the medical team that he hoped he didn’t have to see them again. One week later, he did. This time he was the...
What is a food allergy?
Sep. 4, 2014—An allergic reaction to a food is a two-step process. The first time you’re exposed to a food allergen, your immune system makes specific immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies to that allergen. The IgE antibodies circulate through your blood and attach to immune cells called mast cells and basophils. Mast cells are found in all body...
Off Limits
Aug. 26, 2014—According to Food Allergy Research and Education, about 1.5 million Americans have food allergies. They affect 1 in every 13 children under 18 in the U. S.—or about two in every classroom. Those who have them must approach food with a great deal of caution.