Author
Collaborative Care
Mar. 27, 2024—Mathias Uribe, a previously healthy 15-year-old who enjoyed cross-country and playing the piano, was hospitalized for a very rare sequence of health issues in June 2023. What started as flu-like symptoms progressed to bacterial pneumonia with an invasive streptococcal infection and septic shock and resulted in a 143-day stay in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit...
Young heart patient, care team bond through music
Feb. 28, 2019—Sydney Andrade-Rubio usually brings her ukulele during hospital stays and clinic visits at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. The 15-year-old likes to pass the time strumming the four-string instrument, humming tunes and sometimes playing along with her cardiologist, Frank Fish, MD. Music has been the bridge Fish used to help him connect with...
Family’s transplant journey a study in overcoming barriers
Sep. 13, 2018— There are no words for liver transplantation in Somalian refugee Aniso Haji’s native language. As a translator meticulously selected words to describe the medical procedure that would ultimately save the life of Haji’s youngest daughter, Fatuma Abdikadir, members of the pediatric liver transplant team at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital waited anxiously. Haji spoke...
More than Milestones
Mar. 2, 2018—
By the Numbers
Mar. 1, 2018—Over the years the Vanderbilt Transplant Center (VTC) has seen tremendous growth in all of its programs. In 1962, the first cadaveric kidney transplant was performed. As one of the largest and oldest kidney transplant programs in the country, VTC has performed more than 5,600 kidney transplantations since the program’s creation. In 1985, the center...
Building the team beyond surgeons
Mar. 1, 2018—The infrastructure of the Vanderbilt Transplant Center (VTC) allows for an interdisciplinary environment that creates a culture of teamwork and enhanced communication among all members of the transplant service, said Ed Zavala, administrator for VTC. The complex nature of transplantation requires significant attention to all aspects of transplantation, including business and administrative issues. Vanderbilt’s focus...
Life Goes On
Mar. 1, 2018— Ahmya Calloway, 13, had end-stage renal failure that impacted her heart function. The Chattanooga, Tennessee, native had been cared for at Monroe Carell Jr. Hospital at Vanderbilt since she was 2 years old. Medication was the first thing Calloway’s doctors tried, but over time her health declined to the point that she needed hemodialysis....
Vanderbilt-led Study Disputes Link Between Uterine Fibroids and Miscarriage Risk
Sep. 21, 2017—A 10-year study, led by Vanderbilt University Medical Center professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology Katherine Hartmann, M.D., Ph.D., disrupts conventional wisdom that uterine fibroids cause miscarriages. The results of study appeared June 7 in the American Journal of Epidemiology. “Women with fibroids had identical risk of miscarriage as women without fibroids when taking into account...
Healing from Within
Mar. 6, 2017—Researchers have long suspected the immune system, so efficient at defending the body against foreign invaders, could be key to treating cancer. “The immune system has properties that make it very effective in recognizing and fighting off certain germs. We are figuring out how to use some of those properties in redirecting the immune system...
The Envelope, Please
Aug. 22, 2016— More than an hour had passed since Trisha Pasricha, M.D., ‘16, got the news. It wasn’t until all the cameras were shut down and the last shot secured that the tears began to well up in her eyes. It was done. Pasricha, like thousands of other fourth-year medical school students across the country, had waited...
VUSM students’ education proposal lands AMA prize
Aug. 18, 2016—Two Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (VUSM) students were awarded the prize for the best proposal on how to transform medical education during the American Medical Association (AMA) Spring 2016 Consortium Meeting in March. The AMA Medical Education Innovation Challenge is part of the Accelerating Change in Medical Education initiative— a collaborative effort to create...
New Programs Prepare Future Health Care Leaders
Feb. 22, 2016— Graduate students at Vanderbilt seeking careers in health care just got an added boost in course offerings. Three distinctly different programs were recently introduced to address the evolving needs of future practitioners. According to Bonnie Miller, M.D., associate vice chancellor for Health Affairs and senior associate dean for Health Sciences Education, the additions are...
VUSM Class of 2019
Sep. 3, 2015—For the 91 members of the 140th class at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, the first day of medical school began on July 15. The admissions team led by Alice Coogan, M.D., and David Bader, Ph.D., admitted that each year selecting students from the strong applicant pool becomes more challenging. “We have had outstanding classes...
VUSM student earns HIV/AIDS fellowship
Aug. 21, 2015—Fourth-year Vanderbilt University School of Medicine student Ishan Asokan has been selected as an inaugural member of the Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF) Fellowship for students addressing HIV/AIDS and health disparities. Asokan has been working at the Vanderbilt Comprehensive Care Clinic (VCCC) since his first year of medical school and will be using the clinic...
Alumni Profile: Atia Jordan, M.D., ‘09
Feb. 10, 2015—Sleep Specialist Lands Dream Job Among bleary-eyed pediatric residents, sleep was a common topic of discussion, but even more so for Atia Jordan, M.D., ‘09. “During my rotations, most people thought I was a sleep-deprived resident and just wanted more sleep,” she laughed. “But what I wanted was to dive deeper into sleep and how...
Amy Fleming, M.D., Takes Helm of Medical Student Affairs
Feb. 10, 2015—In 1993, Amy Fleming, a first-year medical student at the University of Virginia, was sitting at a table during a small group gathering at the home of Richard Pearson, M.D., the dean of student affairs, when she saw her future. It wasn’t a shout-it-from-the-mountaintop revelation. It was a comfortable, inner knowing kind of observation—a glimpse of...
Q+A: Kristen Eckstrand, Ph.D.
Feb. 10, 2015—Kristen Eckstrand, Ph.D., a 2015 MD candidate, is the founder and co-director of the Vanderbilt Program for LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex) Health. She is also chair of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Advisory Committee on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Sex Development. She recently co-edited and co-authored a groundbreaking national...
Novel therapy eases stress of retinoblastoma treatment
Feb. 10, 2015—Doctors at Vanderbilt are on track to radically change the way retinoblastoma is treated using an approach that delivers chemotherapy directly to the tumor via the ophthalmic artery. This novel approach, known as IA chemo, uses a catheter that is inserted into the groin and threaded to the eye under X-ray guidance. IA chemo is...
Choosing Wisely
Feb. 9, 2015—The U.S. medical system spends $750 billion a year on health care that doesn’t result in improved health outcomes. In fact, one-third of medical spending is wasted on unnecessary procedures, according to a report from the Institute of Medicine. Patients sometimes ask for tests and treatments that are not necessarily in their best interest. And...
Gift creates one home for Medical School class photos
Aug. 21, 2014—For decades, the composite photos of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine graduating classes could be found spread all around the Medical Center. Some were framed and hung, while others were stowed in desk drawers or archived in various locations. Thanks to the graduating classes of 2014 and 2015, the Vanderbilt Alumni Association and Eskind Biomedical Library’s...
Healing from Within
Aug. 19, 2014—Through the services offered at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Vanderbilt, patients like Brenda Wilson are learning how to live with chronic pain and taking steps toward building a new normal. The Center recently received a $5 million gift from the Bernard Osher Foundation.