Fall 2021
Hard Conversations
Oct. 18, 2021— Difficult conversations are a hallmark of medicine. Patients and their families rely on us to share the facts about their illnesses that are sometimes hard to hear. While many clinicians begin to do this while training, our effectiveness in these conversations develops throughout a career. Telling a young mother she has an aggressive cancer...
Research Roundup
Oct. 18, 2021—Dexmedetomidine and delirium In new findings that are exclusively with regard to cardiac surgery patients, intraoperative dexmedetomidine — that is, the drug administered during heart surgery — is associated with 85% greater risk of postoperative delirium and 29% greater risk of postoperative intubation and reintubation. Meanwhile, dexmedetomidine administered to cardiac surgery patients postoperatively in the...
COVID recovery included long stay on ECMO, double-lung transplant
Oct. 18, 2021— Zach Lloyd was only 37 years old with no preexisting health conditions, but COVID-19 brought him within an inch of his life. Beginning in October 2020, he lay immobile in a bed at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, hooked up to a life-sustaining mechanical system called ECMO, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, which can temporarily take...
Vanderbilt Transplant Center the focus of national TV series
Oct. 18, 2021—A new documentary television series follows the life-saving stories of organ transplant patients at the Vanderbilt Transplant Center. The series, “Last Chance Transplant,” is produced by Robin Roberts, anchor of ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Roberts is a double stem-cell transplant patient passionate about the topic, and her production company, Rock’n Robin Productions, is a partner...
Study shows benefit of scheduling lung screens with mammograms
Oct. 18, 2021—Women who are longtime smokers could potentially save their lives by undergoing lung screens on the same day they schedule mammograms, according to a study by Vanderbilt researchers published in the Journal of Medical Screening. The researchers reviewed data from 18,040 women who were screened for breast cancer in 2015 at two imaging facilities that also performed...
Dixie Place renamed in honor of Vanderbilt surgical pioneer Vivien Thomas
Oct. 18, 2021— Through a Vanderbilt University School of Medicine student-led effort, Dixie Place, the city street that runs between the Medical Center’s Central Garage and the Oxford House building on 21st Avenue South, has been renamed Vivien Thomas Way. The process to change the name of Dixie Place was borne of discussions that second-year medical students...
Q + A: E. Wesley Ely, MD, MPH
Oct. 18, 2021—“Every Deep-Drawn Breath,” released Sept. 7 by Scribner, is the first book for a general readership from pulmonologist and critical care specialist E. Wesley Ely, MD, MPH, the Grant W. Liddle Professor of Medicine and founding co-director of the groundbreaking Critical Illness, Brain Dysfunction and Survivorship (CIBS) Center. Q: What is “Every Deep-Drawn Breath” about,...
Ann Price, MD, steps down from VMAA post
Oct. 18, 2021—Ann Price, MD’78, who has served as associate dean of Vanderbilt Medical Alumni Affairs (VMAA) since 2008, stepped down from the position, effective July 1. Price, who served as executive director of VMAA from 2003-2008 before being named associate dean, has moved to part-time status in a physician liaison role with the VMAA and continues...
The Vanderbilt University Medical School class of 2025
Oct. 18, 2021—
Losses
Oct. 18, 2021—Alice Louise H. Altstatt, MA’52, MD’56, died Jan. 10. She was 94. Dr. Alstatt is survived by her children Leslie, Alice, Carol, Julia, Hamilton and Robin, and four grandchildren. Schales L. Atkinson, MD, HS’68, died May 4. He was 83. Dr. Atkinson is survived by his daughters Sarah and Mary Beth, and four grandchildren. Eric...
Amy Fleming, MD, MScHPE
Oct. 18, 2021—Associate dean for Medical Student Affairs since 2014 and professor of Pediatrics and professor of Medical Education and Administration U.S. Air Force veteran, following in the footsteps of her father, uncle and grandfathers. Attended the University of Virginia for undergraduate education and medical school and the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions for her...
CRISPR in the clinic
Oct. 18, 2021—Blood Disorders Mutations in the beta-globin gene affect the function of hemoglobin and cause the genetic disorders beta thalassemia and sickle cell disease. CRISPR is being used to turn on fetal hemoglobin (by disabling a gene that turns it off) in hematopoietic stem cells isolated from patients. Modified cells are reinfused into patients. Patients in...
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: Kim Vinson, MD’03
Oct. 18, 2021— From medical student to mentor You can find Kim Vinson, MD, seeing patients at the Vanderbilt Voice Center or developing new diversity initiatives in her office in Light Hall. But Vinson’s path to becoming an otolaryngology specialist and associate dean for Diversity Affairs began more than 20 years ago, when she first joined the...
Alumni Profile: Lt. Col. G. Travis Clifton, MD’06
Oct. 18, 2021— Clifton serves key role during early pandemic in NYC During the first surge of the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020, Lt. Col. G. Travis Clifton, MD’06, reported for an assignment in New York City unlike any other deployment he’s completed during his 14-year Army career. Clifton joined more than 1,000 military and civilian medical...
CRISPR screen for cancer
Oct. 18, 2021—A new genome-wide CRISPR screening technique conducted by researchers at Vanderbilt University is offering new insights about how tumors in 80 to 90% of all cancers grow. This novel approach developed by Maria Fomicheva, a graduate student in the lab of Ian Macara, PhD, Louise B. McGavock Professor and chair of Cell and Developmental Biology,...
Giving in Action: Luu Chen Scholarship
Oct. 18, 2021—Whether they are practicing health care, starting a new venture or making philanthropic decisions, Alexandria Luu, MPH’20, and Cherry Chen, MD, pictured at left, are driven by values. “Giving others opportunity and supporting what is important to us is really at the heart of it all,” said Luu. In February 2021, the couple endowed the...
Letter from Sarah Creekmore Woodall
Oct. 18, 2021—Dear Vanderbilt Medical Alumni: Greetings from Nashville to all of our Vanderbilt medical alumni! On July 1, I took over the leadership of the Vanderbilt Medical Alumni Affairs, following in the footsteps of Dr. Ann Price. We are fortunate that she will be staying on as a physician liaison, and I am grateful for her...
A Cut Above
Oct. 18, 2021—Present a surgeon with a challenging dilemma, and wheels begin turning. By their nature, surgeons are intuitive, adaptive problem-solvers. Think of those children who repaired their own broken toys, who constantly questioned conventional wisdom, and who thought so far outside the box, the box’s walls ceased to exist. Driving these successes is innovation. Among Vanderbilt...
What the Pandemic is Teaching Us
Oct. 18, 2021—It’s too soon to call an end to COVID-19, the worst worldwide pandemic in 100 years, which has killed as many Americans as the 1918-19 flu. The slow uptake of effective vaccines has enabled the causative virus, SARS-CoV-2, to continue to evolve in dangerous and easily transmissible ways. But it’s not too early for health care...
Molecular Scissors
Oct. 18, 2021—In a matter of weeks, Jeffrey Rathmell, PhD, and his research team can probe hundreds of genes and identify the ones that matter most in a particular disease model — and might be promising therapeutic targets. Just a decade ago, such a strategy was simply not possible, said Rathmell, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Immunobiology. But...
Gene editing used to treat rare genetic disorder
Oct. 18, 2021— A 9-year-old patient of Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt is the first in the world to receive an investigational gene editing therapy for Methylmalonic Acidemia (MMA), a rare genetic disorder diagnosed at birth. On May 29, Eddie Axelson, of Clarksville, Tennessee, received LogicBio Therapeutics’ investigational single-administration targeted gene editing therapy, hLB-001, which...
Faces and Places
Oct. 14, 2021—
Class Notes
Oct. 14, 2021—1950s Paul J. Huchton Jr., MD’58, HS’59, started a free clinic in his hometown of El Paso, Texas, five years ago. The clinic sees about 20 patients per day and is funded by two annual gala affairs. Huchton is also teaching a class on China at the University of Texas, El Paso, and is a...
Giving in Action: Patricia and Rodes Hart Chair in Urologic Surgery
Oct. 14, 2021—Rodes Hart, BA’54, and Patricia Ingram Hart, BA’57, whose generous gifts continue to advance the mission of Vanderbilt as one of the world’s great universities for learning and discovery, have endowed a second chair in Urologic Surgery. Melissa Kaufman, MD, PhD, professor of Urology and chief of the Division of Reconstructive Urology and Pelvic Health,...
No time to waste
Oct. 13, 2021—In April 2020, weeks after the first reported COVID-19 case in Tennessee, health economists and epidemiologists from the VUMC Departments of Health Policy and Pediatrics and others were working with state health officials on a complex predictive model to chart the trajectory of infections and the resources needed to stop its spread. “Doing this so...
Closing the gap
Oct. 13, 2021—One of the cruelest but most constructive lessons of the pandemic was how it exposed the yawning gap between the haves and have-nots. Very early on it became evident that those who did not speak English well or had limited access to the internet, telemedicine or even routine health care were likely to be hit...