Homepage Highlights
Remote Control
Mar. 6, 2017—When Willem Leister Einthoven, inventor of the electrocardiogram (EKG), sent an EKG over telephone lines back in 1906, it was the first example of modern telecardiology. More than a century later, Vanderbilt Heart and Vascular Institute cardiologist Allen Naftilan, M.D., Ph.D., puts a stethoscope to his ears and listens to the heartbeat of a patient...
Hooked
Mar. 6, 2017—The epidemic of opioid abuse, which each day claims the lives of 91 Americans and adds billions annually to the nation’s health care bill, can be stopped—but it’s not going to be easy, say those steering the ship at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC). “It took us a while to get here, and it’ll take...
Positive Outlook
Mar. 6, 2017—When Rachel Fox was 15 years old, the petite, blonde high school sophomore spent most of her time babysitting in her suburban Nashville neighborhood and practicing the piano. For about a year, she noticed she was increasingly hungry and thirsty, frequently urinating and losing weight. She battled fatigue as she plodded along with her school...
Doctor of Big Data
Aug. 22, 2016— For several months in 2014, Josh Denny, M.D., a 37-year-old father of three young children, and an internist with a busy practice, quietly worked on a project in his office on Nashville’s West End Avenue, that he could not discuss with his family, friends or co-workers. “I did tell my wife, but I’m not...
Tuning the Brain, Taming the Tremors
Aug. 19, 2016— Six years after they met in an Internet chat room, Linda Jones and Steve Retterer woke up in the same Vanderbilt Adult Hospital room. “I think it’s daylight,” Jones said, as the anesthesia began to wear off. “I think you’re right,” Retterer answered, groggily. The romance they unknowingly began in 2005 when they were...
House Calls to the Homeless
Aug. 19, 2016—Vanderbilt Street Psychiatry Program provides hands-on approach to mental health
Bitter Pill
Feb. 22, 2016—On the evening of June 12, 2015, Donna Emley took two acetaminophen (Tylenol) for a slight muscle ache and went to bed. The next day, she and her husband drove to Kentucky, where they were planning to spend a week at an organic farm. She awoke at 2 a.m. the following day and noticed that...
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...
Against All Odds
Feb. 22, 2016—Dawn James of Knoxville, Tennessee, was 16 weeks pregnant when a 3-D ultrasound determined that her unborn baby had severe spina bifida that left almost his entire spinal cord exposed. The baby was given zero chance of survival. “We spoke with 10 specialists during my pregnancy, trying to see if we could find somebody who...
Hope Amid a Continuing Crisis
Aug. 21, 2015—It’s been 20 years since her doctor silently handed Katrina Robertson a lab report that showed she was infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Yet the memory is still painfully fresh. “I remember just boo-hooing and crying because it was like I’m gonna die,” said the 47-year-old native Nashvillian. “Everybody I’d heard about … it...
Undone in the ICU
Aug. 21, 2015—“I was under the impression that I was being held prisoner. There were people I was aware of who would come into the room, in the outer areas, and they wouldn’t talk to me or look at me. I remember being aware that I couldn’t move my arms. I was being held somehow. I started...
Journey Out of Silence
Aug. 21, 2015—Allyson Sisler-Dinwiddie, Au.D., will never forget the day her hearing went away. She was just waking up, home alone on a Saturday morning, when her dog, Maddie, leapt off the bed and darted to the bedroom door. “I could tell she was barking, but I couldn’t hear her. I picked up the phone to see...
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...
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...
Afterburn
Feb. 10, 2015—Burn injuries can happen to anyone. Each burn patient’s story is unique, but they all start the same: with an unplanned event. So sudden. Often tragic. Always painful. The severe burn patient is a significant challenge medically and often requires numerous surgeries. They have large open wounds, have difficulty maintaining body temperature and fluids, are...
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly of Inflammation
Feb. 10, 2015—It’s a scourge of modern life, each year gobbling up billions of health care dollars in the United States alone. When it’s good, it fights off foreign invaders, heals injuries and mops up debris. But when it’s bad, inflammation ignites a long list of disorders: arthritis, asthma, atherosclerosis, blindness, cancer, diabetes and, quite possibly, autism...
These Doctors Mean Business
Aug. 21, 2014—While patient care is an important part of the careers of the majority of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine graduates, some find that they can make the greatest leadership contributions in non-clinical roles. These doctors get down to business.
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.
Creative Care for Complex Cases
Jul. 31, 2014—The Complex Care Team is charged with caring for patients with complex needs—medically, socially and economically—and bringing creative solutions to solve the issues and get them on the road to recovery.