Spring 2024
Care that Changes Our World
Mar. 27, 2024—Over the past few months, we’ve publicly announced that nine global companies are joining with us in the Alliance for Genomic Discovery (AGD) to whole genome sequence our DNA bank, BioVU, in its entirety. This landmark work will take over a year and is being done in Iceland by our partners. It’s a momentous achievement...
Lower blood pressure simply by reducing salt intake, study suggests
Mar. 27, 2024—Nearly everyone can lower their blood pressure, even people currently on blood pressure-reducing drugs, by lowering their sodium intake, reports a new study from Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Northwestern Medicine and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “In the study, middle-aged to elderly participants reduced their salt intake by about one teaspoon a day compared...
Research Roundup
Mar. 27, 2024—Pasteurization reduces bioactive component of breast milk Providing human breast milk to preterm infants is a strategy for preventing complications including necrotizing enterocolitis. Because a mother’s own milk (considered the gold standard) is not always available, it is important to determine whether alternate breast milk products confer equal nutritional and bioactive value. Danyvid Olivares-Villagómez, PhD,...
Innovations improve the lives of patients with IBD
Mar. 27, 2024—Two recent innovations — point-of-care intestinal ultrasound and functional medicine — are improving the lives of patients at the Vanderbilt Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Clinic. Characterized by chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract, IBD is a group of disorders that includes Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Upper endoscopy and colonoscopy are used to diagnose IBD,...
Ukrainian doctors again visit VUMC to observe organ transplants and protocols
Mar. 27, 2024—For the second year, a delegation of doctors from Ukraine recently visited Vanderbilt University Medical Center to observe organ transplants and protocols in November 2023. With the help of Vanderbilt and other transplant centers, Ukraine has developed a growing transplant program in the country in the last three years, said Borys Todurov, MD, a Ukrainian...
Master of Genetic Counseling Program
Mar. 27, 2024—
6 tips for balancing a two- physician family
Mar. 27, 2024—1. Accept help — it’ll save you time and energy. 2. Create a schedule for yourselves and the kids. 3. Stay organized. 4. Evaluate leadership roles in your household (note: this may require embracing changes in your careers). 5. Make time for each other, especially as your careers change. 6. Make time for yourself.
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...
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...
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...
Losses
Mar. 27, 2024—Richard Clarke Agnew, MD’75, HO’75,’78, died June 2, 2023. He was 75. Dr. Agnew was preceded in death by his wife, Stephanie, and is survived by his children Jonathan, Jason and Spenser, and three grandchildren. Oren Wyatt Babb, MD’67, HO’71, died Nov. 18, 2023. Dr. Babb is survived by his wife, Pat; sons Robert and...
Class Notes
Mar. 27, 2024—1950s Gerald E. Stone, BA’54, MD’57, HO’58, celebrated his 67th wedding anniversary to author/poet Lois Greene Stone. They have 15 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. Their son and their oldest grandchild are physicians, and another grandchild is a fourth-year medical student. Their family also includes a nurse and a CPA. Stone studied under the inventor of...
Alumni Profile: Healing the Mind and Body
Mar. 27, 2024—Cardiologist Sarah Samaan, MD, may have specialized in affairs of the heart, but she has always been interested in the whole patient — mind, body and well-being. Thus, it makes perfect sense that when she retired from her 30-year cardiology practice in 2022, she shifted her focus to providing compassionate and actionable coaching for physicians....
Giving in Action: Continuing innovations in reconstructive surgery
Mar. 27, 2024—It is no surprise that G. Patrick Maxwell, BA’68, MD’72, and Galen Perdikis, MD, have crossed paths at several points throughout their distinguished careers in plastic surgery. Not only do they both have ties to Vanderbilt and a shared dedication to advancing the practice of breast reconstruction surgery for patients who have undergone mastectomies, but...
Giving in Action: The Class of 1968, and the Power of the Collective
Mar. 27, 2024—When members of the Class of 1968 got together in fall 2023 for their 55th reunion, there were many memories to share and reasons to celebrate. For one, their 1968 School of Medicine Class Scholarship fund, to which 26 class members have contributed as of November 2023, has a value of approximately $1.8 million. More...
Alumni Profile: Good Trouble
Mar. 27, 2024—When John Sergent was 5 years old, he developed measles pneumonia. The physician in his West Virginia hometown made house calls and not only influenced Sergent’s recovery, but he made a lasting impression on him that led to his choosing medicine as a profession. “How comforting it was to hear his voice at the door....
Faces and Places
Mar. 27, 2024—
The Merit of Minimizing Mistakes
Mar. 27, 2024—Progress across biomedicine and health is attended by a series of well-knit statistical inferences. Statistical inference tells you whether that obscure human trait that has seized your imagination is apt to be a blind alley or a useful (and publishable) biomarker of disease risk. It estimates how many willing patients you’ll need to test your...
Good Vibrations
Mar. 27, 2024—For decades, Music Row and Vanderbilt University Medical Center, two Nashville institutions a short distance from one another, existed separately. “There wasn’t a wall between them, but there weren’t strong bridges either,” said Roland “Ron” Eavey, MD, SM, emeritus faculty member, former chair of the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and former director of...
Q + A: Muktar Aliyu, MD, DrPH, MPH
Mar. 27, 2024—Muktar Aliyu, MD, DrPH, MPH, is director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health (VIGH) and professor of Health Policy and Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He holds the Endowed Directorship in Global Health. VIGH facilitates the expansion and coordination of global health research, technical assistance and training initiatives at VUMC. Q. What do...
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...
Seth Christman, MD, HS’21
Mar. 27, 2024—Founder of East Nashville Wellness Center, a nonprofit mental health and substance use clinic for the underserved. Earned his MD from East Tennessee State University Quillen College of Medicine. Completed his psychiatry residency at Vanderbilt and won the research award for studying accelerated aging in late-life depression. “I chose psychiatry after seeing firsthand how seriously...
Lessons in Love
Mar. 27, 2024— Nearly 40% of doctors have married other doctors or health care professionals, according to the American Medical Association. For many physician couples, medical school is where they met and fell in love. This is certainly the case for several Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (VUSM) alumni, some of whom met their partners within the...
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...
A Vanderbilt first
Mar. 27, 2024—Vanderbilt University Medical Center recently performed its first combined lung and liver transplant. Connie Rankin of Memphis, Tennessee, received the transplant, which involved dozens of specialists, including transplant teams for both organs. Her lung transplant was performed by Matthew Bacchetta, MD, MBA, professor of Cardiac Surgery and Biomedical Engineering; and her liver transplant was performed...
Letter from Sarah Creekmore Woodall
Mar. 26, 2024—Greetings, Vandy Med alumni! The Vanderbilt Medical Alumni Association board of directors gathered on campus last fall for its annual meeting where we discussed and approved our current strategic plan. Our future goals will focus on the following areas: Communications, Experiences, Operations and Volunteer Opportunities. Board committees have been established to help guide and advise...