Summer 2016
The Rise of Medical School Debt
Aug. 25, 2016—[infographic-summer-2016]
Global Ambition
Aug. 23, 2016— Growing up in the small rural village of Yetebon, Ethiopia, Kidane Amare Sarko could step just outside his thatched-roof, mud and wood hut and see his future. He could see his father, who could neither read nor write, work in the field as a farmer. As the eldest boy in a family of seven...
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...
Quick Take: Dan Roden, M.D.
Aug. 22, 2016—Dan Roden, M.D., studies the mechanisms underlying variability in response to drug therapy and is principal investigator for BioVU, Vanderbilt’s biorepository. Roden is also William Stokes Professor of Experimental Therapeutics, professor of Medicine and Pharmacology, and director of the Oates Institute for Experimental Therapeutics. What led to VUMC’s investment in personalized medicine? There’s our...
VUMC to receive $71.6 million from NIH for Precision Medicine Initiative Cohort Program
Aug. 22, 2016—In July the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced it will provide $71.6 million over five years to VUMC to establish and operate the Data and Research Support Center for the Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI) Cohort Program, making this the largest research grant the Medical Center has ever received from any source. “We are honored...
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...
Eureka Moment
Aug. 22, 2016—A decade before the FDA’s 1997 initial approval of deep brain stimulation (DBS) therapy, the technique was developed in Grenoble, France. Alim-Louis Benabid, M.D., Ph.D., and Pierre Pollak, M.D., utilized the effect of high-frequency stimulation on a patient’s tremor during an ablative brain surgery while using an electrode to identify the target area. The patient...
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
Transition Complete: Vanderbilt University Medical Center is Independent Entity
Aug. 18, 2016—After a nearly two-year, carefully orchestrated process, Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) is now operating as a fully independent, nonprofit entity, following the completion of the legal transaction on April 30 that separated it legally and financially from Vanderbilt University. The transition positions VUMC for future growth and investment, while preserving its tightly woven connections...
Q+A: Katherine Sumarriva
Aug. 18, 2016— What does it mean to be the Doris and Fred Love scholarship recipient? It’s huge. It means the school really believed in me and is willing to put their money and invest in me and my education because they think I will make a good doctor, and I will make a difference here at Vanderbilt, so...
Marnett named Dean of Basic Sciences for School of Medicine
Aug. 18, 2016—Lawrence J. Marnett, Ph.D., has been named Dean of Basic Sciences for the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He is University Professor of Biochemistry, Chemistry and Pharmacology and Mary Geddes Stahlman Professor of Cancer Research. “Our research and teaching in the basic sciences are engines of discovery and a critical part of our ability to have...
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...
Research Round-up
Aug. 18, 2016—Immune defenses in asthma Patients with asthma are at increased risk for invasive bacterial infections and bacterial pneumonia, but the mechanisms that impair their immune system defenses against pathogens are unknown. Melissa Bloodworth, R. Stokes Peebles, Jr., M.D., and colleagues explored whether STAT6—a transcription factor that is expressed at high levels in the T cells of people...
Clinicians, researchers identify gene mutation as cause of boy’s rare disorder
Aug. 18, 2016—Test after test failed to reveal why Denny Majano wasn’t gaining weight or why he suffered from severe, chronic diarrhea. At 5 weeks old Denny had lost a pound since birth. He was admitted to Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt in 2011, where he would spend almost two and a half years in the...
A Month of Many Milestones
Aug. 18, 2016—It was a remarkable July. Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt University Medical Center began the fiscal year with the Medical Center operating as a financially and legally independent nonprofit entity for the first time in history. Through an extensive, two-year effort, we were committed to positioning VUMC for success in a rapidly changing health care economy,...
Varun K. Menon
Aug. 18, 2016—President of the first-year class and one of 91 first-year medical students who began their VUSM journey in July with a week of orientation activities and the traditional White Coat ceremony Born at Vanderbilt when his father, Satish Menon, D.O., HS ‘91- ‘94, was an anesthesiology resident Hometown: Martinsburg, West Virginia “My classmates and I...
Alumni Profile: Ron Bronitsky, M.D.
Aug. 17, 2016—Renaissance Man Pulmonologist, thespian, award-winning baker, competitive swimmer, art collector and performer in an all-bassoon band; this sounds like the description of a roomful of people, but in reality it is a rundown of the many hats worn by Ronald Bronitsky, M.D., ‘77. “When I’m ready to die, I want to be able to look...
Alumni Profile: Thomas Davis, M.D.
Aug. 17, 2016—Making a World of Difference As a child living in Chihuahua, Mexico, Thomas Davis, M.D., ‘14, learned early that socioeconomic factors play a significant role in a person’s success, and he’s determined to use his skills to level the playing field for those less fortunate. “It was hard to hide the realities of the world...
Giving in Action: Doing well by doing good
Aug. 17, 2016—Jonathan Partain, M.D.’60, BA ‘57, wanted to use his medical degree to do something good for people when he moved to Orlando, Florida, in 1968 to start his own practice that would become the Orlando Heart Center. That was the same year that Walt Disney had been secretly buying swamp land in Orlando area in...
Giving in Action: A debt of gratitude
Aug. 17, 2016—Like many physician-scientists who serve in university-based teaching hospitals, W. Bedford Waters, M.D., ‘74, BA ‘70, has investigated medical mysteries in his career. But one question remains after many years—the identity of the donor who supported his education. “John Chapman, who was dean of the School of Medicine, knew me from my work as an...
Letter From Ann Price
Aug. 17, 2016—Dear Vanderbilt University Medical Alumni, Vanderbilt Medical Alumni Reunion 2016 Our next biennial VUSM Reunion, Oct. 20-22, is fast approaching. Reunion festivities will begin on Thursday afternoon, Oct. 20, with a golf outing at Vanderbilt’s Legends Club, followed by an evening welcome reception and awards program at the Country Music Hall of Fame and...
Losses
Aug. 17, 2016—Charles Cannon, M.D., HS ‘64, ‘74, died Feb. 17. He is survived by his wife, Ruth; children, Windsor, Julia and Grady; and six grandchildren. C. Whitney Caulkins Jr., M.D., HS ‘48, died Jan. 20. He was 93. Dr. Caulkins is preceded in death by his wife, Jennie, and is survived by his children, Dave and...
Alumni News
Aug. 17, 2016—1950s Richard Lester, M.D., ‘53, HS ‘54, BA ‘50, was awarded the Samuel Buford Word Award at the Alabama Medical Association meeting. The award is presented in recognition of service to humanity beyond the scope of medical practice, with such service having been rendered at some personal sacrifice. Paul Huchton, M.D., ‘58, HS ‘59, has...
Faces and Places
Aug. 17, 2016—