Summer 2023
Faces and Places
Jul. 19, 2023—
Georgina Sellyn
Jul. 19, 2023—Reporting by Lexie Little Georgina Sellyn is a fourth-year medical student. A former Vanderbilt University tennis player, she plans to pursue a career in dermatology, combining her passion for skin cancer prevention with her love of the game. She is from Glasgow, Scotland. “With a passion for preventive health, specifically skin cancer prevention, I wanted...
Chronically disrupted sleep may increase risk for heart disease
Jul. 19, 2023—Sleep irregularity — chronically disrupted sleep and highly variable sleep durations night after night — may increase the risk for atherosclerosis, according to a study led by Kelsie Full, PhD, MPH, of Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The multicenter study, reported Feb. 15 in the Journal of the American Heart Association, followed 2,032 older, racially and...
The importance of empathy and grace
Jul. 19, 2023—Our patients, and often our own employees, want to know we care about them and what they are experiencing. We can each recall instances when someone’s lagging spirit impacted their work, their relationships or even their health. According to the World Health Organization, more people in the United States are living with mental and emotional...
Research Roundup
Jul. 19, 2023—Diabetes drug may improve asthma Type 2 diabetes mellitus and obesity are associated with many comorbidities, including asthma. Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1RA) drugs, which have been approved for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes, also may reduce asthma risk, although the mechanisms remain undefined. New research conducted by Katherine Cahill, MD, and colleagues at...
Q + A: Lourdes Estrada, PhD
Jul. 18, 2023—Lourdes Estrada, PhD, is the newly named assistant dean of Health Equity Education in the School of Medicine. Estrada is also a professor of Biochemistry, associate director of Academic Programs & Operations for the Medical Scientist Training Program and director of Vanderbilt Academy for Excellence in Education. Q. What does ‘health equity education’ mean? A....
‘PoRT’ Scale Rebalances Burden of Initiating Trust in Science
Jul. 18, 2023—A Vanderbilt University Medical Center-led team developed a scale to measure trustworthiness in biomedical research among minority populations – a landmark tool for researchers to use to improve their own trustworthiness, and thus participation in research. The Perceptions of Research Trustworthiness (PoRT), described in an original investigation published in JAMA Network Open, is a groundbreaking...
The critical role of research volunteers
Jul. 18, 2023—In 1998, Melissa Sparks, a 35-year-old single mother of two young daughters from rural Dickson County, Tennessee, developed a headache so excruciating it dropped her to her knees. Her mother rushed her to the nearest hospital, but by the time they arrived, Sparks was unconscious. When she awoke, she couldn’t remember what day it was....
Drug Repurposing Goes International
Jul. 18, 2023—In 2020, VUMC joined forces with the Aurum Institute, a nonprofit, public benefit organization based in Johannesburg, South Africa, to find new uses for existing drugs on the World Health Organization List of Essential Medicines. The collaboration, called Project Remedi, or Repurposing Essential Medicines Internationally, has proposed the use of the antioxidant N-acetyl cysteine in acute liver...
Old drugs, new uses
Jul. 18, 2023—The odds of bringing a new, safe and effective drug to market are very low. Even for drug candidates that make it to human testing in clinical trials, 90% ultimately fail, often because they cause unexpected and serious side effects. The gauntlet of testing has thwarted so many promising therapies that it has been dubbed...
A Life Rebuilt
Jul. 18, 2023—On Nov. 19, 2020, Sabrina Johanson checked herself out of Vanderbilt University Hospital (VUH), went downtown to meet the father of her two children, and injected heroin and meth for the last time. As an inpatient she had been receiving IV antibiotics for endocarditis, a heart infection from drug use that required six weeks of...
On the Edge of Care
Jul. 18, 2023—Uterine fibroids are small, a so-called ‘invisible disease,’ but they levy an outsize cost: Treatment and lost time at work across the country add up to a whopping $34 billion. That’s a lot of time and money, not to mention that 70% of women in the U.S. will develop at least one fibroid by menopause,...
Champion of Change
Jul. 18, 2023—Change has been a constant in Bonnie Miller’s 36-year career at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Her presence on campus has been reliable, steady and impactful since completing her surgery residency in 1987 while her roles have been ever evolving: general surgery attending physician, associate dean for Medical Students, associate dean for Undergraduate Medical Education,...
Technology- based teamwork
Jul. 18, 2023—The past few decades have seen a great improvement in surgical technology and instruments, but the future holds limitless opportunities for advancements that will lead to safer, more precise surgeries with better outcomes for patients. Many of those improvements — both small and large — are being designed and tested at Vanderbilt University Medical Center,...
Letter from Sarah Creekmore Woodall
Jul. 18, 2023—Greetings, Vandy Med alumni! The Vanderbilt Medical Alumni Association continues our “on the road again” tour, with stops at the Radiology Society of North America in Chicago with the Vanderbilt Radiology Society; American College of Cardiology in New Orleans with the Friesinger Society; regional event in Los Angeles; American Association of Neurological Surgeons in Los...
Aspirnaut: 15 Years of Success
Jul. 18, 2023—
Losses
Jul. 18, 2023—Alan N. Arnson, MD, HS’61, died Jan. 24. He was 87. Dr. Arnson is survived by his wife, Sue, and children David, Diane, Leslie and Josh. Daniel Beauchamp, MD, FE’77, FAC, died Nov. 27, 2022. He was 66. Dr. Beauchamp is survived by his wife, Shannon, and daughter, Bryn. Dr. Beauchamp was the former chair...
Class Notes
Jul. 18, 2023—1950s Oscar C. Beasley, MD’52, resides in a retirement home in Coralville, Iowa. Kenneth Jacobs, MD, HS’54, spoke during the H. William Scott Jr. Society’s 50th Anniversary dinner on March 4, recalling working with Scott during his training. 1960s William H. Goodson Jr., BA’57, MD’60, HS’61, and his wife, Elise, are enjoying retirement in a...
Giving in Action: Dean’s Scholarship Challenge Exceeds its Goal at $26 Million
Jul. 18, 2023—We all know the impact a scholarship can have on a student: It’s life changing. At the beginning of 2022, the School of Medicine launched a $5 million Dean’s Scholarship Challenge to help ensure that tomorrow’s leaders in medicine are educated at Vanderbilt. The yearlong matching gift effort, which ended Dec. 31, 2022, aimed to...
Alumni Profile: Listen, lead and execute
Jul. 18, 2023—Written by Danny Bonvissuto When John J. Warner, MD, MBA, arrived at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in 1988, he planned to go into sports medicine. By the time he graduated in 1992, he’d fallen in love with cardiology. Seventeen years later, he was a busy interventional cardiologist at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center...
Giving in Action: A Gift That Keeps On Giving
Jul. 18, 2023—From the time she was 8 years old, Annie Marie Garraway, PhD, and her family lived in the South, first in Alabama, then in Tennessee, and finally in Alabama again. Early on, she was aware of the Vanderbilt name and of Vanderbilt University specifically. “My late brother, Levi Watkins Jr., made the university real for...
Alumni Profile: The science of cancer and the importance of giving back
Jul. 18, 2023—Written by Danny Bonvissuto As the Vice President of Oncology Biometrics, Oncology Research and Development at AstraZeneca, Renee Iacona, PhD, MPH, drives strategy and investment decisions and leads more than 550 statisticians and programmers across the fields of early and late oncology. Her team works to design, deliver and report clinical trials that lead to...
Physicians’ words, patients’ stories
Jul. 18, 2023—Elizabeth Ebbens, MD, recently stood before fellows, residents and faculty to share words she’d written about a feverish 5-year-old’s emergency room visit. The child’s mother voiced fear about the “C” word. Ebbens, a pediatric emergency medicine fellow, thought the patient’s mother feared COVID, so she ordered a COVID-19 test as well as labs to check...
Shade Tree opens pediatric clinic
Jul. 18, 2023—Shade Tree Clinic, which since 2005 has provided primary care to underserved and uninsured adults in Nashville, opened a pediatric clinic in January, the result of nearly a yearlong effort on the part of medical and nursing students and their faculty mentors. The new monthly clinic serves adolescents ages 13-17 who are predominantly underserved and...
Positive Impact on Patients
Jul. 18, 2023—A transformative gift from the Potocsnak family has established the Potocsnak Center for Undiagnosed and Rare Disorders at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The center will allow VUMC to accelerate research and serve more patients looking for answers and cures to diseases that, in some cases, have been undiagnosed for decades. “I am incredibly grateful to...