Winter 2017
Vanderbilt Global Surgery
Apr. 5, 2017—More than 60 faculty are involved in the Global Surgery Program at Vanderbilt. This multidisciplinary initiative coordinates dissemination of in-country education and training opportunities for faculty and students, development of outcomes and evaluation research, and establishment of a central portal for communication.
The Impact on Babies
Mar. 7, 2017—There’s been a disproportionately greater increase in opioid use among pregnant women in rural versus urban counties, according to a December 2016 study in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. The study, authored by Stephen Patrick, M.D., a neonatologist at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, and colleagues from across the country, focused on data...
Charles represents VUMC at White House Rural Telehealth gathering
Mar. 6, 2017—David Charles, M.D., chief medical officer of the Vanderbilt Neuroscience Institute, vice-chair of the Department of Neurology and medical director of Telemedicine, represented Vanderbilt University Medical Center at a White House Convening on Rural Telehealth in March 2016. Charles was invited to lead off a panel entitled Spotlight on Innovation by presenting an overview of...
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...
Buprenorphine used to shape behavior for those in recovery
Mar. 6, 2017—Charles* is one of the lucky ones. Three decades after he first sneaked his little brother’s hydrocodone cough medicine, 20 years after he started dissolving morphine pills in a heated spoon and injecting the milky solution into his veins, Charles has found his way back to what he calls a “normal” life. He didn’t die...
Healing from Within
Mar. 6, 2017—Researchers have long suspected the immune system, so efficient at defending the body against foreign invaders, could be key to treating cancer. “The immune system has properties that make it very effective in recognizing and fighting off certain germs. We are figuring out how to use some of those properties in redirecting the immune system...
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...
Giving in Action: Welborn’s Healing Scholarship
Mar. 6, 2017—Although grief robbed Bill Welborn, M.D. ‘67, BA ‘64, of the ability to express his feelings after the death of longtime friend, Bill Johnston, M.D. ‘67, BA ‘64, the scholarship Welborn created in memory of Johnston helped him make peace with the loss. “Seeing Bill face Alzheimer’s created overwhelming feelings of frustration and sadness. Anyone...
Faces and Places
Mar. 6, 2017—
Letter From Ann Price, M.D.
Mar. 6, 2017—Dear Vanderbilt University Medical Alumni, Vanderbilt Medical Alumni Reunion 2016 Many thanks to all of you who attended our Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (VUSM) Reunion 2016. With over 1,000 attendees, this was one of our largest VUSM Reunion events. I hope you enjoyed your time back on Vanderbilt’s campus. A special thanks to...
Losses
Mar. 6, 2017—Lawrence Abrahams, M.D., ‘61, died March 3, 2015. He was 80. Dr. Abrahams is survived by his wife, Hanna; siblings, nieces and nephews. Joseph Allen Jr., M.D., HS ‘56, died Sept. 16, 2016. He was 91. Dr. Allen was preceded in death by his wife, Bettye, and is survived by children, Joe and Kirby; and...
Alumni News
Mar. 6, 2017—1960s Jere Segrest, M.D., ‘66, Ph.D., ‘69, HS ‘70, BA ‘62, FAC ‘16, has joined the VUSM faculty as a professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine. Arthur M. Freeman III, M.D., ‘67, has been recognized as a Leading Physician of the World and Top Adult Psychiatrist in Birmingham, Alabama, by The International...
Giving in Action: School of Medicine’s New Giving Societies
Mar. 6, 2017—Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (VUSM) has launched two new donor societies, the John E. Chapman, M.D. Society, recognizing donors who support clinical degree programs and endowed faculty chairs, and the Discovery Circle which recognizes donors to Basic Sciences. Chapman led the school from 1975-2001—the longest tenure of any dean. During that time, he conferred...
Alumni Profile: Tiara Aldridge, M.D.
Mar. 6, 2017—Scholarship paves the way for success As a high school student in Stone Mountain, Georgia, Tiara Aldridge wanted to be a physician, but she also realized her family couldn’t finance this dream. Then, a Vanderbilt University recruiter visited her school and talked about the Opportunity Vanderbilt initiative that provides scholarships and grants for students with...
Alumni Profile: Mary Nettleman, M.D.
Mar. 6, 2017—Med School Dean Credits VUSM Influence, Support Since joining the University of South Dakota in 2012, Mary Nettleman, M.D., can’t begin to count the times she’s been asked if she’s the first female dean of the university’s Sanford School of Medicine. She is. “People ask me how it feels to be a woman dean,...
This is Not a Drill
Mar. 2, 2017—At 2:20 a.m. on June 12, 2016, Michael Cheatham, M.D., asleep at home in Orlando, Florida, was awakened by a phone call. A colleague said, “There’s been a mass casualty shooting event, and we need you here.” Cheatham, VUSM ‘89, board-certified in general surgery, surgical critical care and neurocritical care, was not on call that...
A History of Giving
Mar. 2, 2017—Diabetes care at Vanderbilt entered a new era with the opening of the Vanderbilt Eskind Diabetes Clinic in 2005. The clinic offers comprehensive outpatient care for both adults and children with diabetes, including subspecialty visits, nutrition, social work, and allied health services all under one roof. The clinic is named for the late Irwin B....
Kevin Johnson, M.D., MS
Mar. 1, 2017—Senior Vice President for Health Information Technology, Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair in Biomedical Informatics and professor of Pediatrics Co-sponsor of EpicLeap, a project to replace the majority of Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s clinical, administrative and billing software Hometown: Baltimore, Maryland “I embrace my inherently creative and curious nature nearly every day. As Einstein said, ‘It...
Eskind family makes $6 million gift to keep library on leading edge of health education innovation
Mar. 1, 2017—A visionary $6 million gift to Vanderbilt University from the Eskind family will ensure that the Annette and Irwin Eskind Biomedical Library, the institution’s hub of medical information services and resources since 1994, will continue to support the next generation of scientists, physicians, students and patients. The $12.9 million renovation will provide infrastructure for the...
Q+A: Wonder Drake, M.D.
Mar. 1, 2017—Physician-scientist Wonder Drake, M.D., ‘94, associate professor of Medicine and Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, has focused her research on understanding the pathogenesis of sarcoidosis, a chronic inflammatory disease that strikes multiple organ systems in the body. She is the newly named director of the Sarcoidosis Center of Excellence. What about sarcoidosis attracted your attention as...
Complex plastic surgery restores facial expression
Mar. 1, 2017—When Kelly Davis woke up one morning in April 2016, she told her husband Anthony that she dreamed her face was moving; then she looked in the mirror and saw that it really was. “I just cried,” said the 46-year-old Morristown, Tennessee, resident. “When I bit down on my teeth, I could see movement on...
Discover, Learn and Share
Mar. 1, 2017—I write to thank you for your incredible support of our missions, for so many wonderful accomplishments in 2016, and to share some aspirations for 2017 and beyond. By any measure, 2016 was a year that brought a multitude of challenges and opportunities. We completed a historic, two-year process that made Vanderbilt University Medical Center...
Research Round-up
Mar. 1, 2017—Reducing antidepressants’ side effects Medicines used to treat depression, called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), can increase bleeding risk and bleeding time and disrupt platelet aggregation in the gastrointestinal tract. SSRIs prevent cells from taking up the neurotransmitter serotonin that has been released from cells by blocking the serotonin transporter (SERT). It is unclear how...
Investigational new drug for Alzheimer’s scheduled for first study in humans
Mar. 1, 2017—Vanderbilt University scientists have received notification from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that testing in humans may proceed for an investigational new drug for Alzheimer’s disease after more than 10 years of research by scientists at Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt University Medical Center. It is relatively uncharted territory for an academic drug discovery...