{"id":2450,"date":"2020-03-12T17:18:05","date_gmt":"2020-03-12T17:18:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mc.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltmedicine\/?p=2371"},"modified":"2021-08-11T19:35:52","modified_gmt":"2021-08-11T19:35:52","slug":"to-thrive-in-a-world-of-change-welcome-the-new","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/to-thrive-in-a-world-of-change-welcome-the-new\/","title":{"rendered":"To thrive in a world of change, welcome the new"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Photo by David Bailey<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today\u2019s medicine sits at the intersection of expectation and limitation. We work amid breathless acceleration of technology, science and demand for what clinicians are expected to know and manage.<\/p>\n

So much progress has been made in the last 20 years that it can seem an insurmountable task to stay on top of it all. In moments of self-reflection, we wonder if it\u2019s even possible to offer our patients the most up-to-date guidance.<\/p>\n

Retail genetic tests are among the most publicly visible touchstones of change. The interest in commercial DNA testing fuels patients\u2019 demand for personalized care. Studies consistently find consumers rank \u201cpersonalization\u201d at or near the top of their health care preferences.<\/p>\n

In seeming conflict with consumers attempting to understand their DNA as a personal Rosetta Stone for disease risk, the waterfall of genomic advancement has been slow to suffuse into everyday clinical practice. And with good reason. While discoveries add volumes to the library of genetic associations almost daily, the vast majority of this information is nuanced, impacts relative risk for patients with considerable uncertainty and is challenging to use for advising patients.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where Vanderbilt is working to change the game. Our physician-scientists, many of them alumni, are working to fuse medicine with technology \u2014 massaging \u201cbig data\u201d into a framework that\u2019s not only trainable and tractable but embedded intuitively into clinical workflow.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve taken on the challenge of educating clinicians and scientists for the lifelong learning that will put them at the vanguard of implementing and leading change. That is, in fact, why we overhauled the medical curriculum in a paradigm shift that is now a model for medical schools across the country (see page 26).<\/p>\n

As a Vanderbilt medical student, I couldn\u2019t have dreamed of the seemingly boundless diagnostic advancements that are under development. Our national leadership in biomedical informatics is allowing us to develop novel ways to guide clinicians at the point of care, making it possible to bring formerly inaccessible information to the forefront, impacting our patients\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n

For example, in behavioral health, suicide risk-scoring is on the cusp of revolution. Smarter deployment of information technology and machine learning resources trained to catch what clinical eyes might miss is an astounding step toward sparing untold numbers of people from devastating loss. Please see the story on page 28 for more information.<\/p>\n

Enterprise-wide, interdepartmental collaborations like these \u2014 a true \u201cmelting pot\u201d of capabilities \u2014 are the distinctive strength of a leading academic medical center. The academic programs supporting these advances are attracting the brightest minds in the nation and across the globe, as we strive to know more than we did yesterday.<\/p>\n

At Vanderbilt, we constantly experience the latest \u2014 new students, new technology, new ideas, new science. We welcome it all with excitement, seasoned discernment and a healthy dose of experience. It\u2019s who we are \u2014 and it\u2019s what our patients will always require.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jeff Balser, MD, PhD
\nPresident and CEO, Vanderbilt University Medical Center<\/em>
\nDean, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s medicine sits at the intersection of expectation and limitation. We work amid breathless acceleration of technology, science and demand for what clinicians are expected to know and manage. So much progress has been made in the last 20 years that it can seem an insurmountable task to stay on top of it all. In…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":221,"featured_media":2144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[8,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vm-from-the-dean","category-vm-spring-2020"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cdn.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-main\/medschool-prd\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/82\/2019\/09\/USE-Dr-Jeff-Balser-245.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcDnub-Dw","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2450"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2923,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450\/revisions\/2923"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}