Year: 2017

Social risk factors including income, education and ethnic background influence health outcomes and should be taken into account in Medicare payment models, according to a New England Journal of Medicine “Perspective” titled “Social Risk Factors and Equity in Medicare Payment.” Read More

Too many safe seats, partisan voters and "wave" elections all influence how polarized a legislature is. Read More

A major report led by Vanderbilt investigators found that the mere presence of even a small amount of calcified coronary plaque, more commonly referred to as coronary artery calcium (CAC), in people under age 50 — even small amounts — was strongly associated with increased risk of developing clinical coronary heart disease over the ensuing decade. Read More

The signaling molecule IL-15 promotes septic shock, a life-threatening condition involving organ injury caused by infection. Read More

Yoni Appelbaum earned his Ph.D. in U.S. history and taught at Harvard before becoming Senior Editor at The Atlantic, where he oversees the politics section. In this conversation with fellow historian Heath W. Carter he discussed his journey to The Atlantic and the role of the public intellectual in today’s… Read More

Some memory deficits observed in Alzheimer’s disease may be due to co-morbid illnesses – not the disease itself – and may be reversed by lifestyle changes or pharmacologic interventions. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers have identified a unique example of communication between bacterial signaling systems, which may have relevance for antibiotic resistance. Read More

Jessica Harthcock, MEd’14, was 17 years old when she suffered a devastating sports-related injury, which ultimately paralyzed her from the chest down.  She soon became very aware of the gaps in care quality care for patients with neurological conditions. To address those issues, she started Utilize Health, a specialty care… Read More

On March 23, Multichannel News will honor Susanne McAvoy, BS’93, at the 2017 Wonder Women Luncheon in New York. She is one of 13 leading female executive in the television and media industry who will be honored for their extraordinary accomplishments. Susanne is executive vice president, marketing creative and communication… Read More

A civil engineering professor who develops tools that improve infrastructure systems’ reliability and recovery from disasters like hurricanes and floods has received the inaugural Littlejohn Dean Faculty Fellowship. Read More

An enzyme in macrophage immune cells may be a good target for treating chronic infections, Vanderbilt researchers have discovered. Read More

Improvements in how patients’ preventive health care needs are identified, documented and tracked are being implemented at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) through an initiative called Bridge, the aim of which is to increase the ability of both VUMC and the Vanderbilt Health Affiliated Network to deliver care in a more cohesive manner rather than as a series of individual encounters. Read More

Researchers at Vanderbilt have identified what may be a genetic “smoking gun” for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) — a mutation in the gene for the critical neuronal protein CaMKII. Read More

The researchers examine whether the financial struggles of some major insurers under the Affordable Care Act reflect a policy failure or a mismatch of these firms’ capabilities and strategies to a newly created market. Read More

Douglas Lowy, M.D., acting director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), warned that worldwide death rates from cervical cancer are expected to increase in low- and middle-income countries during the next 15 years unless steps are taken to prevent the cancer from occurring. Almost all cases of cervical cancer are linked to a viral infection. Read More

The most recent Credo Award and Five Pillar Leader Award winners were announced at this week’s Clinical Enterprise Leadership Assembly at Langford Auditorium. The awards are conferred on a quarterly basis. Read More

Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) makes this promise to patients and their families: to include them as a member of the health care team, respect their privacy, coordinate and personalize their care, communicate clearly and serve them with kindness and respect. Delivering on that promise was the theme of Wednesday’s Winter Leadership Assembly in Langford Auditorium. Read More

Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) is home to the second busiest heart transplant program in the country, according to the most recent data released by the Organ Procurement and Transplant Network (OPTN). Read More

As a fellow in pulmonary and critical care medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Bradley Richmond, M.D., saw a lot of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), an inflammatory lung disease caused most often by long-term exposure to cigarette smoke. Read More

To understand the phenomenal growth of research in the Department of Otolaryngology, step inside the S corridor on the second floor of Medical Center North. That is the location of the department’s gleaming new Laryngeal Biology Laboratory, which occupies the previous footprint of several smaller labs that have now been combined into a shared modern space. Read More