Paul Govern

Nephrologist William Fissell IV, M.D., associate professor of Medicine and Biomedical Engineering, is intent on creating and mass-producing an implantable bioartificial kidney that can transform quality of life and prospects for survival for people with chronic kidney disease who would otherwise be forced onto dialysis. Read More

Over the past 18 years perhaps no program of Vanderbilt University Medical Center has undergone more change than Eskind Biomedical Library (EBL). Read More

A patient comfort protocol is rendering minor procedures less painful and upsetting for younger outpatients of the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. Read More

Vanderbilt University Hospital recently earned an “A” Hospital Safety Score from the Leapfrog Group, placing VUH among the safest hospitals in the nation. Read More

In health care, narrative descriptions of symptoms, diseases, injuries, complaints, disabilities and procedures are routinely transformed into numeric or alphanumeric codes, facilitating billing, clinical research and the analysis of health care cost and quality. Read More

The Vanderbilt Breast Center is piloting new measures to ensure continuity of care and timely insurance preauthorization as patients come off grant-sponsored clinical trial protocols and begin or resume standard care. Read More

Neal Patel, M.D., MPH, professor of Clinical Pediatrics and chief medical information officer for inpatient services at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, is the first-place recipient of the 2013 Healthcare Informatics/AMDIS IT Innovation Advocate Award, recognizing leaders who have helped move the health care industry forward through their innovations. Read More

Surgical pathologists are often asked to evaluate tissue samples mid-procedure. These intraoperative consultations entail rapid processing and microscopic evaluation to distinguish diseased tissue from healthy tissue, thus helping guide the surgeon’s hands. Read More

As the United States grapples with a combination of unsustainable growth in health care costs and comparatively lackluster overall population health, Vanderbilt and other leading employers in the region are seeking to improve the value of health care services for their health plan beneficiaries. Read More

Mimi Huizinga, M.D., MPH Mimi Huizinga, M.D., MPH, assistant professor of Medicine, has been appointed to the newly created role of medical director for Vanderbilt Medical Group Adult Quality and Patient Safety, reporting to VMG Chief Medical Officer Paul Sternberg Jr., M.D. “I’m very pleased to… Read More

Janice Smith, R.N., M.Ed. Janice Smith, R.N., M.Ed., has been appointed to the new role of chief administrative officer of Vanderbilt Network Services. VNS serves as an interface between core departments of Vanderbilt University Medical Center and off-campus clinics. VNS staff members have expertise in project management,… Read More

Tucked in a data center in the basement of Vanderbilt University Hospital, a new computer the size of a large armoire, called a data warehouse appliance, is delivering a new order of speed to Vanderbilt clinical scientists as they search, filter, analyze and annotate the de-identified medical records of approximately 2 million patients. Read More

The latest Credo Award and Five Pillar Leader Award winners were announced at this week’s Spring Clinical Enterprise Leadership Assembly at Langford Auditorium. Read More

Over the next three years, Medicare will test a new payment arrangement that rewards participating hospitals when Medicare patients require fewer inpatient and post-discharge services, but extracts financial penalties when patients require more of these services. Read More

Having served since 2009 as Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s chief quality and safety officer, Julie Morath, MSN, is leaving to become senior vice president for the California Hospital Association, where she will have oversight for hospital and health system quality and safety strategy and alignment. She will also be appointed CEO of the new California Hospital Quality Institute. Read More

An overview of financial pressures created by the federal budget sequester and other legislation now facing Vanderbilt University Medical Center and academic health centers across the country was presented March 12 at two leadership forums — the Spring Clinical Enterprise Leadership Assembly held that morning at Langford Auditorium, and a faculty meeting focused on impact on the research community the same afternoon in Light Hall. Read More

As choices mount for patient testing and treatment, diagnostic management has arisen at Vanderbilt University Medical Center to address two closely related questions that clinicians must ask themselves more and more often: have I ordered the right tests for this patient; and, taken together, what do these test results imply for the best treatment of this patient? Read More

Blackford Middleton, M.D., MPH, M.Sc., corporate director of clinical informatics research and development at Partners Healthcare in Boston, will join Vanderbilt later this month in the role of assistant vice chancellor for Health Affairs and chief informatics officer for Vanderbilt University Health System. He succeeds John Doulis, M.D. Read More

“There and Home Again, Safely: 5 Responsibilities of Ambulatory Practices in High Quality Care Transitions,” a new white paper from the American Medical Association (AMA), is the work of a 19-member expert panel that included two Vanderbilt faculty members — Sunil Kripalani, M.D., M.Sc., associate professor of Medicine, and Amanda Salanitro M.D., MS, MSPH, instructor in Medicine, both from the section of Hospital Medicine in the Department of Medicine’s Division of General Internal Medicine and Public Health. Read More

Vanderbilt’s Department of Biomedical Informatics remains exceptionally well represented on the nine-member executive committee of the American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI). Read More