Healthcare Solutions

Twenty-five years ago, Julie Damon’s family was preparing to say their goodbyes. Comatose and on life support at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) with liver failure, the options for the 45-year-old wife and mother of two were slipping away. Read More

Because donor organs are scarce, understanding the mortality risk associated with heart transplantation is an important consideration when evaluating patients for transplant. Read More

Vanderbilt University Medical Center nephrologist and Associate Professor of Medicine Dr. William Fissell IV is making major progress on a first-of-its kind device to free kidney patients from dialysis. He is building an artificial implantable kidney with microchip filters and living kidney cells that will be powered by a patient’s own heart. Read More

When Rob Hood, M.D., began practicing cardiology 30 years ago he could not have imagined that fitness would one day be measured on a device worn around his wrist. Read More

Lindsay Ramsey Smith, MSN, R.N., a quality consultant for the Vanderbilt Transplant Center (VTC), recently uncovered some interesting data that sparked a center-wide improvement project. Read More

One small chemical change to an existing antibacterial drug results in a compound that is more effective against its target enzyme in tuberculosis, Vanderbilt researchers have discovered. Read More

A protein that suppresses a key cancer pathway in the colon may be a potential biomarker for colitis-associated tumors, researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center reported last month in the journal Gut. Read More

The 3 million prostate cancer survivors in the United States are likely to die from something other than cancer, thanks to early detection, effective treatment and the disease’s slow progression. Read More

In response to low national vaccination rates for the human papillomavirus (HPV), Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) has joined 68 of the nation’s other NCI-designated cancer centers in recommending increased HPV vaccination for the prevention of cancer. Read More

Tonia Rex, Ph.D., and colleagues at the Vanderbilt Eye Institute are working to uncover how best to treat ocular trauma, the fourth leading cause of blindness worldwide. Read More

A family of proteins with critical roles in cell division, synaptic transmission and cell migration don’t all function the way scientists thought they did, according to two new studies led by Vanderbilt researchers. Read More

Sidney Kleinman is living proof that you’re never too old to have your hearing restored. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers have established a link between the neurotransmitter serotonin and certain behaviors of some children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a link that may lead to new treatments for ASD. Read More

Vanderbilt investigators report an improved model for estimating brain health, using MRI. Read More

An enzyme that builds DNA is able to insert the wrong building blocks, which could generate mutations. Read More

There may be a “silver bullet” for Ebola, a family of hemorrhagic viruses, one of which has killed more than 11,000 people in West Africa in the past two years. Read More

Certain protein factors have been identified as attractive targets for treating diabetic retinopathy, a major cause of blindness in adults. Read More

The brains of children who are obese function differently from those of children of healthy weight, and exhibit an “imbalance” between food-seeking and food-avoiding behaviors, researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have found. Read More

Christine Lovly, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of Medicine and Cancer Biology, has been awarded a V Scholar Grant from the V Foundation for Cancer Research. Read More

Vanderbilt investigators have developed a way to detect malaria that is faster and more sensitive than current clinical methods — a development that has the potential to make malaria detection significantly less expensive and more stable. Read More