Health And Medicine

Nine months after arriving as the new associate director of the Vanderbilt Transplant Center and eight days after the pediatric liver transplant program at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt was launched, surgeon Douglas Hanto transplanted a new liver into 10-year-old Aubree Vanzant. Read More

Deonni Stolldorf’s research focuses on determining how innovations in health care can be sustained to enhance organizational performance related to patient safety and the quality and effectiveness of care. Read More

Vanderbilt University has been awarded a major federal grant — $16 million over four years — to coordinate AIDS education and training efforts in Tennessee and seven other southeastern states. Read More

Buddy Creech, M.D., MPH, associate professor of Pediatrics, has been named director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Research Program (VVRP) in the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases. Read More

For more than twenty years, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center’s (VICC) primary source of outside funding has been provided by the National Institutes of Health. But in breast cancer, Susan G. Komen, a nonprofit dedicated to breast cancer research and community services, has been a significant sponsor of research and patient care support. Read More

The first study to suggest that major depressive disorder (MDD) is an independent risk factor for heart failure in HIV-positive adults has been published in Circulation. Read More

Lymphedema patients saw a nearly 80 percent reduction in cellulitis episodes by using an advanced pneumatic compression device at home, according to a study in JAMA Dermatology co-authored by Vanderbilt University School of Nursing’s Sheila Ridner, Ph.D., and University of Minnesota School of Public Health Associate Professor Pinar Karaca-Mandic, Ph.D. Read More

Structural and molecular details of an anti-fungal target's interaction with inhibitors suggest ways to design better treatments for fungal infections. Read More

More than half of hospitalizations due to influenza pneumonia could be prevented by influenza vaccination, according to a study led by investigators at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Read More

The glutamine transporter protein appears to contribute to the survival of lung cancer cells, suggesting it may be a useful diagnostic biomarker and target for therapies. Read More

New findings add to the understanding of how the enzyme COX-2 works, which is critical to the development of COX-2-targeted anti-inflammatory drugs. Read More

Vanderbilt University has received a contract from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for up to $28 million over four years to help more than 4,000 clinicians in the Southeast transform their clinical practices in ways that improve quality of patient care and hold down costs. Read More

La Jolla Pharmaceutical Co. and Vanderbilt University have signed a research and license agreement covering Vanderbilt’s research program and intellectual property rights related to compounds that block bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) type-I receptors. The compounds have therapeutic potential in a broad range of diseases, including rare genetic disorders. Read More

A new genetic model has generated new strategies for promoting tolerance to transplants – and improving long-term transplant outcomes – in the background of autoimmune disease. Read More

Declining use of prescription painkillers among preoperative patients seeking joint replacements indicates efforts by the state of Tennessee to tighten the spigot on opioids are beginning to have an impact, according to a study by Vanderbilt’s Andrew Shinar, M.D. Read More

Reduced-nicotine cigarettes were beneficial in reducing nicotine exposure and dependence, and also the number of cigarettes smoked per day, when compared with standard-nicotine cigarettes in a six-week study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Read More

Children with autism who participated in a 10-week, 40-hour, theatre-based program showed significant differences in social ability compared to a group of children with autism who did not participate, according to a Vanderbilt study published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. Read More

Disruptions in a specific signaling pathway in the brain can cause overeating of high-fat food, researchers at Vanderbilt University have found. Read More

Two survivors of a 2014 Ebola outbreak in Nigeria visited Vanderbilt University Medical Center last week to share their experiences and participate in a study aimed at finding ways to treat the often-fatal infection. Read More

To most effectively use electronic health records for research, investigators should query multiple components of the record to identify patients with specific diseases. Read More