Department Of Health Policy

Thirteen outstanding faculty members from across the university have been selected for the 2024 cohort of Chancellor Faculty Fellows. This group is composed of highly accomplished, recently tenured faculty from a wide variety of disciplines and areas of expertise.    Read More

In a new study led by Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers, women who filled two or more prescriptions for opioids after childbirth faced a 46% greater risk of death than women who did not. Read More

There is strong evidence that the medication apixaban (Eliquis) is preferable to rivaroxaban (Xarelto) for stoke prevention in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF), with both reduced rates of severe bleeding complications as well as strokes, according to study published Dec. 21 in JAMA. Read More

Vanderbilt’s Muktar Aliyu, MBBS, MPH, DrPH, and Hilary Tindle, MD, MPH, will be inducted this year into the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), an elite honor society of physician-scientists from the upper ranks of academic medicine and industry. Read More

Rates of neonatal abstinence syndrome have plateaued after 20 years of increasing frequency across the country, according to a new study published in Health Affairs. Read More

In Southern states that expanded their Medicaid programs under the Affordable Care Act, adults experienced lower rates of decline in both physical and mental health, according to a new Vanderbilt analysis. Read More

Medicare Part D enrollees may pay more out of pocket for high-priced specialty generic drugs than their brand-name counterparts, according to new research by health policy experts at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Read More

Vanderbilt School of Medicine and Peabody College have established a transinstitutional Policies for Action Research Hub to better understand and develop recommendations to address the needs of some of Tennessee’s most vulnerable children, including those in immigrant families and with prenatal exposure to opioids. Read More

The findings reinforce guidelines for cautious use of antipsychotics in younger populations, according to senior author Wayne Ray. Read More

Results of the study suggest the prospect of an array of individual and societal benefits to personalized medicine, as well as risks for physical, dignitary, group, economic, psychological and legal harms, many of which may have been over-emphasized or overlooked in the literature. Read More

People who qualify for both Medicaid and Medicare tend to have very serious, complex health problems, but new research by Laura Keohane shows that their rate of healthcare spending is not rising any faster than that of people eligible for just Medicare. Read More

A team led by Stacie Dusetzina has received a grant to determine whether rising drug prices and out-of-pocket expenses are causing older Americans enrolled in Medicare Part D to delay or never fill their prescriptions. Read More

One of the first studies to examine the health impacts of legal marriage for LGBT individuals has found gay men were more likely to receive routine medical care following marriage legalization. Read More

U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams, MD, MPH, visited Vanderbilt University Medical Center last week to speak at the spring Health Policy Grand Rounds at Langford Auditorium. The event was dedicated to combatting America’s opioid crisis, and Adams emphasized the importance of the overdose-reversal drug naloxone. Read More

Infants who are diagnosed with drug withdrawal after birth who are treated with medication as outpatients at home are treated three times longer than infants treated solely as inpatients, according to a new Vanderbilt study. Read More

Generic drug options did not reduce prices paid for the cancer therapy imatinib (Gleevec), according to a Health Affairs study released this week. Read More

“State Health Policy: Does Evidence Really Make a Difference” was the title of the spring Research into Policy and Practice Lecture, April 11 in Light Hall. The semi-annual lecture is sponsored by the Department of Health Policy. Read More

In the United States, one infant is born every 15 minutes with withdrawal symptoms after being exposed to opioids before birth, according to a new study published in the journal Pediatrics. Read More

Stephen Patrick, MD, MPH, MS, assistant professor of Pediatrics and Health Policy in the Division of Neonatology at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, testified before Congress recently about the rise and impact of drug withdrawal symptoms in newborns, also known as neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS). Read More

Opioid users have a significantly increased risk of infections severe enough to require treatment at the hospital, such as pneumonia and meningitis, as compared to people who don’t use opioids. Read More