Department Of Health Policy

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

A new study from researchers at Vanderbilt and Harvard universities, published this week in the journal Health Affairs, uses federal health survey data to evaluate community-based efforts to address smoking, obesity and other health conditions such as type 2 diabetes and hypertension. Read More

A new large-scale study examining barriers to healthcare through the lens of gender identity finds that transgender men and women tend to fare poorly. The study, by researchers at Vanderbilt University and the University of Minnesota, appears in The Milbank Quarterly. Read More

Since 2014 the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, has assisted lower- and moderate-income people who buy insurance on their own on the individual market, providing premium subsidies and discounts on out-of-pocket expenses. Under the law, people who don’t carry compliant insurance face a penalty, the so-called individual mandate. Large employers who don’t offer insurance are also penalized. Read More

The Poynter-run institute's sessions covered global trade, the Affordable Care Act, cybersecurity, climate change and hate groups. Read More

Researchers in the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health are testing whether a unique “couples-centered” intervention developed in the southern African nation of Mozambique can reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Read More

Fewer uninsured patients are walking through the doors of Emergency Departments in states that expanded Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), even though the total number of visits has increased since 2014, according to an Annals of Emergency Medicine study released Monday. Read More

Stephen W. Patrick, M.D., MPH, MS, has been chosen to receive the Nemours Child Health Services Research Award, recognizing his work surrounding neonatal abstinence syndrome, a drug withdrawal syndrome experienced by infants exposed to opioids while in utero. Read More

The National Vaccine Program Office in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has selected William Schaffner, M.D., to receive its 2017 NVPO UpShot Award in Vaccine Communication. Read More

Hepatitis C infections among pregnant women nearly doubled from 2009-2014, likely a consequence of the country’s increasing opioid epidemic that is disproportionately affecting rural areas of states including Tennessee and West Virginia. Read More

Male infants are more likely at birth than their female counterparts to be diagnosed with drug withdrawal symptoms, also known as neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), and to require treatment, according to a new Vanderbilt study published in Hospital Pediatrics. Read More

Vindell Washington, M.D., MHCM, former national coordinator for health information technology with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, spoke at Vanderbilt University Medical Center last week. Read More

Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act provides patients with a greater choice of hospital facilities, Vanderbilt researchers have found. Read More

With lawmakers in the nation’s capital having reached a political impasse over replacement of the Affordable Care Act, it’s unclear just where health care policy may be going. The challenges of dealing with this uncertainty were the subject of Monday’s panel discussion at Vanderbilt featuring state and hospital industry officials. Read More

“Perspectives on Health Care Reform: From Obamacare to the American Health Care Act” is open to Vanderbilt faculty, staff and students. Read More