Featured-Reporter

Nearly every week since 1988, cancer patients and families visiting Vanderbilt University Medical Center have been able to count on a comforting routine — at least one morning per week they are greeted by the same smiling volunteer who dispenses a dose of friendship along with coffee, snacks and advice about how to navigate the sprawling Medical Center campus. Read More

A new study comparing outcomes among prostate cancer patients treated with surgery versus radiotherapy found differences in urinary, bowel and sexual function after short-term follow-up, but those differences were no longer significant 15 years after initial treatment. Read More

A new unit nursing leadership structure, rolling out first at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, gives bedside nurses more support from their leaders. Read More

The Martin Luther King Jr. Day address at Vanderbilt University Medical Center was part statement about progress toward health goals, and part sermon about the need to finish the march to the promised land of health equality. Read More

Typically, when a person experiences sudden cardiac arrest while asleep, the chance of survival is poor. Read More

Recent advances in genetics and understanding how the brain works raise the possibility that intellectual developmental disabilities are treatable and some actually may be reversible. Read More

While this year’s flu season appears to be slowing down in some parts of the country, we’re not out of the woods yet, caution officials at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Read More

Vanderbilt and University of California investigators have discovered the “cell of origin” for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, a finding that could lead to early detection methods and new treatments. Read More

For Gabby Smith, a senior on the Vanderbilt University Women’s basketball team, a box of crayons is more than a carton of colored wax sticks used to scribble on paper. Read More

A Vanderbilt Emergency Medicine physician has created an application for smart phones and tablets to help emergency care providers stay on top of the latest research and newest treatment techniques. Read More

Clinical pharmacologist Jens Titze, M.D., and colleagues have discovered that – in contrast to the prevailing dogma – human sodium levels fluctuate rhythmically with 7-day and monthly cycles. Read More

According to a medical literature review published last month in the Annals of Internal Medicine, approximately 50 percent of medications for chronic disease are not taken as prescribed. Read More

Patients with pancreatic diseases can now access a team of multi-disciplinary specialists with one phone call to the new Vanderbilt Pancreas Center. Read More

On Monday, Vanderbilt Heart and Vascular Institute became the first heart program in Tennessee to implant the HeartWare ventricular assist system (VAS) as a bridge to transplantation. Read More

Editor’s note — the following is a chronological roundup of the news that made headlines at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 2012. Digestive disease research In January, the Vanderbilt Digestive Disease Research Center (VDDRC) was awarded a second five-year renewal of its federal research grant. The… Read More

Noah Harrison donated a kidney to his mother, Erica Johnson, earlier this week. (Photo by John Russell) For as long as Noah Harrison can remember, he has made all of his mother’s Christmas, birthday and other special occasion gifts by hand. But this year, Harrison’s gift for… Read More

John Graves, Ph.D. The decision by several states not to expand Medicaid health insurance for the poor may create unintended cuts for hospitals that provide uncompensated care, according to a study by John Graves, Ph.D., a Vanderbilt policy expert in the Department of Preventive Medicine. Read More

Vanderbilt University Medical Center is taking its commitment to a patient-centered experience to a new level through the Vanderbilt Patient and Family Promise, a six-point commitment statement being rolled out publicly in February. Read More

As medical centers across the country respond to declining revenue streams and a federal budget crisis, focusing on the quality of the patient experience becomes ever more important. Read More

Vanderbilt University Medical Center has been selected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to lead a consortium of top national experts in vaccine safety in performing timely reviews of adverse vaccine events. Read More