Melinda Buntin

Vanderbilt University Medical Center health policy experts share what’s next for drug policy, insurance coverage, health care access and pandemic response in a free virtual discussion on Monday, Nov. 16. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers find that social distancing policies have slowed the spread of COVID-19, but caution that continued distancing is needed to keep the rate of spread low, and that any future rollback of such policies must be contingent on widely available testing and contact tracing. Read More

Interim Chancellor and Provost Susan R. Wente has established a new Public Health Advisory Task Force to serve as a resource for the university during the COVID-19 pandemic. Read More

Vanderbilt University is now accepting applications for a new doctoral program in health policy. The program is being launched at a time when health care is consistently one of the most important issues to Americans at home and at the polls. Read More

Velma McBride Murry, who holds the Lois Autrey Betts Chair in Education and Human Development, has been named University Professor of Human and Organizational Development and University Professor of Health Policy. 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

Vanderbilt researchers will establish a new research hub to better understand the needs of some of some of Tennessee’s most vulnerable children. Read More

Colleagues, friends and family gathered April 25 to honor eight Vanderbilt University faculty named to endowed chairs. 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

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

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

Vanderbilt University’s Melinda Buntin, Ph.D., professor of Health Policy and chair of the department, and Joshua Denny, M.D., M.S., professor of Biomedical Informatics and Medicine and Vice President for Personalized Medicine, are among 70 new members elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), the organization announced this week. Read More

Social risk factors including income, education and ethnic background influence health outcomes and should be taken into account in Medicare payment models, according to a New England Journal of Medicine “Perspective” titled “Social Risk Factors and Equity in Medicare Payment.” Read More

Following the November elections, many Americans will have questions about the future of health policy. Join the Department of Health Policy at Vanderbilt University Medical Center on Monday, Nov. 16, at 4 p.m., for a virtual discussion on major health care policy issues facing the country—from COVID-19 response to… Read More

The implementation of state prescription drug monitoring programs was associated with the prevention of approximately one opioid-related overdose death every two hours on average nationwide, according to a new Vanderbilt-led study released this week in the journal "Health Affairs." Read More

In the fall of 1902, Dr. Charles Wardell Stiles, a zoologist with the U.S. Public Health Service, got a hunch that parasites were causing large swaths of the South’s rural poor to suffer an array of debilitating symptoms. Read More

With a greater focus on how the health care system functions, particularly in the wake of the 2009 Affordable Care Act, Vanderbilt has adjusted its own research and teaching programs surrounding public health and health policy. Read More

A panel discussion titled “Caring for the Uninsured: A National, State and Local Perspective” is scheduled for Monday, Nov. 16, and will feature Nashville Mayor Megan Barry, Commonwealth Fund President David Blumenthal and Nicole Comeaux, deputy executive director of the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange. Read More

A new faculty task force has been appointed to prioritize and refine the eight health-related initiatives in the Academic Strategic Plan and to inventory existing health-related interdisciplinary centers and institutes at Vanderbilt. Read More

In the latest VUCast: See how TV news impacted the women's rights movement; the story of the first African American to play basketball in the SEC scores big; and experts address hot-button issues in health care. Watch now! Read More