Preventive Medicine

The Houston Academy of Medicine and Harris County Medical Society awarded William Schaffner, M.D., professor of Preventive Medicine, with the 2016 John P. McGovern Compleat Physician Award last week. Read More

William Schaffner, M.D., professor of Preventive Medicine, is this year’s recipient of the American Public Health Association’s (APHA) 2015 John Snow Award, a longstanding award given in recognition of “enduring contributions to public health through epidemiologic methods and practice.” Read More

Influenza and parainfluenza infections – but not other respiratory viruses – increase the risk of acquiring pneumococcal bacteria, the most common cause of severe pneumonia. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers propose guidelines for defining patient retention in clinical studies – an important parameter that affects study conclusions and program evaluations. Read More

Melinda Buntin, Ph.D., deputy assistant director for Health at the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), will become chair of the new Department of Health Policy at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in late August. Read More

Vanderbilt health policy expert John Graves co-authored a report that shows as many as a quarter of people eligible for subsidized health insurance under the Affordable Care Act may be shut out because they don’t have a bank account. Read More

The National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) is awarding William Schaffner, M.D., professor and chair of Preventive Medicine, with its John P. Utz Leadership Award, presented to individuals who have demonstrated an outstanding level of dedication to their profession and to the NFID. 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

An analysis of Massachusetts’ health care reform program by a Vanderbilt researcher indicates insurance gaps may remain as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) expands insurance coverage beginning in 2014. Read More

Heart disease is still the leading cause of death for men in Tennessee and cancer deaths continue to move further away from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Healthy People 2020 goal, according to the 2012 Tennessee Men’s Health Report Card. Read More

Statins, traditionally known as cholesterol-lowering drugs, may reduce mortality among patients hospitalized with influenza, according to a new study released online by The Journal of Infectious Diseases. Read More

Carlos Grijalva, M.D., MPH, assistant professor of Preventive Medicine, will go to the rural areas of the Peruvian Andes through a $500,000 grant from the Thrasher Foundation to examine pneumonia in children in the hopes of describing the association between common respiratory viral infections and bacterial infection. Read More

A gene signature may be useful in predicting outcomes for patients with rhabdomysarcoma, a form of cancer most commonly diagnosed in children. Read More

Elephants can transmit TB to humans, researchers at the CDC, Tennessee Department of Health and Vanderbilt University have reported. Read More