Reporter April 27 2018

The prevalence of U.S. children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is now 1 in 59, according to new estimates released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a significant increase from the 1 in 68 estimate in 2016. Read More

The leaders of a new Vanderbilt initiative for young adults with autism are looking to expand its reach through distance learning. Launched a year ago to primarily serve Middle Tennessee residents, Spectrum Pathways has generated out-of-state interest with some participants flying into Nashville to take part. Read More

Consuelo Wilkins, MD, MSCI, has played a major role in the development of the national All of Us Research Program, an ambitious effort led by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to accelerate the prevention and treatment of illness through precision medicine. Read More

With last week’s election of Lorraine Ware, MD, as vice president of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), two faculty members of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine are among the current officers of the elite physician-scientist honor society. Read More

Children with hearing loss who use remote microphone systems (RMS) at home have access to about 42 percent more words each day, providing a critical boost to vocabulary and language learning, a Vanderbilt study has found. Read More

Few people die from rabid animal bites in the United States thanks to the near-universal availability of human rabies immune globulin and rabies vaccine, which are given as separate shots as soon as possible after exposure to the rabies virus. Read More

Former Vanderbilt University School of Medicine associate deans of Graduate Medical Education (GME) Fred Kirchner Jr., MD, (1988-2007), left, and Dennis Wentz, MD, who was the first associate dean for GME (1978-88), right, recently reunited with current senior associate dean Donald Brady, MD, who took the helm in 2008. Read More

It’s not often that a keynote speaker will ask his audience to close their eyes and tune him out, but that’s what Aviad “Adi” Haramati, PhD, did when delivering the 2018 John E. Chapman Lecture. Read More

Vanderbilt Health and Williamson Medical Center are opening a fifth walk-in clinic in Williamson County, providing Nolensville residents and those in the surrounding area with care closer to home. Read More

The misrepresentation of scholarly work among residency applicants has been documented for decades, said Louise Mawn, MD, professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Read More

The chair of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai, recently visited Allen County Schools in Kentucky to see a demonstration of the new school-based telemedicine program. Read More

Representatives from Vanderbilt Sports Medicine and Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt will take part in the kickoff event for Safe Stars, a new rating system that allows parents to check if youth sports leagues in Tennessee follow state-recommended safety protocols. Read More

The intricacies of preparing a reed for an oboe resembles the skill set necessary for oculoplastic surgery. As a once aspiring oboist, Rachel Sobel, MD, relates to the comparison. Read More

The thoracic surgery team at Vanderbilt University Medical Center recently added a new tool to its collection of minimally invasive techniques to provide patients the most advanced robotic-assisted surgical procedures. Read More

Vanderbilt University Adult Hospital (VUAH) has been awarded a spring 2018 patient safety grade of “A” from the Leapfrog Group, a coalition of public and private purchasers of employee health coverage that works to encourage health care safety, quality and affordability. Read More