In her final State of the Department of Medicine address at Vanderbilt University Medical Center on June 5, Jane Freedman, MD, chair of the department, physician-in-chief of Vanderbilt University Hospital and the Gladys Parkinson Stahlman Professor of Cardiovascular Research, celebrated the department’s 100th anniversary, praised the faculty members for their achievements and assured them “the department will continue to thrive.”
“I want to commend everyone for staying steady during some turbulent times,” said Freedman, who will succeed C. Wright Pinson, MBA, MD, as VUMC Deputy CEO and Chief Health System Officer on July 1.
Faced with great challenge and uncertainty, the 1,025 clinicians and scientists who make up the department’s faculty have remained true to their mission and completed “outstanding, lifesaving work,” she said.
And with that, Freedman enumerated some of the faculty’s “wins” during the past year.
Among them, the Department of Medicine ranked first in the nation in total research grant support provided by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in fiscal year 2024, according to figures compiled by the nonprofit Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research. This is the second year in a row the department has received this designation.
That ranking reflects the groundbreaking research being done in the department to understand and advance the diagnosis and treatment of a wide range of human diseases, said Freedman.
Freedman cited several highly impactful research findings reported by her faculty in the past year. Among them:
- Navigational bronchoscopy is as effective as the traditionally used transthoracic needle biopsy for diagnosing lung nodules, but with significantly fewer complications
- Arginine metabolism may be a new therapeutic target to overcome antibiotic tolerance and improve antibiotic effectiveness in treating staph infections
- Poor-quality sleep is associated with many chronic conditions, including obesity, atrial fibrillation, hypertension and major depression disorder
During her address, Freedman showed a video prepared for the department’s 100-year anniversary. In the video, Dan Roden, MD, senior vice president for Personalized Medicine, said the department’s No. 1 ranking in NIH funding reflects its national and international “reach.”
But, added Roden, the “really important legacy is who you train … who (your) intellectual children are.”
Renowned for its academic excellence, the Department of Medicine received 10 new Veterans Administration career development and Merit Awards in the past year totaling $15.7 million; six new NIH “K” early career awards totaling $1.6 million and holds 14 of VUMC’s 19 NIH T32 training grants.
“We are playing an enormous role in the training of our junior investigators,” Freedman said. In addition, “our trainees are uniformly outstanding. They are the lifeblood of this campus.”
With 566 trainees in the 2024-2025 fiscal year that ends June 30, including 145 residents, 266 fellows and 155 graduate students, plus 53 new faculty and 599 advanced practice professionals, “this is an incredibly high-achieving, productive department,” she said.
To hear Freedman’s address, including recognition of the dozens of faculty members who were honored in the past year for their academic and research excellence and clinical service, go to the VUMC Learning Exchange and click on State of Department of Address.
