When a drug or combination of drugs causes different responses in different people, genetic variation is often at play. Pharmacogenomics, through discovery of genetic risk and use of clinical genotyping, aims to reduce trial-and-error approaches to drug prescribing.

At Vanderbilt Health One Hundred Oaks, among the 40 full-time Aramark Corp. employees who work under contract to provide environmental services — EVS, an industry term for health care cleaning services — there has not been an injury requiring medical attention in more than 500 days.

Celestine Wanjalla, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases, is among 17 recipients of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation 2021 Clinical Scientist Development Award.

Analyzing electronic health records (EHR) of 9,748 patients diagnosed with COVID-19, Cosmin Bejan, PhD, Elizabeth Phillips, MD, and colleagues at Vanderbilt University Medical Center asked whether COVID disease severity correlated with any drugs that happened to be taken by these patients in the months leading up to their diagnosis.

Vanderbilt neurologists found altered excitability in deep brain structures that they note may drive respiratory dysfunction and sudden death in a rare form of epilepsy.

For patients in need of acute ischemic stroke treatment, air transport to Vanderbilt University Medical Center is apt to be quicker than ground transport for interhospital transfers of 40 miles or more and for direct-from-scene transfers of 28 miles or more.