Drug allergy labels in medical records power searches for gene-drug associations

New neurodegeneration culprit

A young woman with a puzzling neurological illness and novel genetic variant pointed investigators to a role for dysregulated protein kinase D1 in neurodegeneration.

Award recognizes hands-on contributions to health IT at VUMC

Chetan Aher, MD, assistant professor of Surgery, and Wael Alrifai, MD, assistant professor of Pediatrics and Biomedical Informatics, are the inaugural winners of the Physician Builder Award, sponsored by the Vanderbilt Clinical Informatics Center (VCLIC). They received trophies made from Lego building blocks and gift certificates.

Predictive model identifies patients for genetic testing

Patients who, perhaps unbeknownst to their health care providers, are in need of genetic testing for rare undiagnosed diseases can be identified en masse based on routine information in electronic health records (EHRs), a research team reported June 3 in the journal Nature Medicine.

VUMC is pacesetter for national aspirin study

According to an innovative large-scale clinical trial reported last week in the New England Journal of Medicine, a single daily baby aspirin (81 mg) or a single daily adult aspirin (325 mg) are equally safe and effective for prevention of adverse cardiovascular events for patients with established atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

Strength in numbers

Voluntary data sharing across a region’s health systems and ambulatory care practices is important for measuring and improving health care quality and safety, Vanderbilt researchers report.