Author: Paul Govern
Line placement better with ultrasound
May. 9, 2019—Using ultrasound to place arterial lines reduces the need for surgical access and improves arterial line location, Vanderbilt researchers have found.
Report seeks to streamline EHR de-identification
Apr. 4, 2019—Over the past few decades the electronic health record (EHR) has become an object of intensive study, opening new ground in biomedical research. Natural language sections of the EHR, such as physician’s notes and health team messages, are a rich vein for research, but patient privacy considerations entail first scrubbing patient identifiers from these notes and messages. Historically, this has been accomplished through large, complex software systems that are expensive to develop and maintain.
Treatment resistance of mental disorders studied
Mar. 28, 2019—With the aid of a four-year, $3.4 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) will apply new techniques to investigate treatment resistance of two devastating mental disorders — major depressive disorder, which befalls 15 percent of people at some point in their lives, and schizophrenia, which affects approximately 1 percent.
Skin diseases study uses crowdsourcing to gather data
Feb. 21, 2019—In 1906, English statistician Francis Galton happened to visit a livestock fair where fairgoers were invited to guess the dressed weight of an ox scheduled for imminent slaughter. Some 800 attendees took part and afterwards Galton got hold of the contest data.
PheWAS Core helps researchers make sense of electronic health record data
Feb. 7, 2019—Some biomedical researchers may be unsure about routine electronic health record (EHR) data and how useful it ultimately may prove for drawing meaningful, actionable associations that warrant changes to clinical practice and lead to improved clinical outcomes.
Study explores genetic risk for suicide attempt
Jan. 31, 2019—Using data from the UK Biobank and Vanderbilt’s BioVU, a new study in the journal Molecular Psychiatry finds that approximately 4 percent of suicide attempt risk is captured by genotype data.
Study finds patient messages help predict medication adherence
Jan. 31, 2019—Around two-thirds of patients treated for breast cancer will have had hormone-sensitive tumors and, after their initial treatment, will be advised to undergo hormone therapy for five to 10 years to prevent recurrence.
Study tracks repercussions from reduced pre-op testing
Jan. 17, 2019—When clinical teams at Vanderbilt University Medical Center dramatically reduced several types of preoperative testing for elective surgery patients, there were no repercussions for these patients in terms of case cancellation rates, average length of stay in the hospital or rates of readmission to VUMC.
Clinical Data Research Network primed for growth
Jan. 10, 2019—The Mid-South Clinical Data Research Network, led by Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Russell Rothman, MD, MPP, is a collaborative effort among a group of large health care systems to support and conduct innovative comparative effectiveness research and clinical trials.
Study uses IT to prevent early childhood obesity
Dec. 20, 2018—A research team led by Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Russell Rothman, MD, MPP, has been approved for a $7 million research funding award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to conduct a randomized, multi-center trial comparing clinic and consumer information technology approaches to promote healthy behaviors and prevent early childhood obesity.
Seven named as fellows of Medical Informatics Association
Dec. 20, 2018—Seven Vanderbilt University Medical Center employees are among an inaugural group of 130 fellows of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA).
New directorship honors Boehm’s devotion to patients
Dec. 13, 2018—In 1938, Frank Boehm’s parents fled Nazi Germany, where relatives on his father’s side would later be rounded up and sent to the death camps, never to return. “Fortunately, my dad had the vision and foresight to get out of Germany while he still could,” Boehm said.
