Paul Govern

In preliminary testing, Vanderbilt Home Care Services (VHCS) has found that Internet-based remote patient monitoring reduces hospital readmissions for patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) who are receiving home nursing visits.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s 55 patient transporters average approximately 550 transports per weekday and 425 per day over the weekend. The dispatch system that coordinates transport is fully automated.

Faculty members Josh Denny, M.D., M.S., associate professor of Biomedical Informatics and Medicine, and Paul Harris, Ph.D., associate professor of Biomedical Informatics and research associate professor of Biomedical Engineering, are among six fellows elected this year to the American College of Medical Informatics.

Christoph Lehmann, M.D., and a handful of fellow experts in clinical informatics have secured official recognition for their subspecialty from the American Board of Medical Specialties.

On the evening of Nov. 16, in Washington, D.C., William Stead, M.D., associate vice chancellor for Health Affairs and chief strategy officer for Vanderbilt University Medical Center, received a welcome surprise. The setting was the National Press Club and the occasion was the annual leadership dinner of the American Medical Informatics Association, where the field’s top awards are presented.

An initiative is afoot to document each patient’s anticipated date of discharge in StarPanel (the electronic medical record system) upon admission to Vanderbilt University Hospital, then update it daily and remind patients of it daily.