Last week in Langford Auditorium, Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D., director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), delivered what he referred to as a “romp through an awful lot of the landscape of biomedical research.”

Affirmation of Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s high profile in precision medicine came last week when a new working group convened by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) visited Vanderbilt for a two-day public workshop devoted to planning a key component of the federal Precision Medicine Initiative announced earlier this year by President Obama.

Credo Award and Five Pillar Leader Award winners were announced May 21 at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center Clinical Enterprise Leadership Assembly at Langford Auditorium. These staff and faculty awards are given on a quarterly basis.

The Vanderbilt University Medical Center Spring Clinical Enterprise Leadership Assembly, held on May 21 at Langford Auditorium, highlighted ways the Medical Center is preparing to lead in a consumer-driven health care economy, where patients’ concerns over both cost and quality will drive industry change.

For colorectal surgery patients at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, the introduction last summer of a new patient care protocol, which includes intensive follow-up by anesthesiologists in the hospital, has led to an average 25 percent reduction in hospital length of stay after surgery — from four days to three — and 90 percent reduction in the use of opioids to treat post-operative pain.