VUMC News and Communications

July 17, 2006

Vanderbilt participating in West Nile vaccine trial

Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers, in collaboration with investigators at Johns Hopkins University, are beginning a Phase I trial to test a new vaccine against the West Nile virus.

By VUMC News and Communications
July 13, 2006

Health care workers with positive TB skin test should receive treatment

As the number of foreign-born health care workers in the United States has risen, so has the potential for transmitting tuberculosis in health-care settings.

By VUMC News and Communications
July 6, 2006

Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital Research on the Flu in Children Resulted in New Vaccination Recommendations

The study that led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to change its recommendations for giving flu shots to children is published in the July 6 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

By VUMC News and Communications
July 5, 2006

Vanderbilt Researchers Try Early Surgical Intervention to Treat Parkinson’s Disease Symptoms

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center are attempting to short circuit the progression of Parkinson’s disease by implanting stimulation devices into the brains of Parkinson’s patients earlier on in the course of their disease.

By VUMC News and Communications
July 3, 2006

Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital Experts urge safety around July 4 fireworks

Every year, around the Fourth of July, experts at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt see fireworks-related injuries — everything from burns and abrasions to serious eye damage, and even blindness. This year, doctors say, they hope parents will opt for a professional fireworks show rather than something in the back yard, put on by amateurs. National statistics show 10 percent of firework injuries are sustained by toddlers and injuries are most likely when children have fireworks without adequate supervision.

By VUMC News and Communications
July 3, 2006

Vermund Tapped For Leadership Role in Newly Restructured National HIV/AIDS Clinical Trials Networks

Sten H. Vermund, M.D., Ph.D., the director of The Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health and a Pediatric Infectious Disease research epidemiologist at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt has been selected as the primary investigator to lead the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) for the newly restructured HIV/AIDS clinical trials networks.

By VUMC News and Communications
June 27, 2006

Doctors at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital Urge Swimming Pool Safety

After treating five children for near-drowning in the last two weeks, Vanderbilt Children's Hospital experts are asking parents to review safety tips. Tom Abramo, M.D., director of the Emergency Department at Vanderbilt Children's, says most of the incidents have involved children under the age of 5.
By VUMC News and Communications
June 15, 2006

President Bush Nominates VUSN’s Conway-Welch to the Nation’s Federal Health Sciences University

President George W. Bush recently announced his intention to nominate Vanderbilt University School of Nursing Dean Colleen Conway-Welch, Ph.D., as a member of the Board of Regents of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.
By VUMC News and Communications
June 8, 2006

First Trimester Use of ACE Inhibitors Implicated in Birth Defects

The Food and Drug Administration is examining study data from Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers, published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine, to determine if new warnings should be placed on common blood pressure medications indicating an increased risk of birth defects for babies whose mothers take these medications during the first trimester of pregnancy.
By VUMC News and Communications
June 8, 2006

First Adult Cancer Patient in Nashville to Receive Stem Cell Transplant from Umbilical Cord Blood at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center

When 24-year-old Charles Dougherty checks into Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center tomorrow, he'll be preparing for a treatment that has never been performed before in an adult patient in Nashville, and will be only the second case in Tennessee history.
By VUMC News and Communications
May 26, 2006

VUMC’s Executive Vice President Norman Urmy to Retire

Norman Urmy, who over the past 24 years has led Vanderbilt University Hospital and its clinical enterprise successfully through an ever-changing landscape of health care changes, is stepping down.
By VUMC News and Communications
May 11, 2006

Effectiveness of Grapefruit Diet Studied at Vanderbilt Medical Center

In order to validate, or perhaps disprove, the belief that consuming grapefruit is a sensible weight loss strategy, researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have launched a two-year, three-arm randomized controlled study to see just how consumption of grapefruit and grapefruit juice affects appetite, dietary intake, weight loss and body composition.
By VUMC News and Communications