VUMC News and Communications

The South is known for many things: hot, steamy summers, iced tea laced with sugar and friendly people with a tendency to welcome strangers. But beneath the veneer of Southern hospitality and gracious living lurks a silent killer: cancer. Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center researchers have their own name for the southern region of the United States: the "cancer belt."

Summertime activities can be fun but they can also place your eyes at an increased risk for long-term damage from the sun, or perhaps worse.

Dr. Levi Watkins Jr., whose passionate advocacy for racial equality and diversity was shaped by his early exposure to the Civil Rights Movement and its leaders, has been named the university's 2008 Distinguished Alumnus. The Vanderbilt Alumni Association will honor Watkins, a noted cardiac surgeon, at an Oct. 22 dinner at the Student Life Center.

Vanderbilt Medical Center\'s technological savvy continues to garner national acclaim, as evidenced by the institution once again being named among the nation\'s 100 "most wired" hospitals and health systems.

The Vanderbilt Kennedy Behavior Analysis Clinic, which serves families who have a child with an intellectual or other developmental disability and who also engage in challenging behaviors, is now working with children as young as 3 years old.

Pediatricians can help prevent future violent behaviors in their patients with a brief, one-time office intervention during a routine exam, according to a new study published in the July issue of Pediatrics.