Reporter

“There’s no magic bullet” to control rising health care costs in the United States, health law expert Timothy Jost, J.D., said during last week’s Flexner Discovery Lecture.

Three Vanderbilt University researchers on the cutting edge of discovery will discuss the “human determinants of cardiovascular disease and treatment” during the next Flexner Discovery Lecture on Sept. 24.

The initial results of a landmark clinical trial sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) indicate lowering systolic blood pressure below a commonly recommended target significantly reduces rates of cardiovascular events and lowers risk of death in a group of adults 50 years and older.

Nashville Predators captain Shea Weber and goaltender Pekka Rinne, along with Predators leaders and mascot Gnash, recently presented the proceeds of the team’s 365 Pediatric Cancer Fund to Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt.

The Vanderbilt Kennedy Center (VKC) has been awarded a $6.5 million, five-year grant to continue as a national Eunice Kennedy Shriver Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (IDDRC).

In April 1986 Bonnie Davis of Mt. Pleasant, Tennessee, became the first female patient to receive a heart transplant at Vanderbilt University Hospital. On Oct. 3, she will return to campus to participate in the Greater Nashville Heart Walk.

Eighteen-year-old Rachel Barnett of Robertson County is one of the first patients to be enrolled in the Undiagnosed Diseases Network (UDN) at Vanderbilt University Medical Center — one of seven medical centers around the country participating in a clinical research initiative of the National Institutes of Health to identify rare disorders in patients.