In the early morning hours of April 7, eStar, the Epic-based electronic health record (EHR) at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, will undergo its first major upgrade since the system went live in a coordinated “Big Bang” across most of the Medical Center in November 2017.

Over the past few decades the electronic health record (EHR) has become an object of intensive study, opening new ground in biomedical research. Natural language sections of the EHR, such as physician’s notes and health team messages, are a rich vein for research, but patient privacy considerations entail first scrubbing patient identifiers from these notes and messages. Historically, this has been accomplished through large, complex software systems that are expensive to develop and maintain.

Some biomedical researchers may be unsure about routine electronic health record (EHR) data and how useful it ultimately may prove for drawing meaningful, actionable associations that warrant changes to clinical practice and lead to improved clinical outcomes.

Maternal antibiotic use during pregnancy was not associated with childhood obesity at age 5, according a national study led by a Vanderbilt pediatrician.

Patients who take a cholesterol-lowering statin drug while taking the antibiotic daptomycin have increased risk of developing muscle weakness or a more severe form of muscle damage.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center is among an initial 39 health systems supporting a new health records feature on the iPhone.

Patients diagnosed with heart failure, stroke, infertility and kidney failure could actually be suffering from rare and undiagnosed genetic diseases.