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.

After recent efforts to develop a vaccine to protect against AIDS proved ineffective, the National Institutes of Health announced a change in research direction; and it\'s one that will involve the lab of James Crowe, M.D., professor of Pediatrics, Microbiology and Immunology at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children\'s Hospital at Vanderbilt.

There\'s more to great health care than medicine. While physicians, nurses and hospital administrators are experts at patient care, they often lack the business skills needed to be effective managers. The new Vanderbilt Master of Management in Health Care is a one-year degree program designed to arm clinical professionals with the business fundamentals and decision-making skills needed to successfully manage people, programs and processes.

Memorial Day week is a time for medical experts to remind families to use extra caution with children swimming in area lakes and pools. From May through August, the Pediatric Emergency Department at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children\'s Hospital at Vanderbilt can expect to see dozens of children injured or killed in accidents involving the water.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center neurosurgeons and neurologists will be online live on Wednesday, May 28, hosting a one-hour Webcast to demonstrate a four-stage innovative technique used for deep brain stimulation (DBS).

Country music supergroup Rascal Flatts has been honored for their unflagging support of the Monroe Carell Jr. Children\'s Hospital at Vanderbilt. The multiplatinum-selling band was presented with the Humanitarian Award by the Academy of Country Music and Home Depot during Sunday Night\'s 43rd Annual Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas.

Larry R. Churchill, the Ann Geddes Stahlman Professor of Medical Ethics, discusses the reasons why Medicare is prone to crises and which reason we need to pay attention to, at the May 7 "Thinking Out of the Lunchbox."