A collaborative program across units at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt is changing the way nurses and doctors care for newborns diagnosed with drug withdrawal symptoms at birth, also known as neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS).

First lady Melania Trump visited Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt Tuesday to learn firsthand about Team Hope, Vanderbilt’s multidisciplinary team focused on helping infants born with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) as well as their families.

“America’s Opioid Epidemic” is the theme of the 27th annual Joel G. Hardman Student-Invited Pharmacology Forum, beginning at 9 a.m. Wednesday, June 27, in the Vanderbilt Student Life Center.

Infants who are diagnosed with drug withdrawal after birth who are treated with medication as outpatients at home are treated three times longer than infants treated solely as inpatients, according to a new Vanderbilt study.

In the United States, one infant is born every 15 minutes with withdrawal symptoms after being exposed to opioids before birth, according to a new study published in the journal Pediatrics.

Stephen Patrick, MD, MPH, MS, assistant professor of Pediatrics and Health Policy in the Division of Neonatology at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, testified before Congress recently about the rise and impact of drug withdrawal symptoms in newborns, also known as neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS).

Stephen W. Patrick, M.D., MPH, MS, has been chosen to receive the Nemours Child Health Services Research Award, recognizing his work surrounding neonatal abstinence syndrome, a drug withdrawal syndrome experienced by infants exposed to opioids while in utero.