New multicenter research that includes Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) investigators, could change treatment approaches to simple skin abscesses, infections often caused by Staphylococcus aureus (staph) bacteria.

This week Douglas Heimburger, M.D., M.S., professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt, joined a growing chorus calling for preservation of the Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Social risk factors including income, education and ethnic background influence health outcomes and should be taken into account in Medicare payment models, according to a New England Journal of Medicine “Perspective” titled “Social Risk Factors and Equity in Medicare Payment.”

The researchers examine whether the financial struggles of some major insurers under the Affordable Care Act reflect a policy failure or a mismatch of these firms’ capabilities and strategies to a newly created market.

Using patient outcomes data from approximately 1,800 hospitals, the largest demonstration to date of automated safety surveillance of a medical device is reported in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine.

Improved therapies have led to a spike in the number of people living with cancer, and today there are more than 15.5 million survivors in the United States. However, some of these therapies can cause toxicities to the heart, the vessels and the body’s metabolism.