Reporter April 8 2022

A VUMC study found that following up with patients within the week after their hospital discharge as a stand-alone intervention has no impact on readmissions, mortality or patient satisfaction.

Financial impact of prior authorization

Prior authorization — health insurer approval of a medical intervention prior to treatment — costs more than $40 million for U.S. academic radiation oncology practices, with questionable value added to patient care.

Peptides promote AFib arrhythmia

Peptide oligomers have detrimental metabolic effects and cause pro-arrhythmic electrophysiological changes in heart atria, suggesting they may contribute to atrial fibrillation.

New Clinician Spotlight: Nick Strasser

Nicholas Strasser, MD, recently joined Vanderbilt University Medical Center as assistant professor of Orthopaedics in the Division of Foot and Ankle Surgery.

Computer eyeballs graft-vs-host disease

A machine learning algorithm identified areas of skin affected by chronic graft-versus-host disease on par with clinicians, opening the door to streamlining and standardizing this measure of patient response to therapy.

x-ray of stomach

New prognosis predictor and target for gastric cancer

The protein CGA — a subunit of glycoprotein hormones — is a biomarker that predicts chemoresistance in gastric cancer and could be targeted along with EGFR to restore chemosensitivity.

Eric Skaar, PhD, MPH, Hualiang Pi, PhD, and colleagues are studying a regulatory factor in the bacterium that causes the disease anthrax.

Study advances understanding of bacterial bioterrorism agent

Vanderbilt researchers have identified a critical regulatory factor in the bacterium that causes the disease anthrax and has been used as a biological weapon.

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