Jeff Balser, M.D., Ph.D., President and CEO of Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and dean of the School of Medicine, has appointed a 14-member committee to conduct a national search for the new chair of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R).

Roderic Pettigrew, Ph.D., M.D., director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) of the National Institutes of Health, will deliver the next Flexner Discovery Lecture on Thursday, March 2.

A study conducted by researchers in the Department of Anesthesiology found a clinical information systems protocol, developed by the department’s Vanderbilt Perioperative Information Management Systems (VPIMS) developer group, improved management of blood glucose during the intraoperative period, resulting in reduced instances of hyperglycemia as well as a reduction in surgical site infections in diabetic patients and those with impaired glucose control following surgical procedures.

Kathie Krause, MSN, R.N., Chief Nursing Officer for Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, was recently named to the board of directors of Ronald McDonald House Charities of Nashville.

The Vanderbilt Eskind Diabetes Center hosted a Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia Patient Day Seminar earlier this month, with 60-70 attendees from all over the United States gathering to learn more about the condition and its treatment.

With EpicLeap Go Live only nine months away, the team responsible for ensuring that Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) is prepared from an operational readiness standpoint was facing a couple of big challenges. How could they effectively communicate with the various site leaders to ensure that Go Live-critical tasks were being completed in a timely manner? How could they accurately report gaps to VUMC leaders and get support in closing those gaps? Was it necessary to rely on email and Excel spreadsheets to accomplish this part of EpicLeap?