Reporter January 2024

The STAR Clinical Research Network, based at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), has added two new partners — Essentia Health, a Minnesota-based rural health care system, and Stanford University School of Medicine, one of the country’s leading academic medical centers.

The Mt. Juliet Fire Department joined forces with Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s EMS Center of Excellence, naming Jared McKinney, MD, associate professor of Emergency Medicine, as medical director.

Chic Awearness is now supporting two new ovarian cancer research initiatives at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and providing matching funding for a social worker to coordinate Woman to Woman, a peer mentoring program launched at VUMC in 2023.

Two recent innovations — point-of-care intestinal ultrasound and functional medicine — are improving the lives of patients at the Vanderbilt Inflammatory Bowel Disease Clinic at Vanderbilt Health One Hundred Oaks.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center received a $13 million Department of Defense grant to lead a multisite clinical trial that will evaluate repurposed FDA-approved drugs as treatment options for patients with Rett syndrome.

Vanderbilt Tullahoma-Harton Hospital recently teamed with the Tullahoma Sunrise Rotary Club and the Tullahoma Noon Rotary Club to provide funding for Tullahoma City Schools to purchase refurbished automated external defibrillators.

According to Alvarez, chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, the status of women’s health in the U.S., particularly maternal health, is “appalling” for a nation with the resources we have.