Reporter July 10 2020

July 6, 2020

New physician spotlight: Martin Montenovo

Martin Montenovo, MD, a liver transplant surgeon, has joined Vanderbilt University Medical Center as associate professor of Surgery in the Division of Hepatobiliary Surgery & Liver Transplantation. He began seeing patients on September 1, 2019.

By VUMC News and Communications
Research assistant Mahsa Majedi loads reagent used in DNA sample preparation in the genomics lab. She is part of a team of more than a dozen people at VUMC who are “sprinting” to develop — within 90 days — an antibody-based treatment to stop the spread of the Zika virus.
July 3, 2020

Research team isolates antibodies that may prevent rare polio-like illness in children linked to a respiratory infection

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Purdue University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison have isolated human monoclonal antibodies that potentially can prevent a rare but devastating polio-like illness in children linked to a respiratory viral infection.

By VUMC News and Communications
July 2, 2020

Friedman named associate director for Community Science and Health Outcomes at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center

Debra Friedman, MD, MS, E. Bronson Ingram Chair of Pediatric Oncology, is expanding her leadership role in improving cancer outcomes both within and beyond the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) catchment area. She has been named associate director of Community Science and Health Outcomes.

By Tom Wilemon
July 2, 2020

Fe y Salud webinar addresses disproportionate effects of COVID-19 on Latino community

The Latino community is affected disproportionately by COVID-19. News outlets report leaders and lawmakers calling its impact “catastrophic.” In the state of Tennessee, one-third of residents who test positive for the coronavirus are Hispanic, even though only 5.6 percent of the population is Hispanic.

By Matt Schorr
July 2, 2020

Slayton named Senior Vice President for Quality, Safety and Risk Prevention

Jenny Slayton, MSN, RN, who has served as Vice President of Quality, Safety and Risk Prevention since 2016, is being promoted to Senior Vice President for Quality, Safety and Risk Prevention.

By VUMC News and Communications
July 1, 2020

VUMC-led network to focus on polygenic risk for common diseases

With the aid of a $75 million, five-year grant renewal, the Electronic Medical Records and Genomics Network (eMERGE) will venture beyond its current focus on monogenic disease to scoring research participants’ relative risk for complex heritable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease and type 2 diabetes.

By Paul Govern
July 1, 2020

Facial recognition solves patient identification: study

Patient misidentification is an all too common cause of medical error. In low- and middle-income countries, free, open-source facial recognition software could provide an economical solution for verifying patient identity across health care settings, according to a study by Martin Were, MD, MS, and colleagues, appearing in the International Journal of Medical Informatics.
By Paul Govern
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