Nancy Brown, M.D., Hugh J. Morgan Professor and chair of the Department of Medicine in the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, delivered a mixture of accolades and challenges to the dozens of faculty members, residents and fellows who attended her annual State of the Department address last week in Langford Auditorium.

Debra Friedman, MD, director of the Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, has been awarded a $100,000 Hyundai Hope on Wheels Impact Award. The grant was celebrated in a “handprint ceremony” with Hyundai representatives on June 12.

A group of young lung cancer patients and their family members recently toured research laboratories at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) to learn how investigators are working to find better therapies and possibly a cure for the disease.

With temperatures rising in Middle Tennessee, doctors at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt stress the danger of leaving children unattended in vehicles.

After successfully leading Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) through years of growth in patient volumes and enhanced care options, Michael Neuss, MD, Chief Medical Officer of the VICC Clinical Enterprise, is retiring as CMO. Neuss will be succeeded by Madan Jagasia, MBBS, MSCI, MMHC, who has been named to the George and Beverly Rawlings Directorship and is section chief, Hematology and Stem Cell Transplant and director of the Outpatient Stem Cell Clinic.

A five-year National Cancer Institute grant will fund an interdisciplinary research center for the study of small cell lung cancer, a highly aggressive, incurable form of the disease.