Reporter June 5 2020

A month before his 49th birthday, Geoffrey Fleming, MD, had a biopsy of his liver to diagnose an unidentified metastatic disease that he already knew was “something bad.”

There has been nothing normal about the COVID-19 pandemic, and grieving the loss of a life at a time when families have been unable to gather beside a bedside to say goodbye, or to even hold a traditional funeral, has been one of the worst consequences of this health crisis’s uncharted territory.

Pediatricians at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt are stressing the continued importance of well-child visit for infants, children and adolescents, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Alcohol use disorder and problematic drinking are genetically correlated with substance use, certain psychiatric illnesses and other neuropsychiatric traits, according to a study involving Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers.

Again this year, Vanderbilt University Medical Center has been named as one of Becker’s Healthcare “100 great hospitals in America.”

People with cancer sickened by COVID-19 have a crude death rate of 13%, according to the largest series of data released thus far from a multinational perspective. The data on more than 900 patients, published May 28 in The Lancet and simultaneously presented at ASCO20 Virtual, also revealed cancer-specific factors associated with increased mortality.

As hospital and health care staff across the country continue learning more about the transmission and spread of COVID-19, caregivers for coronavirus patients continue adapting to the changing needs and best practices for personal protective equipment (PPE).