Vanderbilt University School of Medicine welcomed 112 new doctoral students on Aug. 31 during the ninth annual Simple Beginnings ceremony in a Light Hall lecture room filled with family members and other well-wishers.

Information is the lifeblood of health care behemoths like Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Without a technically superb and user-friendly system that provides a rapid and reliable flow of data, clinical operations will grind to a halt.

An international research team including scientists from Vanderbilt University has discovered how the diabetes drug metformin blocks glucose production by the liver. The discovery, reported Aug. 27 in the journal Nature Medicine, could lead to development of new ways to treat type 2 diabetes.

Katherine Swartz, PhD, a nationally known leader in health policy research, encouraged others conducting investigations in the field to move beyond the data and into local communities to gather the stories behind the data during last week’s Research into Policy and Practice Lecture hosted by Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Department of Health Policy.