VUMC history

January 16, 2024

Following the clues through time: Old mummies, old bones and old teeth lead to new insight into disease for Katherine Van Schaik

Radiology fellow moves from present-day patients to historical artifacts to understand health and illness

By Bill Snyder
May 15, 2023

Polio patients, iron lung respirators, and…hey, is that Pat Boone??!!

Polio was a terrifying disease, once filling wards at VUMC with paralyzed patients in iron lungs. Vaccines have saved us from all that.

By Wayne Wood
May 15, 2023

I was the last person in an iron lung at Vanderbilt University Medical Center

It was in a storage room. It still worked. For some reason, I was allowed to get in it.

By Wayne Wood
August 19, 2022

There is a reminder, hiding in plain sight in the architecture of Medical Center North, of how VUMC dealt with a deadly infectious disease almost 100 years ago

An open-air porch for tuberculosis patients was built into the old Vanderbilt Hospital — and it’s still visible if you know where to look

By Wayne Wood
May 12, 2022

An afternoon with the woman who grew up at One Hundred Oaks

It was a retailing wonderland that VUMC transformed into a health care destination. But before all that, it was Carolyn Suschnick’s home.

By Wayne Wood
February 9, 2022

The mystery of “Little Jim”

Who is the serious little boy in the 1932 picture, and why is he dressed like a miniature doctor?

By Wayne Wood
December 23, 2021

The most popular VUMC Voice stories of 2021

Love stories, an honor walk, a heroic rescue -- and plumbing
By Wayne Wood
February 7, 2020

The elusive Nobel Prize winner

Stanley Cohen wanted to be left alone to do his research. I wanted to interview him for a radio show. Amazingly, he said yes.
October 16, 2019

When ABC’s “World News Tonight” was broadcast live from VUMC

A specially built platform outside the hospital allowed anchor Peter Jennings to deliver the news with a VUMC backdrop
October 12, 2018

The story behind the law that saved thousands of children

Robert Sanders, MD, and his wife Patricia were tireless advocates for a child safety-seat law that saved thousands of children and was a model for the nation.
By Wayne Wood
November 30, 2017

When VUMC was a movie set

Lauren Hutton! William H. Macy! James Farentino! Medical Center North?
By Wayne Wood
October 31, 2017

From the circus to the School of Medicine

James Tayloe Gwathmey, M.D., was a circus performer and Vanderbilt doctor who wrote popular books on both anesthesia and circus acrobatics
By Wayne Wood
September 5, 2017

Hidden Figure

In 1964, with little fanfare, Harold Jordan, MD, became the first African-American resident physician at Vanderbilt. Looking back to that time, he recalls the support of his colleagues and the challenges he faced.
By Wayne Wood