Tuesday morning, surgeons at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt successfully completed the hospital's first separation of conjoined twins.

Dr. Harry R. Jacobson will retire as vice chancellor for health affairs at Vanderbilt University June 1, and Dr. Jeffrey Balser, dean of the School of Medicine, will succeed him, Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos announced today.

Hundreds of Vanderbilt students will hit the dance floor Feb. 13-14 during Dance Marathon, a 14-hour student-run event to raise money for the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt and the Children's Miracle Network. Dance Marathon will be held from 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 13, until 9 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 14, at the Student Recreation Center on Vanderbilt's campus. The event is open to the public and all proceeds from Dance Marathon will go to the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt.

Jeff Balser, M.D., Ph.D., associate vice chancellor for Research for Vanderbilt University Medical Center, has been named dean of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Balser, who has served as interim dean since July 2008, becomes only the 11th dean of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine since its founding in 1875. In addition to his responsibilities as dean, Balser will be associate vice chancellor for Health Affairs, with continued oversight for medical center research.

Three generations of the family of the late Monroe Carell Jr. have pledged a gift of $20 million to the fundraising effort for a new facility to care for children and mothers. The Campaign for Children and Mothers, with a goal of $45 million, will support the building of a 400,000-square-foot facility, slated to open in 2012, adjacent to and connected with the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt.

Vanderbilt's emergency physicians are urging the public to take precautions in the extreme heat. Corey Slovis, M.D., chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and medical director for Metro-Nashville Fire Department EMS and Nashville International Airport, said prolonged heat day after day can lead to dehydration. "Having several days of high temperatures can lead to dehydration," Slovis said.

The South is known for many things: hot, steamy summers, iced tea laced with sugar and friendly people with a tendency to welcome strangers. But beneath the veneer of Southern hospitality and gracious living lurks a silent killer: cancer. Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center researchers have their own name for the southern region of the United States: the "cancer belt."