Department of Biomedical Informatics

September 10, 2025

Death on the web

Cause of death often lies buried amid content on crowdfunding platforms, web-based obituaries and memorial websites. With AI assistance, gathering and combining this mortality data with medical records could help power research and public health.

By Paul Govern
September 5, 2025

AI tools could shorten ‘diagnostic odyssey’ for patients with rare diseases

Large language models achieved diagnostic rates of 13.3% and 10.0%, compared to the historical clinical review rate of 5.6%, and they suggested next steps to evaluate the suggested diagnoses.

By Leigh MacMillan
(AdobeStock)
August 25, 2025

Clinicians, patients cheer DAX, the AI ‘ear’ in Vanderbilt Health exam rooms

The program, called DAX Copilot, relieves clinicians from having to enter data into the electronic health record during patient visits and enables them to focus more fully on the patient.

By Bill Snyder
April 29, 2025

Peter Embí, Department of Biomedical Informatics chair, to step down

DBMI is one of the nation’s largest departments of its kind in academic medicine and consists of more than 130 faculty who focus on different aspects of biomedical informatics.

By John Howser
Jill Simmons, MD, and John Shelley found that adding a genetic measure of height to the evaluation of children with short stature might improve diagnosis and clinical outcomes. (photo by Erin O. Smith)
April 25, 2025

Polygenic score for height could improve diagnosis for children with short stature: study

Even after comprehensive testing, about 30% of children with short stature — height below the third percentile on a growth chart — do not have a definitive diagnosis, leading to extended surveillance, testing and anxiety.

By Leigh MacMillan
March 17, 2025

Where are all the Alzheimer’s drugs?

A new study will use innovative methods developed at VUMC to look for drugs already approved for other uses that could potentially be repurposed to treat Alzheimer’s.

By Paul Govern
March 5, 2025

Team finds a better way to identify newborns at risk for opioid withdrawal

By 2017, on the back of the opioid crisis, the rate of neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome in the U.S. was estimated to have reached 7.3 per 1000 deliveries. Meanwhile, many newborns exposed to opioids in utero never develop the syndrome and must undergo needless monitoring in the hospital after birth.
By Paul Govern
February 17, 2025

Weight-loss surgery associated with reduced dementia

An observational study found that bariatric surgery was associated with 63% reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.
By Paul Govern
February 13, 2025

How researchers are enlisting volunteers to help shape clinical trials

Through a new tool offered by ResearchMatch, researchers planning trials can quickly survey potential participants about topics ranging from participant compensation to protocol design.
By Paul Govern
February 13, 2025

Experts recommend national health AI priorities

The 12 authors of the recommendations are mainly academics but also include leaders from tech companies Microsoft, Google and Epic.
By Paul Govern
February 10, 2025

Vanderbilt’s MS in Applied Clinical Informatics program now accepting applications for fall 2025

Vanderbilt's completely virtual MSACI program is designed for those looking to expand their careers through rigorous practical informatics training.
By VUMC News and Communications
January 22, 2025

Presidential awards recognize early career researchers

The award is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on scientists and engineers in the early stages of their research careers.
By Paul Govern
January 3, 2025

AI tested for alerting clinicians of suicide risk at three VUMC clinics

At neurology clinics the system was used to flag 8% of arriving patients as having relatively high risk for suicide attempt in the next 30 days.
By Paul Govern
1 2 3 4 … 26