Department of Health Policy Archives

Poll shows food insecurity on rise in Tennessee

Mar. 23, 2023—A newly released Vanderbilt poll found that an increasing number of Tennessee parents are reporting their families are food insecure.

Majority of Tennessee parents agree on several school firearm safety measures: poll

Mar. 9, 2023—A new Vanderbilt poll finds that a majority of Tennessee parents agree on several firearm-related school safety measures.

Andrew Wiese, MPH, PhD, left, Carlos Grijalva, MD, MPH, and colleagues found that the risk of a heart attack diagnosis was highest in the first week after onset of pneumococcal infection.

Serious pneumococcal infections increase the risk of heart attack

Mar. 2, 2023—A Vanderbilt study found that patients with serious pneumococcal infections, including pneumonia and sepsis, are at a substantially increased risk of heart attack after the onset of infection.

Poll finds rates of uninsured children back to pre-pandemic level

Feb. 23, 2023—The latest analysis of the annual Vanderbilt Child Health Poll of Tennessee parents shows the rate of uninsured children in the state has returned to prepandemic levels.

Vanderbilt poll finds Tennessee parents trust their children’s health care providers the most for information about vaccines

Feb. 8, 2023—A recent Vanderbilt poll found parents across the state reporting their children’s health care providers as the most trusted source for information about vaccines.

Computer illustration of a plasma cell (B-cell, left) secreting antibodies (white) against influenza viruses (right). Antibodies bind to specific antigens, for instance viral proteins, marking them for destruction by phagocyte immune cells.

Risk of household flu spread skyrocketed during pandemic

Feb. 2, 2023—A Vanderbilt study found that the household spread of flu during the 2021-2022 season was more than twice as high as it was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Study to explore COVID’s impact on essential workers

Jan. 26, 2023—Vanderbilt researchers are inviting non-health care essential workers to participate in a study to better understand how they continue to be impacted by COVID-19.

Vanderbilt Child Health poll: majority of Tennessee parents worried about school quality, mental health

Jan. 25, 2023—A new poll of Tennessee parents from the Vanderbilt Center for Child Health Policy found that most Tennessee parents placed school quality and child mental health at the top of their list of concerns for their children.

Emerging Infections Program lands national award for COVID response

Jan. 19, 2023—Vanderbilt's Emerging Infections Program (EIP) recently received the Toby Merlin Award for Excellence in Emergency Response, presented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

Search committee for Department of Health Policy chair appointed

Dec. 27, 2022—A 14-member committee has been formed to conduct a national search for the new chair of Vanderbilt University Medical Center's Department of Health Policy.

Health Policy Chair Buntin transitioning to create Center for Health Systems and Policy Modeling at Johns Hopkins

Dec. 1, 2022—Vanderbilt's Melinda Buntin, PhD, has been offered a Bloomberg Distinguished Professorship at Johns Hopkins University.

Stacie Dusetzina, PhD, right, on the South Lawn of the White House with colleagues Rachel Sachs, JD, MPH, of Washington University St. Louis, left, and Michell Mello, PhD, of Stanford.

Researcher’s decade of analyzing the price of drugs leads to big reforms

Nov. 3, 2022—Vanderbilt's Stacie Dusetzina, PhD, and several colleagues were able to reflect recently on the South Lawn of the White House about how their contributions through research and data informed the provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act that will save older Americans on Medicare tens of thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket costs each year.

VUMC Reporter