“Big data” can help reverse the alarming decline in life expectancy in the United States — if universities and academic medical centers take the lead, former U.S. Food and Drug Administrator Robert Califf, MD, told a Vanderbilt audience last week.

David Robertson, MD, internationally known for his groundbreaking work in defining and treating often-debilitating neurological disorders of blood pressure regulation, will be honored with a two-day symposium May 3-4 at Langford Auditorium.

While many might prefer to not think about dying, healthcare professionals throughout the United States are encouraging patients and their families to do just that during a national awareness campaign April 16-22 that promotes the importance of completing an advance directive for healthcare.

Alpha-gal allergy has commonly been referred to as “the red meat” allergy, but doctors at the Vanderbilt Asthma, Sinus and Allergy Program (ASAP) helped uncover that not only red meat, but some medications, can contain alpha-gal.

Treatment of anemia caused by chronic kidney disease or other diseases often requires repeated — and costly — injections or infusions of an artificial form of the hormone erythropoietin (EPO), which stimulates production of red blood cells.

Officials with Vanderbilt University Medical Center announced the creation of a wholly owned subsidiary, Nashville Biosciences, to harness the power of its extensive genomic and bioinformatics resources to advance drug and diagnostics discovery and development.

A Vanderbilt study of more than 1,000 intensive care unit patients around the country, nearly three-fourths of whom experienced delirium, showed that many drugs given to sedate patients in the ICU are actually increasing their chances of — and duration of — delirium instead of helping them recover.