Department of Pediatrics

John Pietsch, MD, the recently retired founder of the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) program at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, didn’t grow up wanting to be a doctor.

Vanderbilt recently launched a new multidisciplinary Fontan Clinic, which will provide an ongoing, coordinated care plan for children and teens, ages 10-19, who have had the Fontan procedure for single ventricle heart disease.

Vanderbilt's Jim Cassat, MD, PhD, has received a three-year, $750,000 award from the G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Foundation to support research exploring the interplay between bone homeostasis and infectious disease.

Infants younger than 6 months were better protected from COVID-19 complications when mothers received two doses of the vaccine while pregnant, according to Vanderbilt researchers.

Saeed Mohammad, MD, MS, recently joined Vanderbilt University Medical Center as director of the Pediatric Solid Organ Transplant Center at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt.

The V Foundation for Cancer Research has awarded a $200,000 grant to Jason Schwartz, MD, PhD, assistant professor in the Division of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, to support his studies of childhood myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), bone marrow disorders that can lead to cancer. 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to authorize Pfizer and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines for children as young as 6 months old as early as tomorrow, following the unanimous recommendation by an FDA advisory panel on Wednesday.