Vanderbilt's STAR Clinical Research Network has been approved for an additional $8.9 million in funding from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to support its efforts to improve health care throughout the Southeast and across the United States.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) has received a two-year, $1.2 million award from the Tennessee Department of Health and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to provide tailored education and coaching to 75 Middle Tennessee nursing homes focused on infection control, quality improvement and other pandemic-related challenges.

Smokers who believed they were at increased risk of getting COVID-19 during the pandemic, or having a more severe case, were more likely to quit while those whoperceived more stress increased smoking, according to new research published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

According to an innovative large-scale clinical trial reported last week in the New England Journal of Medicine, a single daily baby aspirin (81 mg) or a single daily adult aspirin (325 mg) are equally safe and effective for prevention of adverse cardiovascular events for patients with established atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

On March 15, a new clinic opened at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, the Adult Post-acute COVID Clinic. With no single location, the clinic is a coordinated service across adult general medicine and medical specialty clinics, with a telemedicine component to facilitate initial patient assessments in most cases.

Vanderbilt’s Muktar Aliyu, MBBS, MPH, DrPH, and Hilary Tindle, MD, MPH, will be inducted this year into the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), an elite honor society of physician-scientists from the upper ranks of academic medicine and industry.

Health care workers, who have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, will be the first tier of Vanderbilt University Medical Center employees to receive vaccine to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection.