In an observational study by researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, adults with type 2 diabetes who take insulin in addition to the recommended first-line drug therapy, metformin, had a 30 percent higher risk of heart attack, stroke or death when compared to similar patients who instead augment their metformin regimen with a sulfonylurea.

Implementation science is a new and growing field concerned with the transfer of research findings and medical evidence into routine health care.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center has received an 18-month, $6.9 million award to set up a Clinical Data Research Network (CDRN) that can reach millions of patients and speed the translation of research findings into clinical practice.

Donald Brady, M.D., senior associate dean for Graduate Medical Education and Continuing Professional Development, will serve a one-year term as chair of the board of directors of the American Academy on Communication in Healthcare (AACH) for 2014. Brady spent this year serving as president and will transition into a one-year role as chair.

Vanderbilt University’s contributions to the field of diabetes — past and present — were celebrated recently during the annual Diabetes Day at the Vanderbilt Student Life Center.

“There and Home Again, Safely: 5 Responsibilities of Ambulatory Practices in High Quality Care Transitions,” a new white paper from the American Medical Association (AMA), is the work of a 19-member expert panel that included two Vanderbilt faculty members — Sunil Kripalani, M.D., M.Sc., associate professor of Medicine, and Amanda Salanitro M.D., MS, MSPH, instructor in Medicine, both from the section of Hospital Medicine in the Department of Medicine’s Division of General Internal Medicine and Public Health.

According to a medical literature review published last month in the Annals of Internal Medicine, approximately 50 percent of medications for chronic disease are not taken as prescribed.