A mysterious inflammatory syndrome linked to COVID-19 infection and first identified in children also occurs in adults, Vanderbilt researchers report.

Chetan Aher, MD, assistant professor of Surgery, and Wael Alrifai, MD, assistant professor of Pediatrics and Biomedical Informatics, are the inaugural winners of the Physician Builder Award, sponsored by the Vanderbilt Clinical Informatics Center (VCLIC). They received trophies made from Lego building blocks and gift certificates.

Patients who, perhaps unbeknownst to their health care providers, are in need of genetic testing for rare undiagnosed diseases can be identified en masse based on routine information in electronic health records (EHRs), a research team reported June 3 in the journal Nature Medicine.

Team members serving COVID-19 inpatients were more densely connected, interacting far more than their medical ICU counterparts.

A novel hormone deficiency may exist in humans, Vanderbilt investigators have discovered. In an analysis of two decades worth of electronic health records, the researchers found that some patients have unexpectedly low levels of natriuretic peptide hormone in clinical situations that should cause high levels of the hormone.

In December 2020, the federal government’s massive precision medicine research initiative, All of Us (AoU), made available to qualified researchers initial results from its ongoing COVID-19 Participant Experience (COPE) Survey, as well as physical activity and heart rate data collected from Fitbit devices worn by AoU participants.

The CEO and founder of one of the world’s largest electronic health record (EHR) vendors, Judith Faulkner of Epic Systems Corp., spoke about her company and answered questions recently at the Department of Biomedical Informatics weekly online seminar.