In a series of studies that volleyed between large databases and research in zebrafish, Vanderbilt investigators have discovered a link between vascular biology and eye disease.

In the early morning hours of April 7, eStar, the Epic-based electronic health record (EHR) at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, will undergo its first major upgrade since the system went live in a coordinated “Big Bang” across most of the Medical Center in November 2017.

Over the past few decades the electronic health record (EHR) has become an object of intensive study, opening new ground in biomedical research. Natural language sections of the EHR, such as physician’s notes and health team messages, are a rich vein for research, but patient privacy considerations entail first scrubbing patient identifiers from these notes and messages. Historically, this has been accomplished through large, complex software systems that are expensive to develop and maintain.

Vanderbilt LifeFlight is known for transporting critically injured patients to Vanderbilt University Medical Center while providing emergency care with little to no medical information about its patients.

Some biomedical researchers may be unsure about routine electronic health record (EHR) data and how useful it ultimately may prove for drawing meaningful, actionable associations that warrant changes to clinical practice and lead to improved clinical outcomes.

Maternal antibiotic use during pregnancy was not associated with childhood obesity at age 5, according a national study led by a Vanderbilt pediatrician.

The Vanderbilt Kennedy Center (VKC) has received a one-year $604,000 grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to use Vanderbilt University Medical Center electronic medical record information and biological samples to develop a deeper understanding of critical issues in Down syndrome and to provide an infrastructure for future analyses.