There currently are no approved treatments or vaccines to protect against the infection, which can cause internal bleeding, organ failure, and in roughly 50% of cases, death.

Williams helped lead the team that developed a method to preserve donor hearts for up to 12 hours — triple the typical four-hour window.

Appealing to patients for its noninvasive nature, it avoids many of the traditional drawbacks of surgeries that use incisions, including pain management. 

Researchers at Vanderbilt Health and around the country continue to evaluate the effectiveness of vaccines approved by the Food and Drug Administration to reduce the severity and lethality of respiratory infections caused by the ever-mutating SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The technique, termed REUP (rapid recovery with extended ultraoxygenated preservation), avoids traditional methods that reanimate the heart within or outside the donor’s body.

After moving to Nashville in 2011, Sallie and John chose Vanderbilt Health for their care because they valued being part of a teaching hospital.

A novel AI framework found documented intolerance to statins in 6.4% of all adult patients, contraindications in 0.7%, and statin deferral in 2.9%.