MPH News

The traditional definition of health care-associated influenza leads to gross undercounting, a recent study suggests.  As reported in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, Erin Gettler, MD, Thomas Talbot, MD, MPH, and colleagues analyzed data on 5,904 patients from eight counties in Middle Tennessee who were hospitalized with influenza from 2012 to 2019. Only 147… Read More

Newborn screening alone cannot fully predict hearing loss in children born with a cleft palate. Hazards faced by children born with cleft palate include the risk of temporary or permanent hearing loss, particularly before their palate is repaired between 9 and 12 months. During this time, these babies are… Read More

William Cooper, MD, MPH, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Pediatrics and Health Policy and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs for Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (VUSM) has been named Interim chair of the Department of Pediatrics. He will assume this role Feb. 1, 2024. Cooper succeeds Steven Webber, MBChB, MRCP, James… Read More

A new Vanderbilt University Medical Center genetic association study of more than 1 million adults supports the use of thiazide diuretics for kidney stone prevention. Kidney stones affect nearly 10% of the global population. For more than three decades, thiazide diuretics, a common medication used for high blood pressure, have… Read More

Vanderbilt University Medical Center has received a $10 million, five-year research funding award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to study the ideal “dose” of behavioral interventions to treat childhood obesity in rural and minority communities across Tennessee and Louisiana. Bill Heerman, MD, MPH, chief of the Division of… Read More

If you sequence the DNA of adult research participants with respect to pathologic variants that, if found, could be expected to prompt diagnostic tests and perhaps also preventive measures, and you return that information to participants and their doctors along with preventive care recommendations, many of those found at risk… Read More

Iron storage “spheres” inside the bacterium C. diff — the leading cause of hospital-acquired infections — could offer new targets for antibacterial drugs to combat the pathogen. A team of Vanderbilt researchers discovered that C. diff (Clostridioides difficile) produces the spheres, called ferrosomes, and that these structures are important for… Read More

Despite national medical guidelines supporting the use of antiviral medications in young children diagnosed with influenza, a recent study reports an underuse of the treatment. “Trends in Outpatient Influenza Antiviral Use Among Children and Adolescents in the United States” was published in Pediatrics, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Academy of… Read More

Jennifer Cunningham Erves, PhD, MPH, MAEd, MS, CHES, has joined Vanderbilt University Medical Center as associate professor of Health Policy, director of Community Engaged Research, Office of Health Equity, and scholar, Vanderbilt Center for Health Services Research. Erves is a public health oncology researcher focused on cancer prevention behaviors and lowering… Read More

Flu season is ramping up, and it’s important for everyone, especially health care professionals, to not only get the flu vaccine but also educate patients about what to expect. The current flu season has started later and more gradually than last year, according to William Schaffner, MD, professor of Preventive… Read More