The Latest News from VIGH

Justin Banerdt, a fourth-year MD/MPH candidate, received the 2020 Excellence in Public Health Award from the United States Public Health Service Physician Professional Advisory Committee in recognition of his commitment to expanding access to care for underserved populations across resource-restricted settings worldwide.

Didi Odinkemelu has a deep passion for health systems strengthening, capacity building, and clinical care in low-resourced settings. During her time at Vanderbilt, she has been involved many of Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health’s (VIGH) programs including a Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (VUSM) Research Immersion in Liberia, Integrated Science course in Nigeria and on the Navajo Reservation, VIGH Case Competition, and Global Health Symposium. Didi completed the requirements for the Graduate Certificate in Global Health, illustrating her commitment to gaining the knowledge, skills, and competencies to be effective in the field of global health. This interest also motivated her to serve as the Global Student Surgery Alliance’s International Experience Coordinator and influenced her choice of a global anesthesiology residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

"Among people with HIV in Latin America, those diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB) at an initial clinic visit were about twice as likely to die within 10 years as people not initially diagnosed with TB, according to findings from a large observational study. This increased risk persisted despite the availability of TB treatment and mirrored patterns seen previously in HIV-negative populations, according to research supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.

VIGH faculty, staff, and students presented at the 2019 Consortium of Universities in Global Health (CUGH) Conference on March 9-10 in Chicago. The 10th annual conference was focused on Translation and Implementation for Impact in Global Health. The VIGH team presented on a range of topics, from the development of a research methods for a nurse anesthetist program in Kenya to nutrition education outreach in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. 

VIGH affiliated faculty member Brian L. Heuser, Ed.D., M.T.S., recently received the Thomas Jefferson Award "for distinguished service to Vanderbilt through extraordinary contributions as a member of the faculty in the councils and government of the university" at the Vanderbilt Fall Faculty Assembly on August 23. Dr.

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Two Vanderbilt MPH Program alumnae have been named 2018-2019 Global Health Corps (GHC) Fellows. Grace Umutesi, M.P.H. and Shellese Shemwell, M.P.H. will both work in Rwanda during the upcoming year. Umutesi will serve as a Monitoring, Evaluation and Research Officer with Health Development Initiative, and Shemwell has been named Integrated NCD Program Quality Improvement Coordinator with Partners in Health/Inshuti Mu Buzima.

Dagoberto Estévez-Ordóñez, M.D., was recently awarded the Sten H. Vermund Award for Excellence in Global Health. This award recognizes the graduating medical student who has most demonstrated a strong commitment to improving the health of the people of or from a low- or middle-income country through distinguished scholarship, education, and/or contributions to the improvement of clinical care. The award was established in 2017, to honor Dr. Sten H. Vermund who was the founding director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health.

​VIGH Director Edwin Trevathan, M.D., M.P.H., was awarded the Amos Christie Chair at a ceremony on April 25. At this event, Dr. Trevathan and seven other faculty members were named to endowed chairs.

This week, Nashville Public Radio featured the work of VIGH Faculty Member Martin Were, M.D., M.S. and his work with electronic health records. Were developed the smartphone app mUzima for users to learn about symptoms and vital signs. He continues to work on creating electronic, personal health records for patients to access. Click here to listen to the NPR story. 

A smartphone application called mUzima, developed for healthcare workers by Vanderbilt’s Martin Were, MD, MS, and his team, is catching on in eastern Africa.

VIGH faculty and staff members won the 1st place blue ribbon for their poster, "Strengthening Global Health Medical Education through Multi-Modal Curriculum" at the 2017 Gerald S. Gotterer Health Professions Education Research Day (HPERD) on October 30.

The Nicholas M. Greene, M.D. Out-standing Humanitarian Contribution Award will be conferred upon Dr. Kelly McQueen at ANESTHESIOLOGY®2017 in Boston.

Every year since 2000, the VUMC Academic Enterprise has honored faculty members for Excellence in Teaching and Outstanding Contributions to Research. Recipients were nominated by their faculty colleagues and chosen by the 2016 VUMC Academic Enterprise Faculty Awards Selection Committees.This year both Douglas C. Heimburger, M.D., M.S. and D. Troy Moon, M.D., M.P.H.received the Jacek Hawiger Award for Teaching Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Fellows in the Classroom, Lecture or Small Group Setting.

Sten Vermund, M.D., Ph.D., has been named assistant vice chancellor for Global Health in recognition of the growing importance of globalization to Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s research, teaching and patient care missions.

Muktar Aliyu, associate professor of health policy and associate professor of medicine. Aliyu studies adverse birth outcomes associated with maternal lifestyle-related factors (cigarette smoking, alcohol use, weight gain) and with infectious diseases in resource-limited settings (HIV/AIDS, malaria).


 Sten Vermund, MD, PhD and Jana Lauderdale, PhD, RN (photo by John Russell)


 Sten Vermund, M.D.