Vanderbilt University Medical Center investigators are leading a new study that examines the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, within households in Nashville. The study funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) aims to understand how fast the infections spread within households and the factors that may be associated with that transmission. This is one of few longitudinal studies in the country that will examine coronavirus infections among close contacts.

Women who are prescribed opioids after childbirth have an increased risk of persistent opioid use or other serious opioid-related events, including overdose, in their first year postpartum, according to a new study by Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers. This is true regardless of whether the woman had a vaginal delivery or a cesarean section. 

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In a new perspective piece published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Assistant Professor of Health Policy Sayeh Nikpay, PhD, joins fellow researchers and economists in projecting what health care delivery could look like after the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. "The Business of Medicine in the Era of COVID-19" explores what could happen with small, independent practices, and what the patient experience will look like after telemedicine was forced into everyday practice.   

 

​ Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers have found evidence of the rate of COVID-19 infection slowing in Tennessee, which reduces the chance that the state will run out of hospital capacity for patients.