Latest IMPH Community News

Graduates from Vanderbilt’s Master in Public Health (MPH) program didn’t plan to become front-line soldiers against the COVID-19 global pandemic, but several have found themselves putting their training — and their career goals — front and center.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center has been awarded a one-year, $34-million grant by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health, to conduct a nationwide study of “convalescent plasma” as a treatment for COVID-19. The randomized, controlled trial will test whether infusions of plasma, the liquid part of blood collected from COVID-19 survivors, can help other hospitalized patients with COVID-19. The plasma contains antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

In a new analysis, researchers from the Department of Health Policy at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and Vanderbilt University Medical Center have found a relationship between the growth of hospitalizations and masking requirements put in place across the state. Hospitals that have more than 75% of their patients from areas without masking requirements in place have seen a relatively faster increase in patients with COVID-19 than hospitals with higher percentages of patients from areas with masking requirements in place.

The effects of Covid-19 are here to stay, including in the brain, at least according to a new study by Mario Mazza and colleagues in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity.

Katherine Hartmann, MD, PhD, Associate Dean for Clinical and Translational Scientist Development, has been named Vice President for Research Integration for Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The new position in research leadership was established to enhance synergy across the Medical Center.

NASHVILLE, TENN. (WSMV) - A new survey out of Vanderbilt University is showing the toll the coronavirus pandemic is taking on our mental well-being.  Researchers polled parents with children under the age of 18 at the beginning of June.  They found that 27 percent of parents felt like their own mental health had worsened. 14 percent of those parents saw negative changes in their kids. 

Over the past six months, we have learned COVID-19 is not solely a lung disease, but a disease that involves the brain as well. Most patients with COVID-19 have delirium, which is the medical way of saying they are confused, can’t pay attention, and have trouble organizing their thinking.