The Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (VICTR) has been awarded a major federal grant to lead a national trial of treatments targeting the Renin Angiotensin Aldosterone System (RAAS) in patients hospitalized with COVID-19.

VUMC is a founding member of the HOMERuN collaborative, which engages hospitalists, researchers, and hospital medicine groups at leading medical centers nationwide, accelerating the discovery and swift implementation of quality care improvements. Sunil Kripalani, MD, MSc, and Eduard Vasilevskis, MD, MPH, lead VUMC’s participation.

As the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved adding a third COVID-19 vaccine to the rollout, a multicenter study led by Vanderbilt University Medical Center will evaluate how effective the vaccines are in preventing hospitalization from COVID-19. In 2020, clinical trial data showed that the current SARS-CoV-2 vaccines were effective at preventing infections and severe illness from COVID-19 in the clinical trial setting.

HERO-TOGETHER is an opportunity for people working in health care who receive a COVID-19 vaccine to help the public understand how people do after vaccination. The COVID-19 pandemic is a once-in-a-generation challenge that health care heroes everywhere have worked together to face. From working on the front lines to working behind the scenes, people in healthcare and public service have joined together with unprecedented focus to fight COVID-19.

Findings from a national study published Nov. 9 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) “do not support” the use of hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of adult patients hospitalized with COVID-19, the report concludes. The Outcomes Related to COVID-19 treated with Hydroxychloroquine among In-patients with symptomatic Disease (ORCHID) study found that, when compared to inactive placebo, hydroxychloroquine did not significantly improve clinical outcomes of patients hospitalized for respiratory illness related to COVID-19.

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.

The Critical Illness, Brain Dysfunction and Survivorship Center at Vanderbilt University Medical Center is following patients who have been hospitalized for COVID-19 over time to see if they develop long-term cognitive impairment, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These disabling features suffered by millions of ICU survivors are called Post-Intensive Care Syndrome (PICS).

Vanderbilt University Medical Center is evaluating razuprotafib, a drug being investigated for the treatment of glaucoma, in a new randomized, investigational trial for the prevention and treatment of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in adult patients with moderate to severe COVID-19. “We urgently need to find effective treatments for COVID-19, especially for patients who develop severe lung injury from the virus,” said co-principal investigator Wesley Self, MD, an emergency medicine physician at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

The IVY Research Network has completed initial studies evaluating the epidemiology of COVID-19 in health care workers and patients.