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Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers, supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), are leading a nationwide clinical trial to explore the safety and effectiveness of a group of novel drugs designed to protect patients hospitalized with COVID-19 at high risk of poor outcomes. The new trial has enrolled its first patient.

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.

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.

Wesley Self, MD, MPH, has been appointed Vice President for Clinical Research Networks and Strategy at Vanderbilt University Medical 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.

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.