Latest IMPH Community News

Sunil Kripalani, MD, MSc is part of a multiple-PI team, including Alan Storrow, MD and Dandan Liu, PhD, that was awarded a four-year R01 grant from NIH/NHLBI titled "Tailored dissemination and implementation of emergency care clinical decision support to improve emergency department disposition". The study team aims to implement a prediction tool (STRATIFY) in the EHR that identifies ED patients with acute heart failure that may be safe to discharge.

NIH Reporter Link Over 80% of emergency department (ED) patients with acute heart failure (AHF) are admitted to the hospital, with only 10% at high-risk for in-hospital events. We developed and validated a prediction rule (STRATIFY) that identifies ED patients with AHF that may be safe to discharge. If successfully implemented, it will save substantial resources without sacrificing patient outcomes and help institutions achieve goals for accountable care.

NIH Reporter Link

Sean Collins, MD, MSci, professor of Emergency Medicine, has taken on new leadership roles in the Vanderbilt Coordinating Center (VCC) and the Vanderbilt Institute for Medicine and Public Health (IMPH).

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.

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.

The Outcomes Related to COVID-19 Treated with Hydroxychloroquine among In-patients with Symptomatic Disease (ORCHID) trial stopped enrolling new patients based on the fourth scheduled interim analysis showing no evidence of benefit or harm.