The new research leadership structure “will allow the Department of Medicine to support a breadth of research with an eye to funding diversification, recruitment in strategic areas, and mentorship of trainees and faculty in all forms of research,” said department Chair Anna Hemnes, MD.
Most maternal cardiovascular deaths are preventable, and over half of them occur after pregnancy. But postpartum care has tended to be underemphasized, and at least 40% of patients don’t attend any postpartum care appointments, said Kathryn Lindley, MD, Director of the Vanderbilt Health Women’s Heart Center.
Aaron Aday, MD, co-director of Vascular Medicine at Vanderbilt Health, is the first and corresponding author of the paper, which was published May 27 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
A multi-institutional group has identified a “signature” of metabolic molecules associated with exercise-induced physiologic deficits that, when released into the bloodstream, signal heightened heart failure risk. Eric Gamazon, PhD, and Ravi Shah, MD, Department of Medicine faculty, are part of the research group.
With the addition of the J-Valve device, Vanderbilt Health now offers minimally invasive procedures to implant devices treating every valve disease. The trial is still enrolling new patients, so other high-risk patients with aortic regurgitation could qualify.
Kathryn Lindley, MD, director of the Vanderbilt Health Women’s Heart Center, and one author of a new consess study report, note that current clinical preventive services miss many opportunities to identify and manage risk for these women, particularly after pregnancy.
The paper, “Daily Steps Offset Risks of Sedentary Behavior in the All of Us Research Program,” was published April 7 in the journal Nature Communications with corresponding author Evan Brittain, MD, MSCI, professor of Medicine.
Reducing dietary salt consumption is not a simple matter, however, cautioned the paper’s corresponding author, Deepak Gupta, MD, MSCI, associate professor of Medicine and director of the Vanderbilt Translational and Clinical Cardiovascular Research Center (VTRACC). Leonie Dupuis, MD, a third-year resident physician in internal medicine at Vanderbilt Health, is first author of the paper.
Department of Medicine faculty Vineet Agrawal, MD, PhD and Aniket Rali, MD, were part of the team who performed the groundbreaking procedure this month.
Two faculty researchers in the Department of Medicine have received Young Physician-Scientist Awards from the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI). Vineet Agrawal, MD, PhD (Cardiovascular Medicine), and Fabian Bock, MD, PhD (Nephrology and Hypertension), are among 50 investigators nationwide selected for the 2026 Young Physician-Scientist Award by the elite honor society.
