2022-2023 VUMC Department of Medicine Annual Report

OUR MISSION

To dedicate our diverse talents to advance human health for all.

OUR VISION

A world where we have the tools and knowledge to enable every person to have the opportunity to enjoy health that allows them to live their lives to the fullest.

OUR VALUES

We value being on the forefront of personalized care for diverse patient populations, making and implementing impactful scientific discoveries, advancing inclusive excellence, and training the next generation of clinicians, scientists and educators.

DEPARTMENT LEADERSHIP

CHAIR

W. Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD, MMHC

VICE CHAIRS

Brian Christman, MD Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs, VA Hospital

Walter Clair, MD, MPH Vice Chair for Diversity and Inclusion

Jill Gilbert, MD Vice Chair for Professional Development

Bryan Harris, MD, MPH, MMHC Executive Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs (incoming FY24)

T. Alp Ikizler, MD Vice Chair for Clinical Research

John McPherson, MD Vice Chair for Education

DIVISION DIRECTORS

Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine

Timothy Blackwell, MD

Cardiovascular Medicine

Jane Freedman, MD

Clinical Pharmacology

David G. Harrison, MD

Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism

Alvin Powers, MD

Epidemiology

Wei Zheng, MD, PhD, MPH

Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition

Richard M Peek Jr., MD

Genetic Medicine

Nancy Cox, PhD

FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION

Derek Miller, MBA, MHA

Chief of Finance and Administration

Cecelia Theobald, MD, MPH Executive Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs (outgoing)

Roy Zent, MD, PhD Vice Chair for Research

Edward Gould, MD Associate Vice Chair for Quality and Safety

Sara Horst, MD, MPH Associate Vice Chair for Digital Health

Henrique Serezani, PhD Associate Vice Chair for Research

Jane Case, DNP, APRN-BC Associate Vice Chair for Advanced Practice (incoming FY24)

Geriatric Medicine

Harvey Murff, MD, MPH

Hematology and Oncology

Jordan Berlin, MD

Infectious Diseases

Kelly Dooley, MD, PhD, MPH

Internal Medicine and Public Health

Tom Elasy, MD, MPH

Nephrology and Hypertension

T. Alp Ikizler, MD

Rheumatology and Immunology

Leslie Crofford, MD

A MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR

Dear Friends of the Department of Medicine,

As you read this Annual Report, you will see an astounding amount of effort that has been directed at operations. Increasing our patient capacity, increasing our throughput in the hospital and the walk-in clinics, increasing our grant outputs and more.

I am immensely proud of the work that we do in the Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) Department of Medicine, which reflects the coordinated, but independent, efforts of thousands of individuals. The passion, talent, and grit that has been on display this year is truly stunning.

The reason for this effort has been twofold. To serve the patients who need our services today, and to advance the science of medicine so that we can meet the needs of patients tomorrow. To accomplish this we realized we needed a new Mission Statement. We worked together to establish a new vision, “A world where we have the tools and knowledge to enable every person to have the opportunity to enjoy health that allows them to live their lives to the fullest.” We know that our work to advance health care won’t ever be done. We have seen firsthand when health threats evolve suddenly, they also emerge slowly. We will be ready to tackle any topic that pertains to health with gusto. The choices we make on where to place these efforts at any given time are defined by our values statement, “We value being on the forefront of personalized care for diverse patient populations, making and implementing impactful scientific discoveries, advancing inclusive excellence, and training the next generation of clinicians, scientists and educators.” This statement captures the way we feel about the quality of care we deliver, the desire to drive high-impact discovery, and our core values around mentorship and training, encompassing diversity in all of its manifestations and valuing a spirit of inclusion.

Our mission statement? “To dedicate our diverse talents to advance human health for all.”

It is so simple and elegant, and it focuses our efforts every day. As you scan these overviews, you will see this mission play out over and over again, in a myriad of different ways, but all with one focus and one mission.

Thank you for all your support as we work together to advance this very important mission.

Sincerely,

W. Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD, MMHC Professor and Chair, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center Physician-in-Chief, Vanderbilt University Adult Hospital and Clinics

13 DIVISIONS #19 IN U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT BEST HOSPITALS HONOR ROLL

1,043 FACULTY 53% WOMEN, 47% MEN

$214M IN NIH FUNDING

510 ADVANCED PRACTICE PROVIDERS

#3

RANKED IN NIH FUNDING BY THE BLUE RIDGE INSTITUTE

528 FELLOWS, RESIDENTS AND GRADUATE STUDENTS

$391M OPERATIONAL BUDGET

CLINICAL AFFAIRS

EXECUTIVE VICECHAIR

Cecelia Theobald, MD, MPH Associate Professor of Medicine

Outgoing June 2023

EXECUTIVE VICECHAIR

Bryan Harris, MD, MPH, MMHC Assistant Professor of Medicine

Incoming July 2023

Our unwavering commitment to exceptional patient care lies at the heart of clinical operations in the Department of Medicine. This year, for the first time ever, we completed over one million outpatient visits – an extraordinary milestone for our team and a huge cause for celebration. Our inpatient teams provided compassionate care during the hospital stays of more than 27,000 patients, including more than 400 patients cared for in our innovative Hospital at Home program.

In the spring of 2023, the COVID-19 pandemic hit a turning point as mask mandates were lifted in all clinical areas. Furthermore, as severe COVID cases declined over the past year, demand for infused antiviral therapies waned similarly. Our COVID therapeutic infusion clinic moved into its permanent home in the Village at Vanderbilt, and transformed into the Therapeutics Infusion Clinic to provide a broader variety of medical infusions.

This year also marked several notable milestones in innovative efforts to deliver patient care in novel environments and with reimagined methods. Recognizing that an ever-increasing proportion of care will be delivered outside the inpatient hospital setting, we expanded our Hospital at Home program, allowing eligible patients to receive hospital-level care and remote telemedicine monitoring while they recover in the comfort of their own home. We further recognized this evolution to care outside traditional settings with our introduction of the eVisits program. Recognizing that much of modern medical care now occurs between face-to-face office visits, our outpatient digital health team designed and launched a program to allow patients to obtain expert medical advice in a convenient setting. These transformative efforts have been possible thanks to our dynamic and prolific Physician Builder Program, which represents the most active program of its kind in the nation.

The results of our efforts at continuous quality improvement this year have been nothing short of remarkable. Our ratio of observed-to-expected inpatient mortality ended the year at its lowest point in more than five years, suggesting that patients survive because they can get their care at Vanderbilt over other hospitals. Our patients also benefited from readmission rates well below the national average and successful programs to reduce unnecessary antibiotics use in both the outpatient and inpatient settings. Our primary care clinics continued their relentless pursuit of excellence, with continued improvement in metrics for cancer screening rates and chronic disease management, exceeding quality thresholds in 10 of 15 key metrics, and introducing new goals for diabetes outcomes for endocrinology patients. All these efforts were recognized again in the U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals Honor Roll.

As we anticipate the coming year with its new challenges and opportunities, we stand confident in our exceptional clinical faculty and advanced practice providers – the driving force behind our success. We are deeply honored to serve alongside such a dedicated and capable team, ready to face whatever the future may bring.

CLINICAL HIGHLIGHTS

• Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) named a fully accredited adult PCD (primary ciliary dyskinesia) Foundation Clinical and Research Center site

• Vanderbilt Wilson County Hospital relaunched its interventional cardiology program

• Tennessee Emerging Infections Program was recently recognized with the Toby Merlin Award for Excellence in Emergency Response, presented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry

• Vanderbilt Comprehensive Care Clinic achieved goal of over 90% HIV viral suppression

• Palliative Care Unit celebrated a decade of providing patient- and familycentered care

• Kidney Transplant Program celebrated the 60th anniversary of the first transplant at VUMC

• VUMC was listed as a Designated Scleroderma Research and Treatment Center by the National Scleroderma Foundation

NOTABLE AWARDS AND HONORS

• Over 100 clinicians in 11 Department of Medicine divisions were honored with VUMC Patient Experience Awards

• Deb Greenspan, FNP (Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism) – 2023

Department of Medicine Vice Chair Award for Outstanding Contributions by an Advanced Practice Provider

• Russell Ledford, MD (Internal Medicine and Public Health) – 2023 Department of Medicine Vice Chair Award for Outstanding Contributions in Clinical Affairs

• Lori Rolando, MD, MPH (Internal Medicine and Public Health) – VUMC Five Pillar Leader Award, November 2022

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Academy for Excellence in Clinical Medicine

• Ryszard Dworski, MD, PhD (Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine)

• Lisa Mendes, MD (Cardiovascular Medicine)

• David Schwartz, MD (Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition)

• Benjamin Womack, MD (Internal Medicine and Public Health)

• Susan Kroop, MD (Rheumatology and Immunology)

• Heidi Schaefer, MD (Nephrology and Hypertension)

53,832 TELEHEALTH VISITS

15,037 UNIQUE INPATIENT DISCHARGES

20,210 TOTAL INPATIENT DISCHARGES

57,562 CANCER PCC INFUSION VISITS

30,943 ENDOSCOPIES

559 ADULT TRANSPLANTS

The Department of Medicine is committed to pioneering research that leads to new discoveries and advancements in human health. Spread across 13 divisions and 20 research centers, our basic, translational, and clinical research programs continue to be led by highly skilled investigators across all specialties of medicine.

The research portfolio of the department remains robust at $214 million in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding, which resulted in a No. 3 ranking by the Blue Ridge Institute. The department had 11 active NIH-funded T32 training grants that fund undergraduate to career development awards. Six of our promising junior physicianscientist faculty obtained new K awards from the NIH. We had eight active Veteran Affairs career development awards, and five new VA Merit awards. Our large grant portfolio expanded significantly through major interdisciplinary projects and funding of individual projects for independent investigators. Of note, Consuelo Wilkins, MD, MSCI (Geriatric Medicine), received funding from the NIH Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformative (FIRST) Program to commence Vanderbilt FIRST (V-FIRST), an initiative that seeks to build a thriving, diverse scientific faculty and a sustainable culture of inclusive excellence that enables high-impact scientific discoveries.

Consistent with the continued excellent funding, the Department of Medicine continued to publish in the most prestigious journals like Cell, Nature Cell Biology and The New England Journal of Medicine. This resulted in an H-index of 125, which is up 10 points from last year. The faculty have also obtained numerous awards and distinctions from various subspecialty societies and associations.

The department is making further investments in numerous research projects and infrastructure. As a result of this year’s Department of Medicine Research Retreat,

VICECHAIR , RESEARCH

Roy Zent, MD, PhD Professor of Medicine

T. Alp Ikizler, MD Professor of Medicine

there will be significant focus of collaborative, institution-wide projects such as computational biology, global health and cardiometabolic health in the coming years. We are continuing to build on the initiative that is aimed at enhancing translational research in solid organ transplant patient population. These ongoing and future research initiatives will enable us to make – and implement – impactful scientific discoveries to advance human health for all.

NOTABLE AWARDS AND HONORS

• Diabetes Research Training Center celebrated its 50th anniversary during 2023 Annual Diabetes Day

• Under the direction of Dan Roden, MD (Clinical Pharmacology), BioVU surpassed 300,000 samples in deepfreeze storage

• Jordan Berlin, MD (Hematology and Oncology) – 2022 National Cancer Institute Director’s Award

• Nancy Cox, MD (Genetic Medicine) – 2023 Department of Medicine Vice Chair Award for Outstanding Contributions in Research

• Maureen Gannon, PhD (Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism) – 2022 Lois Jovanovic Transformative Woman in Diabetes Award, American Diabetes Association

• David Harrison, MD (Clinical Pharmacology) – Louis and Artur Lucian Award, American Heart Association

• W. Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD, MMHC (Hematology and Oncology) – Elected to National Academy of Medicine (NAM) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

• Xiao-Ou Shu, MD, PhD, MPH (Epidemiology) – 2023 Department of Medicine Vice Chair Award for Outstanding Contributions in Research

• Lorraine Ware, MD (Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine) – Elizabeth A. Rich Award, American Thoracic Society

• Consuelo Wilkins, MD, MSCI (Geriatric Medicine) – Inducted into NAM

Most Highly Cited Researchers

• Justin Balko, PhD (Hematology and Oncology)

• David Harrison, MD (Clinical Pharmacology)

• Douglas Johnson, MD, MSCI (Hematology and Oncology)

• Dan Roden, MD (Clinical Pharmacology)

• C. Michael Stein, MD (Clinical Pharmacology)

TOP NEW/RENEWED NIH AWARDS

• Jennifer Below, PhD (Genetic Medicine) – RF1 – “Functional genetic analyses of existing data resources to expand AD gene discovery,” NIA

• Jonathan Casey, MD, MSCI (Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine) – “Bag-Mask Ventilation to PreVent Hypoxemia during Tracheal Intubation in the Emergency Department: A Clinical Trial”

• Kerri Cavanaugh, MD, MHS (Nephrology and Hypertension) – U01 – “Vanderbilt-West Virginia (VWV) Collaborative: A HOPE Consortium Clinical Center,” NIDDK

• Matthew Freiberg, MD (Cardiovascular Medicine) –“Vanderbilt SCHolars in HIV and Heart, Lung, Blood, and Sleep ReSearch (V-SCHoLARS, K12),” NHLBI

• Fiona Harrison, PhD (Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism) – RF1 – “Neuroinflammatory mechanisms underlying sepsis-induced cognitive dysfunction,” NIA

• W. Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD, MMHC (Hematology and Oncology) – “Vanderbilt Clinical Oncology Research Career

TOTAL NIH FUNDING

Alvin Powers, MD (Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism), speaks at the 2023 Annual Diabetes Day

W. Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD, MMHC (Hematology and Oncology), has been elected to NAM

Development Award,” NCI

• Christianne Roumie, MD, MPH (Internal Medicine and Public Health) – “Learning Health System Scholar Program at Vanderbilt,”

AHRQ

• Martha Shrubsole, PhD (Epidemiology) – U54 – “Shaping of the Microenvironment in Colonic Pre-Cancer by Epithelia and Microbiota,” NCI

• Timothy Sterling, MD (Infectious Diseases) – U01 – “Regional Prospective Observational Research in Tuberculosis (RePORT) –Brazil Network,” NIAID

• Georgia Wisener, MD (Genetic Medicine) – U01 – “Improving identification and healthcare for patients with Inherited Cancer Syndromes: Evidence-based EMR implementation using a web-based computer platform,” NCI

• Ebele Umeukeje, MD, MPH (Nephrology and Hypertension) – “Patient-centered Approach To Improving Dialysis Adherence in African Americans,” NIDDK

NEW R01 AWARDS

Department of Medicine principal investigators (PI) and Co-PIs were awarded 17 new R01s, totaling more than $12 million.

• April Barnado, MD, MSCI (Rheumatology and Immunology) – “Predicting risk of systemic autoimmune disease in patients with positive antinuclear antibodies” – NIAMS

• Evan Brittain, MD, MSCI (Cardiovascular Medicine)

• “Network Medicine and Systems Pharmacology to Advance Precision Medicine in Combined Pulmonary Hypertension” – NHLBI

• “Clinical and Mechanistic Understanding of Right Ventricular Steatosis in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension” – NHLBI

• “Risk and Resilience in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension and Genetically Susceptible Individuals” – FDA

• Jonathan Brown, MD (Cardiovascular Medicine) – “Gene Therapy in Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome” – NHLBI

• Sheila Collins, PhD (Cardiovascular Medicine) – “Natriuretic peptide and cGMP signaling in adipose tissue and energy metabolism” – NIDDK

• Billy Hudson, PhD (Nephrology and Hypertension) – “Molecular Pathobiology of Alport Syndrome” – NIDDK

• Brian Lindman, MD, MSCI (Cardiovascular Medicine) – “Home-based cardiac rehabilitation using a novel mobile health exercise regimen following transcatheter heart valve interventions (HOME RUN HITTER)” – NHLBI

• Meenakshi Madhur, MD, PhD (Clinical Pharmacology) – “Immune Modulation in Hypertension” – NHLBI

• W. Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD, MMHC (Hematology and Oncology) – “Convergent Drivers of Tumor Evolution at the Mitotic Spindle” – NCI

• Cassianne Robinson-Cohen, PhD (Internal Medicine and Public Health) – “Impact of Clonal Hematopoiesis on the Progression of Kidney Disease” – NIDDK

• Dan Roden, MD (Clinical Pharmacology) – “Systematically mapping variant effects for cardiovascular genes”

• Ciara Shaver, MD, PhD (Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine) – “Immunogenomic analysis of donor lung injury and its impact on clinical outcomes after lung transplantation” – NHLBI

• Cyndya Shibao, MD, MSCI – “Mechanism of Glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) on Splanchnic Venous Capacitance in Postural Tachycardia Syndrome” – NHLBI

• Ebele Umeukeje, MD, MPH (Nephrology and Hypertension) – “MOVE Trial: MOtiVational Strategies to Empower African Americans to Improve Dialysis Adherence” – NIDDK

• Lorraine Ware, MD (Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine) – “Mechanisms of organ dysfunction and recovery in the Acetaminophen and Ascorbate Trial in Sepsis” – NHLBI

• Matthew Wilson, MD, PhD (Nephrology and Hypertension) – “Next generation transposon vectors for genome engineering” –NIBIB

NEW K AWARDS

Department of Medicine PIs were awarded six new K awards, totaling more than $907,000.

• Jeeyeon Cha, MD, PhD (Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism) – “Examining how the novel S64F MAFA variant produces glucose intolerance or hypoglycemia in a sex-dependent manner,” NIDDK

• Devika Nair, MD, MSCI (Nephrology and Hypertension) – “Activation for Self-Care Needs in Older Adults with Chronic Kidney Disease: ACTIVE SENIORS with CKD,” NIDDK

• Brittney Snyder, PhD (Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine) – “Identifying molecular pathways in childhood asthma pathogenesis by integrating newborn metabolic profiles and GWAS data,” NHLBI

• Erin Wilfong, MD, PhD (Rheumatology and Immunology) – “Immunophenotypes in the Idiopathic Inflammatory Myopathies,” NIAMS

• Jordan Wright, MD, PhD (Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism) – “Role of RAGE in amyloid-induced pancreatic islet dysfunction in diabetes,” NIDDK

• Lin Zhu, MD, PhD (Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism) – “Does Senescence Impair the Cardiovascular Benefits of Menopause Hormone Therapy?,” NIA

ACTIVE T32 AWARDS

Department of Medicine PIs and Co-PIs had 11 of the Medical Center’s 16 total NIH T32 training grants.

• Timothy Blackwell, MD (Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine) – “ Interdisciplinary Training Program in Lung Research”

• Nancy Cox, PhD (Genetic Medicine), and Dan Roden, MD (Clinical Pharmacology) – “VGM: Vanderbilt Genomic Medicine Training Program”

• Spyros Kalams, MD (Infectious Diseases) – “Vanderbilt Infectious Pathogenesis and Epidemiology Research Training Program”

• Bjorn Knollmann, MD, PhD (Clinical Pharmacology) – “Clinical Pharmacology Training Program”

• Kevin Niswender, MD, PhD (Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism) – “Research Training in Diabetes and Endocrinology”

• Richard Peek, MD (Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition) – “Training in Gastroenterology”

• Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD, MMHC (Hematology and Oncology) – “VIMORTP (Vanderbilt Integrated Molecular Oncology Research Training Program)”

• Christianne Roumie, MD, MPH (Internal Medicine and Public Health) – “Learning Health System training program: PROgRESS— Patient/pRactice Outcomes and Research in Effectiveness and Systems Science”

• Xiao-Ou Shu, MD, PhD, MPH (Epidemiology) – “Vanderbilt Training Program in Molecular and Genetic Epidemiology of Cancer”

• Lorraine Ware, MD (Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine) – “Clinical and Translational Training Program in Pulmonary Medicine”

• Raymond Harris, MD, and T. Alp Ikizler, MD (Nephrology and Hypertension) – “Renal Biology and Disease Training Program”

NOTABLE PUBLICATIONS

• Allen RM, Michell DL, Cavnar AB, Zhu W, Makhijani N, Contreras DM, Raby CA, Semler EM, DeJulius C, Castleberry M, Zhang Y, Ramirez-Solano M, Zhao S, Duvall C, Doran AC, Sheng Q, Linton MF, Vickers KC. LDL delivery of microbial small RNAs drives atherosclerosis through macrophage TLR8. Nat Cell Biol. 2022 Dec;24(12):1701-1713. doi: 10.1038/s41556-022-01030-7. Epub 2022 Dec 6. PMID: 36474072.

• Axelrod ML, Meijers WC, Screever EM, Qin J, Carroll MG, Sun X, Tannous E, Zhang Y, Sugiura A, Taylor BC, Hanna A, Zhang S, Amancherla K, Tai W, Wright JJ, Wei SC, Opalenik SR, Toren AL, Rathmell JC, Ferrell PB, Phillips EJ, Mallal S, Johnson DB, Allison JP, Moslehi JJ, Balko JM. T cells specific for ą-myosin drive immunotherapy-related myocarditis. Nature. 2022 Nov;611(7937):818-826. doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05432-3. Epub 2022 Nov 16. PMID: 36385524; PMCID: PMC9930174.

• He J, Wen W, Beeghly A, Chen Z, Cao C, Shu XO, Zheng W, Long Q, Guo X. Integrating transcription factor occupancy with transcriptome-wide association analysis identifies susceptibility genes in human cancers. Nat Commun. 2022 Nov 19;13(1):7118. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-34888-0. PMID: 36402776; PMCID: PMC9675749.

• Kramer KJ, Wilfong EM, Voss K, Barone SM, Shiakolas AR, Raju N, Roe CE, Suryadevara N, Walker LM, Wall SC, Paulo A, Schaefer S, Dahunsi D, Westlake CS, Crowe JE Jr, Carnahan RH, Rathmell JC, Bonami RH, Georgiev IS, Irish JM. Single-cell profiling of the antigen-specific response to BNT162b2 SARS-CoV-2 RNA vaccine. Nat Commun. 2022 Jun 16;13(1):3466. doi: 10.1038/s41467022-31142-5. PMID: 35710908; PMCID: PMC9201272.

• Liu Y, Zienkiewicz J, Qiao H, Gibson-Corley KN, Boyd KL, Veach RA, Hawiger J. Genomic control of inflammation in experimental atopic dermatitis. Sci Rep. 2022 Nov 7;12(1):18891. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-23042-x. PMID: 36344555; PMCID: PMC9640569.

• Master H, Annis J, Huang S, Beckman JA, Ratsimbazafy F, Marginean K, Carroll R, Natarajan K, Harrell FE, Roden DM, Harris P, Brittain EL. Association of step counts over time with the risk of chronic disease in the All of Us Research Program. Nat Med 2022 Nov;28(11):2301-2308. doi: 10.1038/s41591-022-02012-w. Epub 2022 Oct 10. Erratum in: Nat Med. 2023 Apr 12;: PMID: 36216933; PMCID: PMC9671804.

• Prekker ME, Driver BE, Trent SA, Resnick-Ault D, Seitz KP, Russell DW, Gaillard JP, Latimer AJ, Ghamande SA, Gibbs KW, Vonderhaar DJ, Whitson MR, Barnes CR, Walco JP, Douglas IS, Krishnamoorthy V, Dagan A, Bastman JJ, Lloyd BD, Gandotra S, Goranson JK, Mitchell SH, White HD, Palakshappa JA, Espinera A, Page DB, Joffe A, Hansen SJ, Hughes CG, George T, Herbert JT, Shapiro NI, Schauer SG, Long BJ, Imhoff B, Wang L, Rhoads JP, Womack KN, Janz DR, Self WH, Rice TW, Ginde AA, Casey JD, Semler MW; DEVICE Investigators and the Pragmatic Critical Care Research Group. Video versus Direct Laryngoscopy for Tracheal Intubation of Critically Ill Adults. N Engl J Med. 2023 Aug 3;389(5):418-429. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2301601. Epub 2023 Jun 16. PMID: 37326325.

• Segrest JP, Tang C, Song HD, Jones MK, Davidson WS, Aller SG, Heinecke JW. ABCA1 is an extracellular phospholipid translocase. Nat Commun. 2022 Aug 16;13(1):4812. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-32437-3. PMID: 35974019; PMCID: PMC9381790.

• Semler MW, Casey JD, Lloyd BD, Hastings PG, Hays MA, Stollings JL, Buell KG, Brems JH, Qian ET, Seitz KP, Wang L, Lindsell CJ, Freundlich RE, Wanderer JP, Han JH, Bernard GR, Self WH, Rice TW; PILOT Investigators and the Pragmatic Critical Care Research Group. Oxygen-Saturation Targets for Critically Ill Adults Receiving Mechanical Ventilation. N Engl J Med. 2022 Nov 10;387(19):1759-1769. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2208415. Epub 2022 Oct 24. PMID: 36278971; PMCID: PMC9724830.

• Wong HY, Sheng Q, Hesterberg AB, Croessmann S, Rios BL, Giri K, Jackson J, Miranda AX, Watkins E, Schaffer KR, Donahue M, Winkler E, Penson DF, Smith JA, Herrell SD, Luckenbaugh AN, Barocas DA, Kim YJ, Graves D, Giannico GA, Rathmell JC, Park BH, Gordetsky JB, Hurley PJ. Single cell analysis of cribriform prostate cancer reveals cell intrinsic and tumor microenvironmental pathways of aggressive disease. Nat Commun. 2022 Oct 13;13(1):6036. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-33780-1. PMID: 36229464; PMCID: PMC9562361.

EDUCATION

In our mission to advance human health for all, the Department of Medicine’s postgraduate training programs continued to fulfill our commitment to providing outstanding training to 390 residents and fellows in the 2022-2023 academic year. Among our Internal Medicine and Medicine-Pediatrics residency programs, 32 fellowship programs, and 11 T32 training programs, we had a total of 143 residents, 170 clinical fellows, and 77 postdoctoral fellows.

The Internal Medicine Residency Program trained residents at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and at the on-campus Nashville VA Medical Center. Following another successful recruiting season, the cohort of residents matched is once again the most diverse group in the program’s history. For the first time, a majority (62%) of the interns matched are women. Overall, 28% of residents self-identified as underrepresented in medicine (URiM), which is more than double the national average of Internal Medicine residencies. Vanderbilt residents managed a large number of patients in both hospital and ambulatory settings with complex medical conditions in an environment that emphasizes graded autonomy, bedside teaching, science, and a physiology-based approach to medicine. This year, we standardized our approach to inpatient rounding by conducting them at the bedside and formally including the bedside nurse, elevating our quality of care and communication. Our residents took ownership of our teaching conferences, and invited faculty speakers to

VICE CHAIR

John McPherson, MD Professor of Medicine

provide a background of basic discovery, translational science, and clinical investigation into their clinical teaching. We also increasingly emphasized the importance of including social determinants of health, not only in our didactics, but also in every patient encounter.

Our outpatient training continued to expand and grow. With the generous support of the Medical Center, we launched a pilot program in which our residents can care for underinsured patients in their primary care clinics. In addition, uninsured patients from the student-run Shade Tree Clinic who are eligible for TennCare can now transition their care to our resident clinics, instead of obtaining care outside our system.

Our Nashville VA primary care training group is also growing with the addition of several new faculty in the past year. Our residents with VA clinics are now seeing a much greater proportion of female veterans and are receiving more ancillary support thanks to the VA leadership.

The residency program continues to build out specialized curricular tracks which allow residents to individualize their training experiences to align with their career goals. More than half of our residents now complete our Excellence in Teaching (EXCITE) Pathway, a two-year curriculum with didactic and experiential components designed to prepare future physician-scientists and clinician-educators for their careers in academic medicine. In 2022, we launched one-year programs in medical humanities, health system science and innovation, and LGBTQ+ health.

In addition, for the first time since the beginning of the global pandemic, a resident recently completed a global health rotation in Zambia. Given increased resident interest, our global health pathway is ever-expanding. Dr. Merranda Holmes (Internal Medicine and Public Health) was appointed Associate Program Director for Global Health, and Dr. Zeynep Kubilay (Internal Medicine and Public Health) joined as the Associate Director of the global health pathway. In addition to international experiences, the pathway also focuses on care in underserved domestic areas in our region.

Research remains an important focus of our training programs. Dr. Andrew DeFilippis (Cardiovascular Medicine), who was this year appointed the residency’s Associate Program Director for Research, updated our Research Liaison Program, facilitating early connections for residents with research faculty in their areas of interest. We are enjoying the success of this work with more than 85% of our 2023 graduating residents presenting their research at one or more national meetings during their residency.

DIVERSITY IN MEDICINE TRAINING PROGRAMS

We are proud of our training programs, and we are excited for the future. As the pace of change in medicine – and the world – continues to accelerate, we look forward to meeting new challenges and reaching new heights through innovation, service and discovery.

EDUCATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS

• Moved Addiction Medicine Fellowship Program to the Department of Medicine

• Established first LGBTQ+ Fellowship, starting July 2023

• Graduated the first class of Masters of Genetics Counselors

• Began evaluating Vanderbilt Wilson County Hospital for resident program expansion

• Epidemiology PhD program received Council on Education for Public Health accreditation

• VUMC established Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (VICTR) Center for Learning Healthcare, and appointed Matthew Semler, MD, MSCI (Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine), as its Medical Director

• Department of Medicine Medical Scientist Training Program trainees received the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Dean’s Award

NOTABLE AWARDS AND HONORS

• Manhal Izzy, MD (Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition) – 2023 Department of Medicine Vice Chair Award

for Outstanding Contributions in Resident Research Mentorship

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Academy for Excellence in Education

• Sumathi Misra, MD, MPH (Internal Medicine and Public Health)

Department of Medicine Hugh J. Morgan Teaching Awards

Hugh J. Morgan Teaching awards are presented annually at the Department of Medicine’s State of Department Address.

• Babatunde Carew, MD (Internal Medicine and Public Health)

– Best Faculty Teacher, Ambulatory Medicine

• Raymond Deiter, MD (L-3, Internal Medicine Resident) – Best Resident Teacher

• Daniel Motta Calderon, MD, MPH (L-2, Internal Medicine

Resident) – Best Resident Teacher

• JP Arroyo Ornelas, MD, PhD (Nephrology and Hypertension)

– Best Faculty Teacher, Veterans Affairs

• Rachael Petry, MD (Geriatric Medicine) – Best Faculty Teacher, Vanderbilt University Hospital

• Trey Richardson, MD (L-3, Internal Medicine Resident) – Best Resident Teacher

• Katie Sunthankar, MD (Cardiovascular Medicine) – Best Fellow Teacher

VICE CHAIR UPDATE VETERANS AFFAIRS

Vanderbilt faculty have continued exemplary contributions at the VA’s Tennessee Valley Health Care System (TVHS). Medicine and specialty care at TVHS has grown to over 500 employees with more than 200 full- and part-time faculty physicians from the Department of Medicine. Their dedication to quality has been recognized by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) who recently awarded TVHS a 4-star rating. Like Vanderbilt University Adult Hospital, TVHS is one of only 19 hospitals in the state of Tennessee to earn this rating, which uses metrics of patient safety, overall mortality, readmission rates, experience of patients, and effectiveness and timeliness of care. In parallel with this, the result of the AllEmployee Survey at the VA TVHS demonstrated an eight-point increase in the Best Places to Work score, indicating that our workforce is not only effective, but also increasingly satisfied with the work environment.

Our faculty in Cardiology have been busy this year. In addition to providing consultation and high-quality cardiac care for a large number of veterans, the interventional cardiology group added left atrial appendage exclusion procedures (Watchman Device). This procedure prevents stroke due to atrial fibrillation in patients at risk for bleeding. The electrophysiology group now has capability for implanting leadless cardiac pacemakers. We are awaiting review and approval by the national VA office to allow initiation of a transvascular aortic valve replacement (TAVR) program for patients with aortic valve disease.

Brian Christman, MD Professor of Medicine

The Gastroenterology (GI) Section continued to provide worldclass care to veterans by performing approximately 5,000 endoscopic procedures, many as part of an advanced colorectal cancer screening program. It is noteworthy that nearly 50% of these procedures involved GI fellows, demonstrating the important role the VA plays in this part of their clinical training. In addition, the GI Hepatology group referred 11 patients to VUMC for liver transplantation.

The Hematology/Stem Cell Transplant group also remained highly productive. We anticipate performing more than 120 advanced cellular therapy/stem cell transplants in the coming year for treatment of refractory malignancies. Clinical outcomes remain excellent for complex allogeneic transplants (actual survival is 5% better than predicted), and are a real resource for our veteran patients. Our longest survivor after allogeneic transplant is now 27 years post treatment. This is the only site in the VA that is providing chimeric antigen receptor

T-cell (CAR-T) treatments. This year, we doubled our CAR-T patient numbers to 22, and added Abecma for treatment of multiple myeloma in September 2023.

The Department of Veterans Affairs funds more than $2 billion dollars in research each year, and Medicine faculty successfully competed for a significant part of that funding. Supported research covers a broad spectrum of work ranging from basic science through translational approaches and clinical trial to implementation science. VA Medical Service has 56 funded major grants with principal investigators from Department of Medicine, including faculty from the divisions of Nephrology and Hypertension (11); Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (9); Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine (6); Hematology and Oncology (5); Infectious Diseases (5); and Endocrinology (5). New grants that are forthcoming include a new Merit Review grant to Dr. Brent Ferrell (Hematology and Oncology) entitled “Dissecting Clonal Evolution of Myeloid Malignancies,” and a new Career Development Award to Dr. Devika Nair (Nephrology and Hypertension) entitled “Activation for Self-Care Needs in Older Adults with Chronic Kidney Disease: ACTIVE SENIORS with CKD.”

In the 2023-2024 year, we were excited to welcome our first Chief Resident in Quality and Patient Safety, Dr. Molly Fausone, who will be supported by a grant funded by co-principal investigators Drs. Kelly Sopko (Internal Medicine and Public Health) and Michael Ward. Dr. Fausone will be focused on developing tools to make this an even safer place to deliver health care and medical education. TVHS is collaborating with Dr. John McPherson (Cardiovascular Medicine), our Program Director for the Medicine Residency Program, to make this a permanent addition to our career development and training programs.

In summary, it has been a good year for the Department of Medicine efforts at the VA’s TVHS. The state of the service is strong with a bright future for ongoing excellence in patient care, education and discovery.

NOTABLE AWARDS AND HONORS

• Kelly Sopko, MD (Internal Medicine and Public Health) – 2023 Department of Medicine Vice Chair Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Nashville VA Department of Medicine

ACTIVE VA CAREER DEVELOPMENT AWARDS

• Justin Bachmann, MD, MPH (Cardiovascular Medicine) – “Development of a Tailored Intervention to Increase Veteran Enrollment in Cardiac Rehabilitation

• Katherine Bachmann, MD, MSCI (Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism) – “Metabolic Effects of Natriuretic Peptide Hormones

• Nicholas Markham, MD, PhD (Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition) – “Gastrointestinal cell type-specific signaling and C. difficile toxin pathogenesis”

• Leslie Meenderink, MD, PhD (Infectious Diseases) – “The role of enterocyte apical structure in inflammatory bowel disease pathogenesis”

• David Patrick, MD, PhD (Clinical Pharmacology) – “A Role of Isolevuglandins in Essential Hypertension and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus”

• Sun Peck, PhD (Clinical Pharmacology) – “The Role of Extracellular Matrix Dysregulation in Heterotopic Ossification”

• Bradley Richmond, MD (Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine) – “Post-Deployment Respiratory Syndrome in Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan”

• Jordan Wright, MD, PhD (Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism) – “In vivo mechanisms of amyloid-induced pancreatic islet dysfunction in type 2 diabetes”

NEW VA MERIT AWARDS

• Todd Hulgan, MD, MPH (Infectious Diseases) – “Defining the Contribution of Mitochondrial DNA to Viral Infectious Diseases, Type 2 Diabetes, and their Interactions”

• Jennifer Lewis, MD (Hematology and Oncology) – “Personalizing Veterans’ Lung Cancer Screening and Diagnosis”

• Stokes Peebles, MD (Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine) – “PGI2 regulation of CD4+ Th2 metabolism in allergic airway inflammation”

• Keith Wilson, MD (Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition) – “BCCMA: Targeting Gut-Microbiome in Veterans Deployment Related Gastrointestinal and Liver Diseases: Dysbiosis, PTSD, and Epithelial and Immune Biology in Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Veterans”

• Roy Zent, MD, PhD (Nephrology and Hypertension) – “Integrin Binding Proteins and the Kidney”

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The Office of the Vice Chair for Professional Development had a busy and productive year this year! With a primary focus on provider safety, we created new programs to address the dynamic needs and challenges that our faculty have faced. Across the country, regardless of industry, there has been a rise in workplace violence. In academic medicine, specifically, data demonstrates that workplace safety is a key factor in faculty retention and satisfaction.

We have therefore taken an active role in creating an active and ongoing engagement program to address a diversity of workplace safety scenarios including, but not limited to, physical and verbal violence and cyberviolence. While this is not unique to Vanderbilt, what is unique is that we have devoted a considerable effort to address this issue within our department because we recognize that this is a high priority for our stakeholders. This effort resulted in the implementation of a program entitled “PPE-Plus!,” which focuses on planning, prevention, engagement and paying it forward to help others. The program’s reception has been incredibly positive, and the work will continue to evolve as we meet these critical safety needs, not just for faculty, but of all members in the Department of Medicine.

We also launched a networking and connectivity initiative, “The Stories We Tell,” in which our mid- to late-career faculty discuss the influences that have shaped their careers. Our

VICE CHAIR

Jill Gilbert, MD Professor of Medicine

faculty have noted that the busyness often takes us away from the connectivity that we share as providers, as investigators and as educators. “The Stories We Tell” focuses on our roots as individuals, our challenges, and the ties that bind us together as Department of Medicine, inspiring each of us to tell the stories that shaped who we are today and how that influences the work we perform within, and beyond, the department. In a similar initiative, we also sponsored a “Right Brain Curriculum” workshop, lead by an outside creator, who focused on humanism in medicine and using our own stories to educate our patients and each other.

Our Professional Development Societies, the Miller, Neilson and Schaffner societies, continue to create new programming to meet the needs of our stakeholders. The Miller Society, developed for providers on the clinical practice track and advanced practice providers, created a liaison program to provide division-specific professional development support

to our clinically forward-facing divisions. We also announced the appointment of Dr. Ravi Shah (Cardiovascular Medicine) as the incoming Director of the Neilson Society, effective in the 2023-2024 academic year. He succeeds Dr. Mark deCaestecker (Nephrology and Hypertension) who made outstanding contributions for the career advancement of PhD and MD tenure track faculty in his tenure as the society’s director.

The Mentorship Council, in collaboration with the Schaffner Society, established the Faculty Advisor Program. Each new junior faculty member is now assigned either a primary mentor (if academic area of focus has been identified) or a faculty advisor. The role of the faculty advisor is to regularly meet with the new faculty for the first six months of their appointment to help the faculty member network and, ultimately, to identify a primary mentor so that their academic career can blossom.

In June 2023, in recognition of the evolving needs of our faculty, the Department of Medicine announced a $1 million endowment dedicated to developing new and engaging professional development opportunities for our faculty.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SOCIETY DIRECTORS

• Ryan Buckley, MD (Internal Medicine and Public Health) – Miller Society

• Mark deCaestecker, MBBS, PhD (Nephrology and Hypertension) –Neilson Society, outgoing FY23

• Lisa Mendes, MD (Cardiovascular Medicine) – Schaffner Society

• Ravi Shah, MD (Cardiovascular Medicine) – Neilson Society, incoming FY24

NOTABLE AWARDS AND HONORS

• Mark deCaestecker, MBBS, PhD (Nephrology and Hypertension) –2023 Department of Medicine Vice Chair Award for Outstanding Contributions in Professional Development

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Faculty Awards

• Todd Rice, MD, MSc (Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine) –Arthur P. “Art” Wheeler, MD, Award for Clinical Excellence in the Delivery of Critical Care

• William Stevenson, MD (Cardiovascular Medicine) – Noel B. Tulipan, MD, Award for Clinical Excellence in a Surgical or Procedural Discipline

• Alvin Powers, MD, and Marcela Brissova, PhD (Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism) - John A. Oates, MD, Award for Two or More Faculty Working Collaboratively or in a Multidisciplinary Manner to Address Important Biological Processes and/or Diseases

• Xiao Ou Shu, MD, PhD, MPH (Epidemiology) - Peter Guengerich, PhD, Award for Mentoring Postdoctoral Fellows or Residents in the Research Setting

PROMOTIONS

In the 2022-2023 academic year, the Department of Medicine had 45 promotions, including 10 to the rank of full professor.

• Julie Damp, MD (Cardiovascular Medicine)

• Ryszard Dworski, MD, PhD (Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine)

• Laura Ann Goff, MD, MSCI (Hematology and Oncology)

• Anna Hemnes, MD (Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine)

• Spyros Kalams, MD (Infectious Diseases)

• Mark McClain, PhD (Infectious Diseases)

• Ginger Milne, PhD (Clinical Pharmacology)

• Otis Rickman, DO (Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine)

• Edward Siew, MD (Nephrology and Hypertension)

• Ming-Zhi Zhang, MD, MSc (Nephrology and Hypertension)

1,043 FACULTY

510 ADVANCED PRACTICE PROVIDERS

85 NEW FACULTY

45 FACULTY PROMOTIONS

13 NEW DEPARTMENTAL AND INSTITUTIONAL LEADERS

$1M ENDOWMENT FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

During the last academic year, the efforts to enhance the multiple dimensions of diversity, equity and inclusion in the Department of Medicine have benefitted from a solid vision of inclusive excellence. Rather than being discouraged by the frictions in the political environment, we have been reminded of the importance of the work that must be done to advance the dignity and safety of all of those who work, learn, teach and receive care at Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s (VUMC) hospitals and clinics.

As the largest clinical and academic department in the medical center, we have demonstrated our commitment to a diverse and inclusive environment by reassessing our efforts to recruit and retain outstanding faculty and trainees from diverse backgrounds with special attention to those from groups underrepresented in medicine (URiM). As part of this effort, our diversity liaisons are now working directly with their respective fellowship program directors to deploy best practices for recruiting and matching a diverse cohort of fellows. We have worked to advance the professional development of our faculty of all gender identities, targeted resources to enhance transgender health, and supported the education of our trainees in the areas of health inequities, social determinants of health, and healthcare disparities.

This year, the Department of Medicine continued its monthly Anti-Racism Book Club meetings. The book club was fortunate

VICE CHAIR

Walter Clair, MD, MPH Professor of Medicine

to host authors of “Asian American Histories of the United States” (Catherine Ceniza Choy) and “Hot Spot: A Doctor’s Diary from the Pandemic” (Dr. Alex Jahangir) at two of our meetings. Despite meeting in a virtual format, members were still engaged in enlightening discussions of the books these authors penned.

The Department of Medicine Diversity Liaison Committee selected Dr. Melvin Echols, associate professor of medicine at Morehouse School of Medicine and Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer for the American College of Cardiology, as its 2022 Medicine Grands Rounds lecturer. Dr. Echols delivered a presentation entitled “Diversity and Clinical Trial Equity: A Matter of Need, Not an Option.” Other department and divisional grand rounds topics included “The Jackson Heart Study: An Enduring Legacy of Research and Community Engagement” and “Acting on Systemic Racism as a Cause for Health Inequities Through the Lens of Kidney Care.”

Over the course of the second half of the academic year, each of the department’s 13 divisions participated in an interactive session on microaggression training. These sessions were developed and presented in collaboration with Kristy Sinkfield, MEd, Associate Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion from VUMC’s Office of Health Equity and Inclusive Excellence.

The data presented below demonstrates our strong support for women in the department at all levels of faculty status and rank, as well as improvement in our faculty’s racial and ethnic diversity. This is particularly true for URiM faculty. While the size of the department’s faculty has grown over the last year, the growth in the number of faculty who self-identify as URiM has been even greater. In June 2021, the Department of Medicine had 75 URiM faculty. That number has grown by over 20%, up to 92. As a result, there has been a 10% net growth in our URiM faculty from 8% to 8.8%. Most of this growth and the 2% growth in female faculty, is in the category of non-tenured faculty who do the bulk of our trainee education and patient care.

We remain committed to finding ways to ensure that the Department of Medicine leads the way for those who share our passion for inclusive excellence and service to all.

NOTABLE AWARDS AND HONORS

• André Churchwell, MD (Cardiovascular Medicine) – Named “Top Diversity” Leader, Modern Healthcare

• Lisa Mendes, MD (Cardiovascular Medicine) – 2023 Department of Medicine Vice Chair Award for Outstanding Contributions in Diversity and Inclusion

• Ebele Umeukeje, MD, MPH (Nephrology and Hypertension) –Member, American Society of Nephrology Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee

• Consuelo Wilkins, MD, MSCI (Geriatric Medicine) –Appointed to National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine Committee for Unequal Treatment Revisited

RELEVANT PUBLICATIONS

• Desta R, Blumrosen C, Laferriere HE, Saluja A, Bruce MA, Elasy TA, Griffith DM, Norris KC, Cavanaugh KL, Umeukeje EM. Interventions Incorporating Therapeutic Alliance to Improve Medication Adherence in Black Patients with Diabetes, Hypertension and Kidney Disease: A Systematic Review. Patient Prefer Adherence. 2022 Nov 14;16:3095-3110. doi: 10.2147/PPA.S371162. PMID: 36404799; PMCID: PMC9673796.

• Richmond J, Murray MH, Milder CM, Blume JD, Aldrich MC Racial Disparities in Lung Cancer Stage of Diagnosis Among Adults Living in the Southeastern United States. Chest. 2023 May;163(5):1314-1327. doi: 10.1016/j.chest.2022.11.025. Epub 2022 Nov 24. PMID: 36435265; PMCID: PMC10206508.

• Sabotta CM, Kwan SY, Petty LE, Below JE, Joon A, Wei P, Fisher-Hoch SP, McCormick JB, Beretta L. Genetic variants associated with circulating liver injury markers in Mexican Americans, a population at risk for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Front Genet. 2022 Oct 26;13:995488. doi: 10.3389/ fgene.2022.995488. PMID: 36386790; PMCID: PMC9644071.

• Turecamo SE, Xu M, Dixon D, Powell-Wiley TM, Mumma MT, Joo J, Gupta DK, Lipworth L, Roger VL. Association of Rurality With Risk of Heart Failure. JAMA Cardiol. 2023 Mar 1;8(3):231-239. doi: 10.1001/jamacardio.2022.5211. PMID: 36696094; PMCID: PMC9878434.

• Wang F, Shu X, Pal T, Berlin J, Nguyen SM, Zheng W, Bailey CE, Shu XO. Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Mortality Related to Access to Care for Major Cancers in the United States Cancers (Basel). 2022 Jul 12;14(14):3390. doi: 10.3390 cancers14143390. PMID: 35884451; PMCID: PMC9318931.

DIVERSITY AMONG MEDICINE FACULTY

In the 2022-2023 academic year, the Department of Medicine was comprised of 92 (8.8%) faculty who self-identified as URiM*.

ALLERGY, PULMONARY AND CRITICAL CARE MEDICINE

This year marked the 50th anniversary of the Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. The division was formed in 1973 when Dr. Kenneth Brigham was recruited back to Vanderbilt, where he had completed medical school, to lead and grow Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. Dr. Brigham, who died in 2022, served as Division Director for almost 30 years and built a highly integrated group of physician scientists who developed a national reputation for critical care and pulmonary vascular research, and excellence in clinical care. Following Dr. Brigham’s departure, and before Dr. Timothy Blackwell became Division Director, the division was directed by Dr. Gordon Bernard from 2002-2007. This legacy of stability and continuity of leadership has fostered a culture that values excellence, creativity and collaboration. This tradition underpins the continued success of our faculty and trainees, and has led to recognition of our division as an international leader in research, training and patient care.

We are proud of our continued growth and accomplishments during this academic year. We now have 118 faculty and advanced practice providers in the division. Under the leadership of Dr. Joao de Andrade, the Vanderbilt Lung Institute (VLI) is thriving and will complete more than 60,000 patient visits this year. Our lung transplant program continues to grow, with a record 67 procedures in 2022, while maintaining exceptional patient outcomes. Through the VLI, we have continued to make advances in clinical care of patients with chronic and debilitating lung-related diseases, including COPD, diaphragmatic disease, pleural disease and lung cancer.

Our three clinical fellowship training programs in Pulmonary and Critical Care, Interventional Pulmonary and Allergy and

DIRECTOR

Immunology, are led by exceptional program directors and continue to attract the highest caliber applicants from across the country. This year, we focused on new strategies to personalize each training program to meet the individual career goals of each trainee.

Our research portfolio continues to be strong with more than $4 million in new funding already awarded for this academic year. The faculty pipeline is strong with seven junior faculty members funded by career development awards, and three more who have been newly funded.

We are thankful for the outstanding group of faculty members, trainees and staff who work diligently to serve our patients through clinical service and research. I am inspired by their devotion and resilience, and deeply honored to be the leader of this team as we move forward to discover what the next 50 years holds.

NEW INSTITUTIONAL LEADERS

• Julie Bastarache, MD – Assistant Vice President for Clinical & Translational Scientist Development for VUMC

• Matthew Semler, MD, MSCI – Medical Director, Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (VICTR) Center for Learning Healthcare

CLINICAL AWARDS AND HONORS

• Ryszard Dworski, MD, PhD – Elected to the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (VUSM) Academy for Excellence in Clinical Medicine

• E. Wesley Ely, MD, MPH – 2022 American Association of Critical-Care Nurses Pioneering Spirit Award

• Basil Kahwash, MD – Castle Connolly Rising Star

• Lisa Lancaster, MD – NHLBI/HeroX Air You Wear Challenge for Device Development in Oxygen Devices

• Todd Rice, MD, MSc – VUSM Arthur P. “Art” Wheeler, MD, Award for Clinical Excellence in the Delivery of Critical Care

• Samira Shojaee, MD, MPH – Geoffrey McLennan Award

• Lorraine Ware, MD – American Thoracic Society (ATS) Elizabeth A. Rich Award

RESEARCH AWARDS AND HONORS

• Cosby Stone, MD, MPH – Top Reviewer Award, Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice

• Jonathan Casey, MD, MSCI – VUMC Biomedical Science Impact Award

• Matthew Semler, MD, MSCI – VUMC Biomedical Science Impact Award

EDUCATION AWARDS AND HONORS

• E. Wesley Ely, MD, MPH – 2022 Vanderbilt Excellence in Mentoring Translational Scientists Award

• Fabien Maldonado, MD, MSc, CHEST Distinguished Editor

• Otis Rickman, DO – Distinguished Educator, CHEST

• Samira Shojaee, MD, MPH – Distinguished Educator, CHEST

• Anna Hemnes, MD – Selected for the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) program

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

Leadership

• Jonathan Casey, MD, MSCI – Mentorship Committee, ATS Critical Care Early Professionals Working Group

• Anna Hemnes, MD – Co-chair of ASCI Physician-Scientist Development Committee

• Basil Kahwash, MD – Chair, American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology (AAAAI) Sports, Exercise and Fitness Committee

• Lisa Lancaster, MD

• Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation Steering Committee

• American College of Chest Physicians Diffuse Interstitial Lung Disease Steering Committee

• Otis Rickman, DO – Vice Chair, CHEST Live Learning Committee

• Cosby Stone, MD, MPH – Chair, AAAAI Vaccines Committee

• Lorraine Ware, MD – Chair, Awards Committee, ATS

Senior Editorships

• Jacek Hawiger, MD PhD

• Associate Editor, Frontiers in Immunology (Inflammation Section)

• Member of the Editorial Board of Scientific Reports

• Dawn Newcomb, PhD – Editorial Board, Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology

• Bradley Richmond, MD – Editorial Board Fellow, AJP-Lung

• Ciara Shaver, MD, PhD – Editorial Board, AJP Lung and Physiological Reports

• Samira Shojaee, MD, MPH – Editorial Board, Chest Physician Journal

DIVISION HIGHLIGHTS

• The Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine celebrated its 50th year in the 2022-2023 academic year.

• VUMC was named a fully accredited adult PCD (primary ciliary dyskinesia) Foundation Clinical and Research Center site, under the direction of Dr. James Tolle

Todd Rice, MD, MSc (center), is presented the 2023 Arthur P. “Art” Wheeler, MD, Award for Clinical Excellence by Jeffrey Balser, MD, PhD, VUMC President and CEO, and Gordon Bernard , MD (Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine), at the 2023 VUSM Faculty Awards

CARDIOVASCULAR MEDICINE

DIRECTOR

Jane Freedman, MD Professor of Medicine

The Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center strives to improve human health through exceptional clinical care, innovative research and outstanding education. We aim to advance biomedical knowledge and develop cardiovascular leaders and careers in an environment that fosters diversity, inclusion, critical thinking and creativity. During the past year, we have built bridges between basic and clinical cardiovascular disciplines, as well as the wider Vanderbilt community. This is reflected in the division’s ranking of No. 12 in the U.S. News and World Report and our growing clinical and research portfolio.

In the past academic year, the faculty has continued to grow with over 140 members. We saw a number of leadership changes, including the appointment of new directors for the sections of Arrhythmia/Electrophysiology (Dr. Hari Tandri), Cardio-Oncology (Dr. Eiman Jahangir), Vascular Medicine (Dr. Aaron Aday), Adult Congenital Heart Disease (Co-Directors, Drs. Angela Weingarten and Ben Frischhertz), and the Chief of Cardiology at the Nashville VA Hospital (Dr. Francis Miller). Our faculty trained over 45 fellows across our eight subspecialty fellowship programs.

Our division is among the nation’s leading groups of health care providers and researchers specializing in cardiovascular

disease, including electrophysiology, interventional cardiology, heart failure/cardiomyopathy, pulmonary disease, inherited heart disease, and imaging. For the past five years, our heart transplantation program, led by Dr. Kelly Schlendorf, continues to be the busiest in the nation. Under the leadership of Dr. Kathryn Lindley, the new Women’s Heart Center was launched last year to provide outstanding multidisciplinary care such as pregnancy-related heart disease, vascular disease, preventative care and more. We are expanding several programs, hiring new clinical and research faculty, and enlarging our space. Our regional hospitals and practices continue to grow and thrive, including the addition of a cardiac catheterization laboratory at Vanderbilt Wilson County Hospital. Our donors generously contributed over $4 million during 2022-2023 and have our heartfelt appreciation. Notably, the Riven family’s contribution was significant in establishing two directorships.

We have made significant achievements in research this year. The division published an average of 30 papers each month across a broad range of clinical and basic cardiovascular diseases. We appointed a new Director of Experimental Cardiovascular Research (Dr. Jonathan Brown), began a new genetic arrythmia center (Dr. Benjamin Shoemaker), started the Vanderbilt Heart and Vascular Institute (VHVI) Program for Cardiovascular Genetics and Precision Medicine (Dr. Quinn Wells), and recruited several new basic scientists. Our fellows and early career investigators received numerous grants and awards. Our funding continues to grow, and has reached an all-time high at nearly $40 million. Notably, our NIH funding increased to nearly $20 million. Our investigators received numerous grants, including examining the regulation of adipose browning led by Dr. Sheila Collins, and a study of rare variant

effects on cardiomyopathies being led by Dr. Quinn Wells. In summary, the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine has experienced a remarkable year of growth and achievement. Our division has developed multiple new programs, brought on additional leaders, clinical and research faculty, and continued to expand. The faculty members’ outstanding contributions have been noteworthy, and we take special pride in the accomplishments and contributions of our cardiovascular fellows and early career faculty.

NEW INSTITUTIONAL LEADERS

• Jonathan Brown, MD – Director, Experimental Cardiovascular Research

• Eiman Jahangir, MD, MPH – Director, Cardio-Oncology

• Kathryn Lindley, MD, Director of Women’s Heart Center

NEW DIRECTORSHIPS

• Kathryn Lindley, MD – Samuel S. Riven, MD, Directorship in Cardiology

CLINICAL AWARDS AND HONORS

• André Churchwell, MD

• “Top Diversity” Leader, Modern Healthcare

• Named as an inductee for the Tennessee Health Care Hall of Fame

• Joann Lindenfeld, MD

• Lifetime Achievement Award, Heart Failure Society of America

• AHA Laennec Master Clinician Award

• Lisa Mendes, MD – Elected to Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (VUSM) Academy for Excellence in Clinical Medicine

• Henry Okafor, MD – Chairman, Medical Executive Committee, Nashville General Hospital

• Jared O’Leary, MD – 2023 Society for Cardiovascular Angiography & Interventions 30 Under 30 Award

• William Stevenson, MD – Noel B. Tulipan, MD, Award for Clinical Excellence in a Surgical or Procedural Discipline

RESEARCH AWARDS AND HONORS

• Andrew Perry, MD – 2023 American College of Cardiology (ACC) Young Investigator Award, First Place in Basic to Translational Research

• William Stevenson, MD – 2022 Gold Review Award, Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

New Elections

• Evan Brittain, MD, MSCI – American Society for Clinical Investigation

Leadership

• Aniket Rali, MD – Member, ACC Critical Care Section Leadership Council

Senior Editorships

• Amanda Doran, MD, PhD – Technical Editor, Circulation Research

• Jane Freedman, MD – Editor-in-Chief, Circulation Research

• Ravi Shah, MD – Associate Editor, Circulation Research

DIVISION

HIGHLIGHT

Cardiovascular Medicine and VHVI faculty and leadership participate in a ribbon cutting ceremony, celebrating the relaunch of the interventional cardiology program at Vanderbilt Wilson County Hospital, July 26, 2022

PHILANTHROPY HIGHLIGHT

For Ann F. Eisenstein – whose life and family were deeply impacted by heart disease – it only made sense that she would become a fierce advocate for heart health education.

Eisenstein had three heart attacks during her lifetime, the first when she was just 47 years old. She had bypass surgery in 1976 and was able to lead a relatively normal life for the next 25 years. In 2001, she died of her third heart attack at age 82.

In total, Eisenstein was a patient at Vanderbilt for nearly 40 years. Her cardiologist, Gottlieb C. (Bud) Friesinger II, MD, kept her healthy much longer than most of her family members, many of whom died at early ages from heart disease. Dr. Friesinger was a bright light in her life, recalled her daughter, Nan Eisenstein Speller. Anything he asked her to do, she did.

Prior to her death, she established the Ann F. Eisenstein Women’s Heart Service Fund benefitting the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine. The fund supports initiatives to increase education and awareness for women’s heart health, as well as research and patient care initiatives.

Eisenstein’s gift was one of the many ways she gave back, both to Vanderbilt and to her community, said her son, Dan Eisenstein.

“She was kept alive all those years because of the care she received at Vanderbilt,” he said. “She was lucky to have the resources to get good health care, and she felt that others in the community should have information about women’s health and heart issues regardless of their background or economic status.”

Dan Eisenstein and Nan Speller continue to support the fund each year in hopes that it will continue to grow and accomplish

their mother’s – and the division’s – goal of educating more women about heart disease. They remember their mother’s penchant for championing children’s and women’s causes, as well as her involvement in the community. Now, her children and grandchildren carry on that legacy.

“When it comes to advocacy and philanthropy, they’re sort of in the genes. So is heart disease,” Nan Speller said. “Those two things got passed down.”

Currently, the fund supports the recently launched Women’s Heart Center. Directed by Kathryn Lindley, MD, who holds the Samuel S. Riven, MD, Directorship in Cardiology, the Center provides multidisciplinary, comprehensive care for women’s cardiovascular health across the lifespan. Its mission aligns entirely with Ann Eisenstein’s forward-thinking vision.

“When our mother started this fund in 2000, the original impact was to educate women on heart health, and it did that,” Nan Speller said. “Now 23 years later with the arrival of Dr. Lindley, it’s going to be a whole new ballgame. We feel really good about that.”

DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE GIVING

Generous donors like Ann Eisenstein help strengthen the Department of Medicine’s educational, research and patient care programs.

For more information and to make a contribution, scan the QR code, or visit medicine.vumc.org/dom-giving

A legacy of support for women’s heart health

Longtime Vanderbilt patient’s endowed gift continues to impact Cardiovascular Medicine

Ann Eisenstein

Kathryn Lindley, MD, joined Vanderbilt University Medical Center in August 2022 as director of its new Women’s Heart Center

CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY

The Division of Clinical Pharmacology is the oldest and largest division of its kind in the world. Using the tools of molecular biology, translational research, clinical research, and personalized medicine, we continue to advance our mission to discover new therapeutic approaches for the treatment of human disease and improvement of human health.

This past year, members of our division were recognized by several national and international awards. Our Personalized Medicine Center, directed by Dr. Dan Roden, leads the world in identifying genetic variants that contribute to human disease, and this year received a grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to study variants of cardiovascular Mendelian genes.

While our division has a major research focus, we have important clinical roles in the Medical Center, including care for patients with difficult-to-treat hypertension and those with autonomic dysfunction. This year, we renewed our Excellence in Hypertension designation from the American Heart Association (AHA). Members of our Autonomic Dysfunction Center received a highly competitive and prestigious award from the AHA to study the effects of Long COVID on the autonomic center. In July 2022, the Tennessee Poison Center (TPC), directed by Dr. Rebecca Bruccoleri, received a five-year renewal of $250,000 per year in funding from the state of Tennessee. The TPC also received a seven-year renewal of accreditation from the American Association of Poison Control Centers this year.

Our division continued to grow this year with the addition of new faculty, including Dr. Monica Santisteban, who was

DIRECTOR

David Harrison, MD Professor of Medicine

recruited from Cornell University. In addition to supporting the research and clinical missions of the division, our faculty are dedicated to training the next generation of clinical pharmacologists. Our Clinical Pharmacology and Autonomic Disorders fellowship programs trained more than 20 clinical and research fellows whose goals align with our mission to discover new therapeutic approaches for the treatment of human disease and improvement of human health.

RESEARCH AWARDS AND HONORS

• Matthew Alexander, MD, PhD

• 2023 American Association of Immunologists Early Career Faculty Travel Grant

• Data Sciences International New Investigator Award from the American Physiological Society’s Water & Electrolyte Homeostasis Section

• Bjorn Knollmann, MD, PhD – Heart Rhythm Society’s Distinguished Basic Scientist Award

• Dan Roden, MD – 2023 Pioneer Award, Precision Medicine World Conference

NOTABLE PUBLICATIONS

• Patrick DM, de la Visitación N, Krishnan J, Chen W, Ormseth MJ, Stein CM, Davies SS, Amarnath V, Crofford LJ, Williams JM, Zhao S, Smart CD, Dikalov S, Dikalova A, Xiao L, Van Beusecum JP, Ao M, Fogo AB, Kirabo A, Harrison DG. Isolevuglandins disrupt PU.1-mediated C1q expression and promote autoimmunity and hypertension in systemic lupus erythematosus. JCI Insight. 2022 Jul 8;7(13):e136678. doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.136678. PMID: 35608913; PMCID: PMC9310530.

• Okamoto LE, Celedonio JE, Smith EC, Paranjape SY, Black BK, Wahba A, Park JW, Shibao CA, Diedrich A, Biaggioni I. Continuous Positive Airway Pressure for the Treatment of Supine Hypertension and Orthostatic Hypotension in Autonomic Failure. Hypertension. 2023 Mar;80(3):650-658. doi: 10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.122.20081. Epub 2023 Jan 5. PMID: 36601916; PMCID: PMC10128890.

• Vaitinadin NS, Stein CM, Mosley JD, Kawai VK. Genetic susceptibility for autoimmune diseases and white blood cell count. Sci Rep. 2023 Apr 11;13(1):5852. doi: 10.1038/s41598023-32799-8. PMID: 37041293; PMCID: PMC10090175.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

New Elections

• Sergey Dikalov, PhD – Fellow, American Physiological Society

• Bjorn Knollmann, MD, PhD – American Association for the Advancement of Science

• Cyndya Shibao, MD, MSCI – American Society for Clinical Investigation

Leadership

• Rachelle Johnson, PhD

• Co-Chair, Early-Stage Investigator Sub-Committee,

American Society for Bone and Mineral Research

• Executive Organizer of the Cancer and Bone Society (CABS) Conference

• Secretary Treasurer, CABS

• Annet Kirabo, PhD – Chair, AHA Communications Committee

• Meenakshi Madhur, MD

• Chair, American Physiological Society Water and Electrolyte Homeostasis Section Awards Committee

• Chair, AHA Clinical Science, Clinical Practice Programming Subcommittee

• Sun Peck, PhD – Co-Chair, American Society of Bone and Mineral Research Social Media Committee

• Julie Rhoades, PhD

• President, CABS

• Executive Organizer, CABS Conference

• Board Member, Cancer Biology Training Consortium (CABTRAC)

• Co-Chair, CABTRAC DEI Committee and Retreat Planning Committee

• Cyndya Shibao, MD, MSCI

• NIH Steering Committee Member, RECOVER

• Committee Member, NASEM “Examining the Working Definition of Long COVID”

Senior Editorship

• Matt Alexander, MD, PhD

• Editorial Board, Hypertension

• Social Media Editor, JACC Basic to Translational Science

• David Harrison, MD – Deputy Editor, Hypertension

• Annet Kirabo, PhD – Associate Editor, Circulation Research

• Meenakshi Madhur, MD, PhD – Associate Editor, Clinical Science

• Julie Rhoades, PhD – Co-Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Bone Oncology

2022-2023 Autonomic Disorders Fellowship Program

DIABETES, ENDOCRINOLOGY AND METABOLISM

DIRECTOR

Alvin Powers, MD Professor of Medicine

In the 2022-2023 academic year, the Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism recruited new faculty and clinical providers, expanded our clinical programs, conducted innovative basic and clinical research, and trained the next generation of endocrinologists and researchers. Our faculty provided innovative, multidisciplinary care for patients with pituitary, thyroid and adrenal disorders in specialized centers that coordinated and integrated diagnostic and therapeutic expertise. Our physicians and advanced practice providers expanded the use of new technologies for real-time blood glucose assessment, thus improving glucose control and reducing the burden of type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Our physicians led programs for the evaluation and treatment of thyroid malignancies and rare metabolic bone disorders such as X-Linked Hypophosphatemia and Hypophosphatasia, including national efforts to create treatment guidelines for these disorders. Our faculty also led specialized, multidisciplinary programs for body weight management and expanded the delivery of these services throughout Middle Tennessee, and provided national leadership for obesity treatment and training of providers in obesity medicine. Once again, as a result of our efforts, our division’s excellence in clinical care was recognized in U.S. News and World Report rankings as one of the top endocrinology programs in the country.

Training the next generation of physicians and scientists remained a major part of the division’s activities as we led two fellowship programs in endocrinology and obesity medicine. We will add a third fellowship program in LGBTQ+ health starting in the 2023-2024 academic year. Our faculty also led a national program that provided research training in diabetes, obesity, and metabolism for medical students after their first year of medical school, and hosted a symposium where more than 100 medical students from 60 medical schools presented their research.

The research of Vanderbilt scientists provided new insight into how human pancreatic islets secrete insulin and glucagon, the pathogenesis of type 1 and type 2 diabetes, and new ways to augment the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. Research in the division also investigated how lipid molecules interact with nuclear receptors and communicate within cells, the role of oxidative stress and diet in neurologic diseases such as Alzheimer’s, sexual dimorphism in dyslipidemia, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. A new faculty member also initiated a clinical trial to investigate how a new type of diabetes medication impacts obesity and inflammation. Division faculty members provided leadership by directing the Vanderbilt Clinical Research Center and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) Human Islet Phenotyping Program. Vanderbilt’s NIDDK-funded Diabetes Research and Training Center, the first one funded by the NIH, celebrated its 50th year as a research center with a symposium that looked at past accomplishments and impact, current research, and opportunities for the future.

As we look forward to the next 50 years, we have a renewed commitment to delivering exemplary care for our patients, training the next generation of leaders in our field, and to conducting groundbreaking research that will advance human health for all.

RESEARCH AWARDS AND HONORS

• Alvin Powers, MD, and Marcela Brissova, PhD – Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (VUSM) John A. Oates, MD, Award for Two or More Faculty Working Collaboratively or in a Multidisciplinary Manner to Address Important Biological Processes and/or Diseases

• Diane Saunders, PhD – 2023 Innovation Award by the Network of Pancreatic Donors with Diabetes

NOTABLE PUBLICATIONS

• Gong Y, Yang B, Zhang D, Zhang Y, Tang Z, Yang L, Coate KC, Yin L, Covington BA, Patel RS, Siv WA, Sellick K, Shou M, Chang W, Danielle Dean E, Powers AC, Chen W. Hyperaminoacidemia induces pancreatic ą cell proliferation via synergism between the mTORC1 and CaSR-Gq signaling pathways. Nat Commun. 2023 Jan 16;14(1):235. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-35705-4. PMID: 36646689; PMCID: PMC9842633.

• Gloyn AL, Ibberson M, Marchetti P, Powers AC, Rorsman P, Sander M, Solimena M. Every islet matters: improving the impact of human islet research. Nat Metab. 2022 Aug;4(8):970-977. doi: 10.1038/s42255-022-00607-8. Epub 2022 Aug 11. PMID: 35953581.

• Nash MJ, Dobrinskikh E, Soderborg TK, Janssen RC, Takahashi DL, Dean TA, Varlamov O, Hennebold JD, Gannon M, Aagaard KM, McCurdy CE, Kievit P, Bergman BC, Jones KL, Pietras EM, Wesolowski SR, Friedman JE. Maternal diet alters

long-term innate immune cell memory in fetal and juvenile hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells in nonhuman primate offspring. Cell Rep. 2023 Apr 13;42(4):112393. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112393. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37058409.

• Newman JD, Schlendorf KH, Cox ZL, Zalawadiya SK, Powers AC, Niswender KD, Shah RV, Lindenfeld J. Post-transplant diabetes mellitus following heart transplantation. J Heart Lung Transplant. 2022 Nov;41(11):1537-1546. doi: 10.1016/j. healun.2022.07.011. Epub 2022 Jul 19. PMID: 35970647.

• Pettway YD, Saunders DC, Brissova M. The human ą cell in health and disease. J Endocrinol. 2023 Jun 19;258(1):e220298. doi: 10.1530/JOE-22-0298. PMID: 37114672; PMCID: PMC10428003.

• Wanjalla CN, Gabriel CL, Fuseini H, Bailin SS, Mashayekhi M, Simmons J, Warren CM, Glass DR, Oakes J, Gangula R, Wilfong E, Priest S, Temu T, Newell EW, Pakala S, Kalams SA, Gianella S, Smith D, Harrison DG, Mallal SA, Koethe JR. CD4+ T cells expressing CX3CR1, GPR56, with variable CD57 are associated with cardiometabolic diseases in persons with HIV. Front Immunol. 2023 Feb 14;14:1099356. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1099356. PMID: 36865544; PMCID: PMC9971959.

• Yang B, Yang L, Wang Y, Maddison LA, Tang Z, Haigh S, Gong Y, Zhang Y, Covington BA, Bosma KJ, Tong X, Page-McCaw P, Gannon M, Deng Q, Chen W. Macrophages and neutrophils are necessary for ER stress-induced ß cell loss. Cell Rep. 2022 Aug 23;40(8):111255. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2022.111255. PMID: 36001973; PMCID: PMC9444341.

EDUCATION AWARDS AND HONORS

• Gisella Carranza Leon, MD – 2023 VUSM Immersion Award

DIVISION HIGHLIGHT

Consuelo H. Wilkins, MD, MSCI (Geriatric Medicine), and Alvin C. Powers, MD (right), director of the Vanderbilt Diabetes Research and Training Center, pictured with Griffin Rodgers, MD, MACP (center), director of the NIDDK, at 2023 Annual Diabetes Day, marking the 50th anniversary of the Vanderbilt DRTC, April 26, 2023.

EPIDEMIOLOGY

It has been another busy and successful year for the Division of Epidemiology. Division faculty continued to conduct impactful research to enhance our understanding of the determinants of disease and inequities in health in diverse populations. Currently, division investigators direct approximately 50 externally funded research projects and training programs, including four large, population-based prospective studies with more than 225,000 study participants. One of these, the Southern Community Cohort Study of 85,000 Black and White adults in the southeastern United States, just reached an exciting milestone of 20 years of follow-up for the earliest enrollees. Over the past year, division faculty have obtained multiple large NIH-funded research grants, including the first well-powered proteome-wide association study in colorectal cancer to identify proteins associated with disease risk, led by Dr. Xingyi Guo; and a new prospective cohort study of reproductive age patients with colorectal cancer that aims to identify changes in gonadal function caused by colorectal cancer treatments and to investigate psychosocial dimensions of sexual health and fertility, led by Dr. Andreana Holowatyj.

In the 2022-2023 year, division faculty have expanded their research to investigate environmental exposures in relation to risk of cancer and other chronic diseases. We began recruitment for a new, large NIH cohort study, the Southern Environmental Health Study (SEHS), led by Drs. Wei Zheng and Martha Shrubsole, that, through a framework of communityengagement, aims to recruit 50,000 largely low-income and minority participants in the southern U.S., who are more likely to live in resource deprived and heavily polluted communities. The study will integrate environmental exposure data from multiple sources, including survey and geospatial data, as well

DIRECTOR

Wei Zheng, MD, PhD, MPH Professor of Medicine

as biological and environmental samples, to address critical issues in the environmental etiology of cancer. Expansion of division research in environmental epidemiology also includes new funding from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for two studies of Per- and Polyfluorinated Substances (PFAS) and liver and kidney cancer risk, led by Drs. Loren Lipworth and Staci Sudenga.

The division is also deeply committed to mentoring and training the next generation of epidemiologists. Through the doctoral program in Epidemiology, directed by Dr. Peter Rebeiro, we advance knowledge for using rigorous epidemiologic methods to produce valid inferences and inform public health practice and research in academia, public health agencies, or industry. The Vanderbilt Training Program in Molecular and Genetic Epidemiology of Cancer, directed by Dr. Xiao-Ou Shu, aims to equip postdoctoral fellows from a variety of disciplines and diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds with the methodological tools, practical laboratory and survey research knowledge, and hands-on research and grant writing experience necessary to launch an independent career in the cancer epidemiology. Finally, division faculty are co-leading a new, NCI-funded international cancer epidemiology training grant with University of Zambia, Vanderbilt-Zambia Cancer Research Training

Program (VZCARE), directed by Drs. Xiao Ou Shu and Douglas Heimburger. Four of our division faculty traveled to Zambia this year to teach a cancer epidemiology workshop. The goal of VZCARE is to develop a cadre of researchers and educators equipped with expertise to lead cancer epidemiology research and training in Zambia and to encourage U.S.-based researchers to engage in cancer research in low- and middle-income countries.

Some other exciting developments in our division include the hiring of two new faculty members to expand and grow research into infectious diseases and epidemiology methods (Dr. Daniel Escudero) and pharmacoepidemiology (Dr. Ghadeer Dawwas). We have also, after over two years of having virtual meetings, returned to in-person Epidemiology Grand Rounds, and have begun to host quarterly faculty networking events to enhance social interaction among faculty, trainees and staff post-pandemic.

DIVISION HIGHLIGHTS

• Epidemiology PhD program received Council on Education for Public Health accreditation

RESEARCH AWARDS AND HONORS

• John Boice Jr., SCD – 2023 Failla Award, Radiation Research Society

• Xiao-Ou Shu, MD, MPH, PhD – Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Peter Guengerich, PhD, Award for Mentoring Postdoctoral Fellows or Residents in the Research Setting

NOTABLE PUBLICATIONS

• Díaz-Zabala H, Guo X, Ping J, Wen W, Shu XO, Long J, Lipworth L, Li B, Fadden MK, Pal T, Blot WJ, Cai Q, Haiman CA, Palmer JR, Sanderson M, Zheng W. Evaluating breast cancer predisposition genes in women of African ancestry. Genet Med. 2022 Jul;24(7):1468-1475. doi: 10.1016/j. gim.2022.03.015. Epub 2022 Apr 8. PMID: 35396981; PMCID: PMC9597482.

• Holowatyj AN, Wen W, Gibbs T, Seagle HM, Keller SR, Edwards DRV, Washington MK, Eng C, Perea J, Zheng W, Guo X. Racial/Ethnic and Sex Differences in Somatic Cancer Gene Mutations among Patients with Early-Onset Colorectal Cancer. Cancer Discov. 2023 Mar 1;13(3):570-579. doi: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-22-0764. PMID: 36520636; PMCID: PMC10436779.

• Midttun Ø, Ulvik A, Meyer K, Zahed H, Giles GG, Manjer J, Sandsveden M, Langhammer A, Sørgjerd EP, Behndig AF, Johansson M, Freedman ND, Huang WY, Chen C, Prentice R, Stevens VL, Wang Y, Le Marchand L, Weinstein SJ, Cai Q, Arslan AA, Chen Y, Shu XO, Zheng W, Yuan JM, Koh WP, Visvanathan K, Sesso HD, Zhang X, Gaziano JM, Fanidi A, Robbins HA, Brennan P, Johansson M, Ueland PM. A crosssectional study of inflammatory markers as determinants of circulating kynurenines in the Lung Cancer Cohort Consortium. Sci Rep. 2023 Jan 18;13(1):1011. doi: 10.1038/ s41598-023-28135-9. PMID: 36653422; PMCID: PMC9849351.

Xiao-Ou Shu, MD, MPH, PhD (center), is presented the 2023 Peter Guengerich, PhD Award for Mentoring Postdoctoral Fellows or Residents in the Research Setting by Jeffrey Balser, MD, PhD, VUMC President and CEO, and Douglas Heimburger, MD, MS (Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health)

• Pradhan P, Wen W, Cai H, Gao YT, Yang G, Shu XO, Zheng W. Association of Ginseng Consumption With All-cause and Cause-specific Mortality: Shanghai Women’s Health Study. J Epidemiol. 2022 Oct 5;32(10):469-475. doi: 10.2188/jea. JE20210393. Epub 2022 Jun 9. PMID: 35400709; PMCID: PMC9424189.

• Sun X, Shu XO, Lan Q, Laszkowska M, Cai Q, Rothman N, Wen W, Zheng W, Shu X. Prospective Proteomic Study Identifies Potential Circulating Protein Biomarkers for Colorectal Cancer Risk. Cancers (Basel). 2022 Jul 3;14(13):3261. doi: 10.3390/ cancers14133261. PMID: 35805033; PMCID: PMC9265260.

• Wen W, Yang G, Cai Q, Shu XO, Zheng W. Association of urinary prostaglandin E2 metabolite and mortality among adults. Sci Rep. 2022 Nov 7;12(1):18905. doi: 10.1038/s41598022-23773-x. PMID: 36344823; PMCID: PMC9640635.

• Jia G, Yang Y, Ping J, Xu S, Liu L, Guo X, Tao R, Long J, Zheng W. Identification of target proteins for breast cancer genetic risk loci and blood risk biomarkers in a large study by integrating genomic and proteomic data. Int J Cancer. 2023 Jun 1;152(11):2314-2320. doi: 10.1002/ijc.34472. Epub 2023 Feb 21. PMID: 36779764; PMCID: PMC10079603.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE Leadership

• Andreana Holowatyj, PhD, MSCI

• Chair, Scientific Advisory Board, Appendix Cancer

Pseudomyxoma Peritonei Research Foundation

• Grant Reviewer, NIH Study Section on Interdisciplinary Care in Specialty Care Settings

• Loren Lipworth, ScD – Scientific Advisory Board, PFAS Review Panel, Environmental Protection Agency

• Staci Sudenga, PhD – Abstract Reviewer, International Papillomavirus Society Meeting

GASTROENTEROLOGY, HEPATOLOGY AND NUTRITION

DIRECTOR

Richard Peek Jr., MD Professor of Medicine

The Division of Gastroenterology (GI), Hepatology and Nutrition at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) has a long and rich history spanning the last 75 years, and is comprised of 80 physician-scientists, clinician-educators, medical center clinicians, mid-level providers and researchtrack investigators. Four strong and interactive mission components that galvanize the division: education, clinical care, research and a commitment to diversity and inclusion, each flourished in 2022-2023.

The Vanderbilt fellowship program in digestive diseases just celebrated its 50th year of existence and currently there are 18 postdoctoral fellow positions in specialty training programs sponsored by the division, including Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Liver Transplantation, Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and Advanced Endoscopy. The GI fellowship program also remained in the top tier of gastroenterology fellowship training programs in the country, receiving over 500 applications for five available positions. Importantly, the program has achieved an 80% matriculation rate for graduating fellows into academic faculty positions over the last five years.

The division also continued to deliver compassionate and outstanding clinical care in 2022-2023, adding several new service lines and resources for patients. The Vanderbilt IBD

Center developed a dedicated Point-of-Care Ultrasound Program that has enrolled more than 300 patients and initiated over 20 new clinical trial and registry studies. The Functional Medicine Program within IBD expanded to now serve patients in General GI and Nutrition. The Vanderbilt GI Motility Center developed innovative strategies to diagnose gastroesophageal reflux disease using novel mucosal integrity testing that was recently approved by the FDA, oversaw more than 10 new clinical trials, and presented at multiple national and international meetings including: Digestive Diseases Week, the American College of Gastroenterology Meeting, United European Gastroenterology Week, and the European Gut Society. Importantly, the Motility Center was awarded a NIH R01 grant focused on novel treatments for achalasia and the role of viruses in disease pathophysiology, positioning itself as a world leader in this field. The Vanderbilt Pancreaticobiliary Center successfully launched new service lines including endoscopic ultrasound (EUS)-guided fine needle biopsy of tumors to facilitate molecular testing and next generation sequencing-driven care stratification of patients, and EUSguided luminal anastomoses. Members in this center also actively participated in ongoing collaborative, multicenter, NIH-funded research trials for pancreatitis; served in leadership positions for the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy; and graduated its 12th Advanced Endoscopy fellow in June 2023. The Center for Human Nutrition used a $1M philanthropic gift to broaden social media outreach and provide safe and reliable information to patients regarding celiac disease, including establishing an Instagram account with over 1,400 followers, initiated two large clinical trials focused on celiac disease, and delivered presentations at leading meetings in nutrition including American Society for Parenteral and

Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN), and the Society for the Study of Celiac Disease. The Section of Hepatology grew substantially with the addition of two new faculty and one additional faculty member hired to start in the summer of 2023. This coincided with the opening of the new, state-of-the-art Vanderbilt Hepatology and Liver and Kidney Transplant Center. Finally, the Hepatology Section and the VUMC liver transplant program performed 144 transplants last year, including living donor transplants, and is involved in more than 20 clinical and registry trials.

The Gastroenterology biomedical investigative program also continued to flourish as the division successfully renewed its signature research hub, the Vanderbilt Digestive Diseases Research Center. This Center coalesces all GI research at Vanderbilt, provides pilot funding for junior investigators, supports cutting-edge core facilities that serve as beacons for investigators across the research enterprise, and supports an Academy of Educators program. The division also renewed several other large multidisciplinary grants, including a Program Project Grant on Helicobacter pylori; National Institutes of Health GI SPORE; National Cancer Institute Moonshot grant; Helmsley Charitable Trust Atlas Grant; hired three new research faculty; and received over $13 million in federal and foundation funds.

Increasing diversity is an overarching priority of our division and we have actively sought to reduce barriers for recruitment and academic success of underrepresented minority (URiM) trainees. Through substantial financial commitments, novel and expanded recruitment efforts, individualized mentoring and policy change, we have successfully established diversity at the level of our fellowship program with 32% URiM fellows in the last five years. We have also hired two outstanding Black female Hepatologists in the last year, Shaki Salvador, a clinician-educator whose research focus centers on reducing racial barriers to liver transplantation; and Ashley Spann, a physician-scientist who is pioneering digital health as a mechanism to optimize liver transplantation outcomes. Our division forged an alliance with Nashville-based Meharry Medical College, one of only three minority medical colleges in the country, and received National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases funding to develop an inaugural Digestive Diseases URiM Symposium which was held in April 2022. This symposium featured five internationally renowned URiM investigators, John Carethers, Byron Cryer, Chyke Doubeni, Juanita Merchant, and Lanla Conteh, who presented scientific talks and participated in career development sessions for digestive diseases trainees and researchers at VUMC, URiM trainees and faculty at Vanderbilt, and trainees and investigators at Meharry. Importantly, this event catalyzed a new Annual Diversity Symposium Series for which our division has now partnered with the Vanderbilt P30 Diabetes and Research Training Center, the Vanderbilt GI SPORE program, and Meharry to invite two successful URiM investigators per year to present a research seminar and host a career mentoring session. The most recent symposium was held June 9, 2023, and featured guest speakers Dr. Monica Peek (University of Chicago) and Dr. Patricia Jones (University of Miami).

NEW INSTITUTIONAL LEADERS

• Sara Horst, MD, MPH – Associate Vice Chair for Digital Health Operations for the Department of Medicine and Assistant Chief for Clinical Informatics for the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition

NEW DIRECTORSHIPS

• Christopher Williams, MD, PhD – Directorship in PhysicianScientist Training

CLINICAL AWARDS AND HONORS

• David Schwartz, MD – Elected to Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (VUSM) Academy for Excellence in Clinical Medicine

EDUCATION AWARDS AND HONORS

• Rishi Naik, MD, MSCI – Named Director of the VUSM Gastroenterology Block

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

Leadership

• Lori Coburn, MD – Director, Digestive Diseases Research Center Academy of Investigators

• Keith Obstein, MD, MPH

• Chair, American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy e-Learning Committee

• Vice Chair, American Gastroenterological Training Exam Committee

• Dhyanesh Patel, MD – Chair, International Society for Diseases of the Esophagus Communications Committee

• Richard Peek, MD – Member and Group Leader, NCI Esophageal and Gastric Cancer Working Group

• Suzanne Sharpton, MD – Member, American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) Research Awards Committee

• Sarah Short, PhD – Chron’s and Colitis Congress Abstract Review Committee

• Alexandra Shingina, MD, MSc

• National Liver Review Board, United Network for Organ Sharing

• Member-at-Large, AASLD Women’s Health Committee

• Member-at-Large, Women Health Community of Practice Executive Committee, American Society of Transplantation

• Christopher Williams, MD, PhD

• Co-chair, American Society of Clinical Investigation Physician Scientist Development Committee

• Chair, American Association of American Medical Colleges Training Opportunities for Physician Scientists

• Chair, Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine Research Committee

Senior Editorship

• Manhal Izzy, MD – Editorial Board, Liver Transplantation

• Rishi Naik, MD, MSCI – Editorial Board, Gastroenterology

• Dhyanesh Patel, MD – Editorial Board, Gastroenterology

Paying it Forward Former trainee and family support GI fellowships

For Anil and Divya Patel, a lifelong commitment to learning is core to their being.

“I am from Zambia, Africa, where there are not enough training institutions and not enough skilled workers – not just in medicine but in every facet of the economy,” said Anil Patel, MD. “Education and training have always been important to us.”

In 1990, the Patels came to VUMC, where Anil trained as a gastroenterology fellow. A formative experience, Anil is quick to recall his mentor Raymond Burk Jr., MD, former director of the division. Burk’s mentorship was not only critical during his fellowship experience but also influential in bringing the family back to middle Tennessee in 1993. For the past 30 years, the Patels have run a gastroenterology practice in Clarksville.

Reflecting their passion for training and education, the Patels, along with their son, Dilan, and daughter, Neelam, endowed the Anil and Divya Patel Family Fellowship in Gastroenterology. Since its inception in 2008, there have been 10 Patel fellows.

“The fellowship is one of the best things we’ve ever done,” said Divya Patel. “For us, giving without expectation fosters realization – it builds strong connections and relationships. It allows us to become part of something larger than ourselves, to connect with these fellows as well as the larger community, as we know the fellows will pay it forward by sharing their knowledge and training with others.”

Richard Peek, Jr., MD, director of the Division of Gastroenterology who holds the Mina Cobb Wallace Chair in Immunology, notes the far-reaching impact of the Patel’s gift. “The fellowship has such an impact on our division and will continue to do so. But it reaches well beyond us, as fellows

often go on to pursue research that advances our field.”

As the most recent Patel fellow, Audrey Bennett, MD, echoes the importance of mentorship she’s found at VUMC. “I am grateful to have completed my gastroenterology training at VUMC and to be a Patel fellow,” said Bennett. I’ve had an interest in inflammatory bowel disease since I started my intern year at VUMC in 2016. I’m thankful for the excellent career and research mentorship I’ve received from Dr. Sara Horst and Dr. David Schwartz throughout my time at Vanderbilt, and am excited to be staying on as faculty in the IBD clinic.”

Beyond the fellowship, the Patels are frequently seeking opportunities to help others through education. They are involved with the University of Zambia, supporting various programs from student transportation to endowment planning.

“Our life is so enriched by the people we know and the places we go,” said Anil Patel. “Knowledge levels the playing field. By ensuring knowledge is accessible to all, we create a more just society, where individuals can fulfill their potential and contribute to their communities.”

DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE GIVING

Generous donors like the Patels help strengthen the Department of Medicine’s educational, research and patient care programs.

For more information and to make a contribution, scan the QR code, or visit medicine.vumc.org/dom-giving

Anil and Divya Patel

GENETIC MEDICINE

In the Division of Genetic Medicine, advances in data integration and bioinformatics methods are providing new avenues for investigating the genetics involved in human disease. The division has seen a greater than 50% year-overyear increase in direct costs for grant activity in the 2022-2023 academic year. Our faculty and trainees have made impactful discoveries in clonal hematopoiesis, the genetic basis for immune disease, and genetic architectures of neuropsychiatric conditions.

Faculty members on the Medical Center’s Diversity Liaison Committee started organizing a REDCap database to capture our research portfolio and publications on health disparities and health equity. As our faculty have long engaged in substantial research in underserved populations, we continue to pioneer studies in diverse genetic ancestries and lead efforts to appreciate complications to health equity from heritable variations in biomarkers. We hope to highlight that work within the division and to expand the collection next year to the entire Department of Medicine.

Division faculty are leaders in national and global initiatives such as the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute TransOmics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Consortium, Global Biobank Meta-analysis Initiative, the PRIMED Consortium, Alzheimer’s Disease Genetics Consortium, and the eMERGE Network. Our faculty serve in leadership positions in professional organizations, including the American Thoracic Society, National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC): Health IT Special Interest Group, and the Tennessee Genetic Counselors Association (TNGCA).

DIRECTOR

Nancy Cox, MD Professor of Medicine

The division has embraced calls to train, employ, and retain a workforce in genomics and genetic medicine reflective of human diversity. Trainees are connected to career development opportunities and mentored through training programs. Current trainees have given plenary presentations and developed symposia for national and international meetings. Responding to the shifting needs of the field, division faculty reorganized part of the Human Genetics course, adding a computational lab to address growing computational research opportunities.

Research in the division has led to more than 100 publications over the past year, including papers in Nature, Science, Science Immunology, Nature Medicine, Nature Genetics, Nature Neuroscience, Cell, Cell Genomics, Cancer Medicine, Genomic Medicine, JAMA Oncology, JAMA Surgery, JAMA Psychiatry, American Journal of Human Genetics, Brain, Translational Psychiatry, Bioinformatics, and a wide variety of specialty journals.

Burgeoning data resources for gene sequence, gene expression, and phenotype are being met with the emergence of “multiomic integration” for functional biomarker and pathway discovery in human health and disease. Constructive collaborations enjoyed by this division with colleagues in the Department of Medicine and Vanderbilt colleagues bring the

technologies together to observe and assess biomolecular “phenotypes” across the Central Dogma (e.g., RNA, epigenetics, metabolites, and proteins) which add significantly to disease etiology and pathogenesis.

CLINICAL AWARDS AND HONORS

• Katie Lang, MS, CGC – NSGC 2022 Heart of Genetic Counseling Award

NOTABLE PUBLICATIONS

• Bejan CA, Ripperger M, Wilimitis D, Ahmed R, Kang J, Robinson K, Morley TJ, Ruderfer DM, Walsh CG. Improving ascertainment of suicidal ideation and suicide attempt with natural language processing. Sci Rep. 2022 Sep 7;12(1):15146. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-19358-3. PMID: 36071081; PMCID: PMC9452591.

• Collins RL, Glessner JT, Porcu E, Lepamets M, Brandon R, Lauricella C, Han L, Morley T, Niestroj LM, Ulirsch J, Everett S, Howrigan DP, Boone PM, Fu J, Karczewski KJ, Kellaris G, Lowther C, Lucente D, Mohajeri K, Nõukas M, Nuttle X, Samocha KE, Trinh M, Ullah F, Võsa U; Epi25 Consortium; Estonian Biobank Research Team; Hurles ME, Aradhya S, Davis EE, Finucane H, Gusella JF, Janze A, Katsanis N, Matyakhina L, Neale BM, Sanders D, Warren S, Hodge JC, Lal D, Ruderfer DM, Meck J, Mägi R, Esko T, Reymond A, Kutalik Z, Hakonarson H, Sunyaev S, Brand H, Talkowski ME. A cross-disorder dosage sensitivity map of the human genome. Cell. 2022 Aug 4;185(16):3041-3055.e25. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2022.06.036. Epub 2022 Aug 1. PMID: 35917817; PMCID: PMC9742861.

• Coral DE, Fernandez-Tajes J, Tsereteli N, Pomares-Millan H, Fitipaldi H, Mutie PM, Atabaki-Pasdar N, Kalamajski S, Poveda A, Miller-Fleming TW, Zhong X, Giordano GN, Pearson ER, Cox NJ, Franks PW. A phenome-wide comparative analysis of genetic discordance between obesity and type 2 diabetes. Nat Metab. 2023 Feb;5(2):237-247. doi: 10.1038/s42255022-00731-5. Epub 2023 Jan 26. PMID: 36703017; PMCID: PMC9970876.

• Khunsriraksakul C, Li Q, Markus H, Patrick MT, Sauteraud R, McGuire D, Wang X, Wang C, Wang L, Chen S, Shenoy G, Li B, Zhong X, Olsen NJ, Carrel L, Tsoi LC, Jiang B, Liu DJ. Multi-ancestry and multi-trait genome-wide association meta-analyses inform clinical risk prediction for systemic lupus erythematosus. Nat Commun. 2023 Feb 7;14(1):668. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-36306-5. PMID: 36750564; PMCID: PMC9905560.

• Niarchou M, Gustavson DE, Sathirapongsasuti JF, AngladaTort M, Eising E, Bell E, McArthur E, Straub P; 23andMe Research Team; McAuley JD, Capra JA, Ullén F, Creanza N, Mosing MA, Hinds DA, Davis LK, Jacoby N, Gordon RL. Genome-wide association study of musical beat synchronization demonstrates high polygenicity. Nat Hum Behav. 2022 Sep;6(9):1292-1309. doi: 10.1038/s41562022-01359-x. Epub 2022 Jun 16. PMID: 35710621; PMCID: PMC9489530.

• Sherafati A, Elsekaily O, Saadatagah S, Kochan DC, Lee C, Wiesner GL, Liu C, Dellefave-Castillo L, Namjou B, Perez EF, Salvati ZM, Connolly JJ, Hakonarson H, Williams MS, Jarvik GP, Chung WK, McNally EM, Manolio TA, Kullo

IJ. Pathogenic variants in arteriopathy genes detected in a targeted sequencing study: Penetrance and 1-year outcomes after return of results. Genet Med. 2022 Oct;24(10):21232133. doi: 10.1016/j.gim.2022.07.007. Epub 2022 Aug 10. PMID: 35943490; PMCID: PMC9837827.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE Leadership

• Melinda Aldrich, PhD, MPH

• Chair-elect, Thoracic Oncology Assembly Program Committee

• Program Steering Committee, U54 Florida-California Cancer Research, Education, and Engagement Health Equity Center

• Nancy Cox, PhD – Advisor, National Advisory Council for Human Genome Research

• Eric Gamazon, PhD – NIH Analytics and Statistics for Population Research Study Section

• Nikhil Khankari, PhD – NIH Cancer and Hematologic Disorder Study Section

• Maggie Ng, PhD – NIH Genetics of Health and Disease Study Section

• Maria Niarchou, PhD – Membership Committee, International Society of Psychiatric Genetics

• Georgia Wiesner, MD

• Member and Co-lead, National Comprehensive Cancer Network Colorectal Genetic Sub-panel

• Program Committee Member, Inherited Cancer Syndrome Consortium Meeting

• Brenda Zuniga, MS

• Board of Directors and Secretary/Treasurer, Latin American Professional Society of Genetic Counseling

• Secretary Treasurer, TNGCA

• Lead, National Society of Genetic Counselors Health IT Special Interest Group

Senior Editorship

• Maria Niarchou, PhD – Editorial Board, Complex Psychiatry

From left: Linh Tran, Ruben Barricarte, PhD, Jaren Perez, Xin Zhen

Martinez-Barricarte Lab

GERIATRIC MEDICINE

DIRECTOR

Harvey Murff, MD, MPH Associate Professor of Medicine

The Division of Geriatric Medicine is dedicated to promoting healthy aging through patient care, medical education, and research. Over the past year we have grown our clinical operations with the recruitment of two new geriatricians. We continue to adapt our educational mission to provide outstanding geriatrics training for medical students, residents, and fellows that reflect the ongoing changes in health care delivery models for older adults. We have expanded our research portfolio through grant funding and serve in nationally recognized leadership roles.

A major goal of our clinical mission is to develop partnerships across divisions and departments at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC). One notable example is the work of Dr. Anne Gifford in the VUMC High-Risk Surgical Encounter (Hi-RiSE) clinic. Dr. Gifford provides a geriatric perspective towards optimizing older adults for surgical procedures at VUMC. In addition, Vanderbilt’s Geriatric Medicine clinics were recognized as a Level 2-certified Age-Friendly Health System by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and are utilizing a new EPIC dashboard to track quality measures.

This year, we also recruited three new fellows to our fellowship training program, which is led by Dr. Mariu Duggan. The geriatrics fellowship program continues to thrive in training

leaders in age-friendly care. Fellows rotate through new clinical experiences in community medicine, neurology, urology, low vision services, autonomics, and perioperative medicine. The curriculum continues to advance in innovation, as we have added virtual reality training and interinstitutional learning collaboratives.

Division faculty continued to maintain an active research portfolio. Dr. Sandra Simmons, Director of the Vanderbilt Center for Quality Aging, is the Principal Investigator for an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)-funded study to use simulation modeling to determine optimal hospital staffing allocations to care for older patients. She is collaborating closely with the Vanderbilt hospital administration and nursing leadership team to share the results of this study to inform licensed nurse and care partner resource allocations on various hospital units. The overarching goal of the AHRQ study is to create an adaptable simulation model that can be used to inform staffing allocations that minimize the risk for care omissions and patient falls during hospitalization. Another notable achievement for the division was Dr. Kimberly Beiting’s Geriatric Academic Career Award. This highly competitive award is offered every five years through the Health Resources and Services Administration, and will help focus on the emerging problem of substance abuse in older adults.

Over the last year, we celebrated the accomplishments of several faculty, including Dr. Consuelo Wilkins, who was appointed to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine committee for Unequal Treatment Revisited; and Dr. Jim Powers, who was named the Presidential appointee to the Gerontologic Society of America’s Program, Product, and

Publications Committee. Finally, for the second year in a row, VUMC was ranked 28th nationally in Geriatrics in the U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals ranking.

We eagerly anticipate 2023-2024 as a year of continued success in our clinical, educational and research missions.

NEW INSTITUTIONAL LEADERS

• Victor Legner, MD, Associate Vice Chair for Network Services for the Department of Medicine

RESEARCH AWARDS AND HONORS

• Consuelo Wilkins, MD, MSCI – Appointed to National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine committee for Unequal Treatment Revisited

NOTABLE PUBLICATIONS

• Horr T, Muscarella J, Crocker K, Kimmerling M, Reeves T, Moreno ML, Lewis M, Young BT, Ryan Starnes J, Niehoff KM, Kripalani S. A hospital at home case report: Prolonged amphotericin B therapy via elastomeric pump. Am J Health Syst Pharm. 2023 Feb 15;80(4):227-235. doi: 10.1093/ajhp/ zxac331. PMID: 36322643.

• Kim JL, Lewallen KM, Hollingsworth EK, Shah AS, Simmons SF, Vasilevskis EE. Patient-Reported Barriers and Enablers to Deprescribing Recommendations During a Clinical Trial (Shed-MEDS). Gerontologist. 2023 Mar 21;63(3):523-533. doi: 10.1093/geront/gnac100. PMID: 35881109; PMCID: PMC10028229.

• Murff HJ. In patients with CHD, a Mediterranean vs. low-fat diet reduced major CV events at 7 y. Ann Intern Med. 2022 Sep;175(9):JC100. doi: 10.7326/J22-0061. Epub 2022 Sep 6.

PMID: 36063545.

• Powers JS, Penaranda N. Creation of a Whole Health AgeFriendly Template and Dashboard Facilitates Implementation of 4Ms into Primary Care. Geriatrics (Basel). 2022 Oct 1;7(5):109. doi: 10.3390/geriatrics7050109. PMID: 36286213; PMCID: PMC9601591.

• Vasilevskis EE, Shah AS, Hollingsworth EK, Shotwell MS, Kripalani S, Mixon AS, Simmons SF. Deprescribing Medications Among Older Adults From End of Hospitalization Through Postacute Care: A Shed-MEDS Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Intern Med. 2023 Mar 1;183(3):223-231. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2022.6545. PMID: 36745422; PMCID: PMC9989899.

• Yang M, Beiting KJ, Levine S. Barriers to Care for Nursing Home Residents With Substance Use Disorders: A Qualitative Study. J Addict Med. 2023 Mar-Apr 01;17(2):155-162. doi: 10.1097/ADM.0000000000001061. Epub 2022 Aug 30. PMID: 36044314.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE Leadership

• Harvey Murff, MD, MPH – Co-chair, American Cancer Society Research Priority Area Screening and Diagnosis Committee

• James Powers, MD – Presidential Appointee, Gerontologic Society of America’s Program, Product, and Publication Committee

Consuelo Wilkins, MD, MSCI, has been appointed to the NASEM Committee for Unequal Treatment Revisited

HEMATOLOGY AND ONCOLOGY

The 2022-2023 academic year was an exciting and challenging year for the Division of Hematology and Oncology. The former division director, Dr. Ben Ho Park, was promoted to lead the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC). After a national search, Dr. Jordan Berlin was selected as the new division director, and he subsequently appointed Dr. Douglas Johnson as the new Section Head of Solid Tumor. Among the other leadership changes include Dr. Sanjay Mohan’s role as clinical lead for malignant hematology, Dr. Katherine Walsh’s role as Program Director for the Hematology/Oncology fellowship, and Dr. Paula Hurley’s role as the division’s Laboratory Science Lead.

The division this year continued to grow in size and practice. We started the year actively recruiting new faculty. The incredible success of the division has led our physicians to other institutions and pharmaceutical industry jobs, giving us the opportunity to welcome new faculty. As a result, we recruited seven new members of the hematology section and two new physician-scientists in our solid tumor group, who join us in the 2023-2024 year. Ongoing recruitment efforts ensure that we can keep up with the increased demand we are seeing in our hospitals and clinics. Clinically, we continue to grow our practice, not only at the main campus but at satellite sites, including the newly reconstructed Franklin and Pleasant View offices, as well as expansion sites in Lebanon, Hendersonville and Belle Meade. Dr. Waleed Khalaf has taken on the role of helping Dr. Laura Goff to continue our expansion through middle Tennessee.

Research has continued in the laboratory and the clinic and the output of that research, publications, is now being tracked daily. We have watched as we average at least one publication a day

DIRECTOR

Jordan Berlin, MD Professor of Medicine

in the division across the spectrum of diseases we treat. We have received 10 new federal grants, placed three new faculty on federal training grants, and received funding from 11 nonprofit organizations to continue our research programs. New, practice-changing clinical data has come from our division, leading studies that will change the way cellular therapy is given and leading trials of new drugs in diseases such as colorectal cancer that will result in new options for therapy. Our Advance Practice Providers continue to not only provide exceptional care in the inpatient and outpatient settings, but hold a number of national and statewide leadership roles, present oral presentations at a national meetings, and author several publications.

Our commitment to education continues with a top-rated fellowship program where our fellows have active publications, multiple young investigator awards and high profile presentations. Our educational efforts extend not only through medical school and residency, but also reach undergraduate and high school students with several programs designed to increase the engagement of underrepresented minorities and women in science and medicine.

In addition to our educational opportunities targeting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), we have an active DEI committee,

responsible for relevant trainings and seminars, and a commitment to enhance our applicant pool diversity for all new recruitments. Our research has also looked at disparities in care and we are committed to determining and studying ways to overcome these disparities.

We look forward to an exciting upcoming academic year with continued growth in education, research and patient care.

NEW INSTITUTIONAL LEADERS

• Vandana Abramson, MD – VICC Interim co-leader, Breast Cancer Research Program

• Jordan Berlin, MD – Director, Hematology and Oncology

• Cathy Eng, MD – VICC Director for Strategic Relations

NEW DIRECTORSHIPS

• Nancy Davis, MD – Katherine Jackson Johnston Directorship

• Douglas Johnson, MD, MSCI – Susan and Luke Simons Directorship

• Michael Savona, MD – Beverly and George Rawlings Directorship

RESEARCH AWARDS AND HONORS

• Jordan Berlin, MD – 2022 NCI Director’s Award

• P. Brent Ferrell, MD – 2022 Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research Global Scholars Program

• Christine Lovly, MD, PhD – GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer 2022 Asclepios Award

NOTABLE PUBLICATIONS

• Carvajal RD, Butler MO, Shoushtari AN, Hassel JC, Ikeguchi A, Hernandez-Aya L, Nathan P, Hamid O, Piulats JM, Rioth M, Johnson DB, Luke JJ, Espinosa E, Leyvraz S, Collins L, Goodall HM, Ranade K, Holland C, Abdullah SE, Sacco JJ, Sato T. Clinical and molecular response to tebentafusp in previously treated patients with metastatic uveal melanoma: a phase 2 trial. Nat Med. 2022 Nov;28(11):2364-2373. doi: 10.1038/ s41591-022-02015-7. Epub 2022 Oct 13. PMID: 36229663; PMCID: PMC9671803.

• Costa LJ, Chhabra S, Medvedova E, Dholaria BR, Schmidt TM, Godby KN, Silbermann R, Dhakal B, Bal S, Giri S, D’Souza A, Hall A, Hardwick P, Omel J, Cornell RF, Hari P, Callander NS. Daratumumab, Carfilzomib, Lenalidomide, and Dexamethasone With Minimal Residual Disease ResponseAdapted Therapy in Newly Diagnosed Multiple Myeloma. J Clin Oncol. 2022 Sep 1;40(25):2901-2912. doi: 10.1200/ JCO.21.01935. Epub 2021 Dec 13. PMID: 34898239.

• Haake SM, Plosa EJ, Kropski JA, Venton LA, Reddy A, Bock F, Chang BT, Luna AJ, Nabukhotna K, Xu ZQ, Prather RA, Lee S, Tanjore H, Polosukhin VV, Viquez OM, Jones A, Luo W, Wilson MH, Rathmell WK, Massion PP, Pozzi A, Blackwell TS, Zent R. Ligand-independent integrin ß1 signaling supports lung adenocarcinoma development. JCI Insight. 2022 Aug 8;7(15):e154098. doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.154098. PMID: 35763345; PMCID: PMC9462485.

• Heumann T, Judkins C, Li K, Lim SJ, Hoare J, Parkinson R, Cao H, Zhang T, Gai J, Celiker B, Zhu Q, McPhaul T, Durham

J, Purtell K, Klein R, Laheru D, De Jesus-Acosta A, Le DT, Narang A, Anders R, Burkhart R, Burns W, Soares K, Wolfgang C, Thompson E, Jaffee E, Wang H, He J, Zheng L. A platform trial of neoadjuvant and adjuvant antitumor vaccination alone or in combination with PD-1 antagonist and CD137 agonist antibodies in patients with resectable pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Nat Commun. 2023 Jun 20;14(1):3650. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-39196-9. PMID: 37339979; PMCID: PMC10281953.

• Strickler JH, Cercek A, Siena S, André T, Ng K, Van Cutsem E, Wu C, Paulson AS, Hubbard JM, Coveler AL, Fountzilas C, Kardosh A, Kasi PM, Lenz HJ, Ciombor KK, Elez E, Bajor DL, Cremolini C, Sanchez F, Stecher M, Feng W, Bekaii-Saab TS; MOUNTAINEER investigators. Tucatinib plus trastuzumab for chemotherapy-refractory, HER2-positive, RAS wild-type unresectable or metastatic colorectal cancer (MOUNTAINEER): a multicentre, open-label, phase 2 study. Lancet Oncol. 2023 May;24(5):496-508. doi: 10.1016/S14702045(23)00150-X. PMID: 37142372.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

New Elections

• Christine Lovly, MD, PhD – American Association for Cancer Research Board of Directors

• Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD, MMHC

• Member, National Academy of Medicine

• Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences

• Fellow of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)

• Vicki Keedy, MD – Fellow of the American Society of Clinical Oncology

Leadership

• Jordan Berlin, MD – Chair, Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation Annual Meeting Program

• Megan Dupuis, MD, PhD – Co-chair, ASCO Oncology Summer Internship

• Mike Gibson, MD – Member, NCI GI Steering Committee

• Jill Gilbert, MD – Member, ASCO Education Council

• Patrick Hu, MD, PhD – Councilor, Southern Society for Clinical Investigation

• Heather Jackson, PhD, APRN – Chair, American Society of Regional Anesthesia Pain Medicine

• Douglas Johnson, MD, MSCI – Co-chair, National Comprehensive Cancer Network Melanoma Panel

• Christine Lovly, MD, PhD – Board Member, American Association for Cancer Research

• Sanjay Mohan, MD

• Chair, American Society of Hematology Medical Educators Program

• Chair, ASH Honors Grant Study Section

Senior Editorship

• Patrick Hu, MD, PhD – Editorial Board, eLife

• Heather Jackson, PhD, APRN – Editorial Board, Oncology Issues

• Christine Lovly, MD, PhD

• Editorial Board, Cancer Discovery

• Associate Editor, JCO Precision Oncology

INFECTIOUS DISEASES

DIRECTOR

Kelly Dooley, MD, PhD, MPH Professor of Medicine

The Division of Infectious Diseases (ID) at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) is dedicated to enhancing prevention and treatment of infectious diseases through discovery and application of new knowledge that is seamlessly integrated with mentoring trainees to become the next generation of national leaders in the field. The division’s mission is enhanced by our strong emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration, social and intellectual diversity, commitment to life-long self-learning, and professionalism. We emphasize a global perspective and aim to maintain excellence and compassion in every clinical encounter.

In September 2022, Dr. Kelly Dooley joined VUMC as the Division Director and Addison B. Scoville, Jr., Chair in Medicine, following a period in which the supremely-talented and servicecentered Drs. Karen Bloch and David Haas served as interim directors. Dr. Bloch remains in a leadership position as the Associate Division Director for Clinical Affairs, a role to which she was appointed in 2021. In 2022, Dr. Sean Kelly assumed the role of Medical Director of VUMC’s Comprehensive Care Center (VCCC). Dr. Rick Larue was also named Interim Director of our growing Transplant ID program. Our division developed a Senior Leadership Team this year, including Drs. Bloch and Haas, plus Drs. Aima Ahonkhai, Holly Algood, Titus Daniels, Christina Fiske, Bryan Harris, Todd Hulgan, Anna Person and Henrique Serezani. This team represents leadership in clinical

services, health equity, global health, faculty development, telemedicine, fellowship training, hospital administration, and clinical and bench research, and has been essential for moving us forward in all these arenas. Additionally, we created a Diversity Equity and Inclusion Committee and hosted our first Health Equity Challenge.

We have emerged from a global pandemic and its associated crises battle-worn, but now smarter and better prepared. Our Hospital Epidemiology group, comprising Infection Prevention, led by Dr. Tom Talbot, and Antibiotic Stewardship, led by Drs. George Nelson and Milner Staub, continued to provide important leadership in the context of ebbing and flowing infectious diseases risks and threats related to emerging drugresistant pathogens. VUMC has been designated an Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) Center of Excellence in Antimicrobial Stewardship, and as evidence of VUMC’s leadership in Infection Prevention, Dr. Talbot has been selected as President-Elect of the Society for Hospital Epidemiology of America (SHEA). Furthermore, we are taking our expertise on the road, providing consultancy to hospitals in Greece through a CDC-funded project, as well as providing IP and AS services to several hospitals and clinics in Middle Tennessee. Our Infusion Center, once serving as a venue for COVID-19-related therapeutics, is now reimagined as a location for all manner of injections and infusions. The VCCC continued to provide both HIV prevention and HIV treatment services, caring for about half of individuals with HIV in Middle Tennessee. As a testament to the dedication of the VCCC team, HIV viral load suppression rates surpassed the 90% target this year, ahead of schedule. There remains a national shortage of ID doctors, and in that context, we continue to expand our inpatient, outpatient,

and telemedicine services to attend to regional needs. Locally, given the large and growing transplant program and recognizing the special risks immunocompromised post-transplant patients face, we have aggressively expanded our Transplant ID program, and will have three new transplant ID providers in the 2023-2024 year.

Faculty members of the division lead a large (approximately $80 million per year) and diverse portfolio of research that spans fundamental laboratory investigation, epidemiology, clinical trials, implementation science, and public policy. Areas of emphasis include, but are not limited to: HIV, including global HIV epidemiology and provision of care, HIV and aging, HIV-associated cardiometabolic or kidney disease, pharmacogenomics of HIV therapies, HIV vaccines, and HIV novel therapeutics; emerging infections; bacterial pathogenesis; tuberculosis; non-tuberculous mycobacteria; adverse drug reactions; host-pathogen interactions and immunologic responses; the microbiome; sepsis; and mechanisms of antibiotic tolerance or resistance. Among our new awards this year was Dr. Samuel Bailin’s K23, “Adipose Tissue T Cell Polarization and Metabolic Health in Persons Living with HIV,” and Dr. Todd Hulgan’s VA Merit award, “Defining the Contribution of Mitochondrial DNA to Viral Infectious Diseases, Type 2 Diabetes, and their Interactions.” Drs. Elizabeth Phillips and Michelle Martin-Pozo launched their North American Therapeutics in Epidermal Necrolysis Syndrome (NATIENS) Phase 3 trial; Dr. Keipp Talbot was named co-leader of the CDC grant for the Emerging Infections Program in Tennessee; Dr. Timothy Sterling and the TB Center received large awards to lead the RePORT Brazil and RePORT International large cohort network studies; and Drs. Holly Algood and Wonder Drake were awarded a Research Initiative for Scholar divErsity to UPhold Veteran Health (RISE UP) VA grant to direct a summer program aimed at increasing diversity amongst future physician-scientists and scientists.

The division continues to provide exceptional training across three fellowship programs. The general ID program continues to attract top-notch fellows, matching five exceptional candidates this year, while nearly half of U.S. programs went unfilled. This is undoubtedly due to the family feel that program leadership and other administrators have created alongside rigorous clinical training and unparalleled research opportunities. Additionally, the Vanderbilt ID fellowship was selected as one of 11 CDC Emerging Infections Surveillance (EIS) Fellowship sites, allowing fellows with global health interests to train as EIS officers immediately following ID fellowship. This program is expected to roll out in the 2023-2024 year. The Addiction Medicine fellowship, housed in ID since 2022 and led by Dr. Katie White, will welcome its newest fellow, recruited from Meharry Medical College, in the upcoming academic year. Also this year, Dr. Kevin Dee took over the division’s Transplant ID Fellowship, one of just 20 programs in the country.

The Division of Infectious Diseases remains a dynamic and collaborative place, filled with the very best faculty, trainees and staff, all dedicated to addressing unmet medical needs, calmly and with unwavering dedication to service. We are committed to ending the HIV epidemic, to treating – and finding new ways

to treat – complex infections in those patients who need us, and to meeting today’s and tomorrow’s infectious pathogens head-on.

DIVISION HIGHLIGHTS

• Tennessee Emerging Infections Program (EIP) was recently recognized with the Toby Merlin Award for Excellence in Emergency Response, presented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry

• Vanderbilt Comprehensive Care Clinic achieved goal of over 90% HIV viral suppression

NEW INSTITUTIONAL LEADERS

• Cody Chastain, MD – Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Medical Education Program Evaluation and Improvement

• Bryan Harris, MD, MPH, MMHC – Named Executive Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs, Department of Medicine

• Patty Wright, MD – Named Chief Medical Officer for Adult Ambulatory Clinics

CLINICAL AWARDS AND HONORS

• Patty Wright, MD – 2022 Infectious Diseases Society of America Watanakunakorn Clinician Award

RESEARCH AWARDS AND HONORS

• Kelly Dooley, MD, PhD, MPH – Treatment Action Group Research in Action Award

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

New Elections

• Elizabeth Phillips, MD – Association of American Physicians

Leadership

• Anna Person, MD – Board of Directors, HIV Medicine Association

• April Pettit, MD, MPH – United States Department of Health and Human Services Panel on Guidelines for the Use of Antiretroviral Agents in Adults in Adults and Adolescents with HIV

• Henrique Serezani, PhD – Leadership Task Force, Society for Leukocyte Biology

• Tom Talbot, MD, MPH – President-elect, Society for Hospital Medicine of America

• Keipp Talbot, MD – CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices

Senior Editorship

• Henrique Serezani, PhD – Editor, Diabetes

INTERNAL MEDICINE AND PUBLIC HEALTH

The Division of General Internal Medicine and Public Health had an extraordinary year this year as we continued to expand and excel in our three mission areas of clinical care, education and research. We had a record-breaking year in our clinics, with our clinicians providing care to over approximately 350,000 outpatient visits this year, and staffing on over 20 inpatient services on any given day. Our research portfolio has grown with new and forthcoming funding from the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

We continued to attract exceptional faculty to support our growth, and the competition for our trainee positions permits us to select the best of the best. The most notable update of the year, however, were the many leadership transitions that occurred, some of which went delayed as a result of the pandemic. After a quarter century of extraordinary leadership of our Medicine-Pediatrics Residency Program, Dr. Sandi Moutsios passed the baton to Dr. Ashley Karpinos. Dr. Sumi Misra, the founding director of our Palliative Care Fellowship Program, transitioned leadership to Dr. Melanie Skelton after 15 years of exemplary leadership. Dr. Deb McCroskey, the founding medical director of our walk-in clinics and dedicated leader for over a quarter century, passed the torch to Drs. Ed Shackelford and Clay Smith, who will work together lead our walk-in and retail clinics. Finally, Dr. Mary Yarbrough, the unflinching Executive Director of Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Health and Wellness for nearly a quarter century, helped elevate Dr. Lori Rolando to the helm of an enterprise that includes an Employee Assistance Program, Occupational Health, Health Plus, and the faculty/staff health promotion program. Shakespeare is sometimes paraphrased as saying,

DIRECTOR

Tom Elasy, MD, MPH Professor of Medicine

“heavy is the head that wears the crown.” Whatever challenges that were borne by Drs. Moutsios, Misra, McCroskey and Yarbrough were in the shadow of their gratitude and joy in the service of others. It is hard to overstate the impact they have had locally and nationally on our trainees, faculty, staff and patients over a combined century of leadership. Together, they represent the very best of our profession.

NEW INSTITUTIONAL LEADERS

• Donald Brady, MD – Executive Vice Dean for Academic Affairs for Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (VUSM)

• Lori Rolando, MD, MPH – Executive Director of Vanderbilt Health and Wellness

• John Scott, MD – Executive Medical Director of Primary Care PCC

• Cecelia Theobald, MD, MPH – VUMC Chief of Staff for Corporate Clinical Affairs and Senior Vice President for Clinical Affairs

CLINICAL AWARDS AND HONORS

• Sunil Kripalani, MD, MSc – 2023 Society of Hospital Medicine Award of Excellence in Teamwork and Quality Improvement

• Benjamin Womack, MD – Elected to the VUSM Academy for Excellence in Clinical Medicine

RESEARCH AWARDS AND HONORS

• Sunil Kripalani, MD, MSc – 2022 Top 10 Clinical Research Achievement Award, Clinical Research Forum

• Chase Webber, DO – Catalyzing Informatics Innovation (CI2) Scholar

NOTABLE PUBLICATIONS

• Balas MC, Tan A, Mion LC, Pun B, Jun J, Brockman A, Mu J, Ely EW, Vasilevskis EE. Factors Associated With Spontaneous Awakening Trial and Spontaneous Breathing Trial Performance in Adults With Critical Illness: Analysis of a Multicenter, Nationwide, Cohort Study. Chest. 2022 Sep;162(3):588-602. doi: 10.1016/j.chest.2022.01.018. Epub 2022 Jan 19. PMID: 35063453; PMCID: PMC9470738.

• Buell KG, Hayat MH, Walsh DW, Wooldridge KT, Vasilevskis EE, Heller LT. Creation of a medical procedure service in a tertiary medical center: Blueprint and procedural outcomes. J Hosp Med. 2022 Aug;17(8):594-600. doi: 10.1002/jhm.12901. Epub 2022 Jul 7. PMID: 35797494.

• Lee JJ, Sack DE, Kam S, Reed SC, Carew B, Lloyd C, Weaver EO, Miller RF. Results of Leveraging Pharmaceutical Patient Assistance Programs to Expand Access to High Cost Medications in a Student-Run Free Clinic. J Community Health. 2023 Jun 7. doi: 10.1007/s10900-023-01240-6. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37284916.

• Niehoff KM, Muscarella J, Knostman M, Sullivan M, Gani A, Lim H, Calhoun AR, Young BT, Vasilevskis EE, Mixon AS, Choma NN, Gillihan KG, Sachs AL, Ivory C, Maxwell CA, Stolldorf DP, Horr TB, Kripalani S. Hospital at home: Development of pharmacy services. Am J Health Syst Pharm

2022 Nov 7;79(22):1981-1987. doi: 10.1093/ajhp/zxac225. PMID: 35977885.

• Rigotti NA, Chang Y, Davis EM, Regan S, Levy DE, Ylioja T, Kelley JHK, Notier AE, Gilliam K, Douaihy AB, Singer DE, Tindle HA. Comparative Effectiveness of Postdischarge Smoking Cessation Interventions for Hospital Patients: The Helping HAND 4 Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Intern Med. 2022 Aug 1;182(8):814-824. doi: 10.1001/ jamainternmed.2022.2300. PMID: 35759282; PMCID: PMC9237801.

• Liu K, Hwang J, Chesteen K, Huth H, Zhu Y, Mixon A, Tillman S, Misra S, Karlekar M. A Retrospective Review of the Characteristics and Outcomes of Patients through an Integrated Palliative Care Model during the First Wave of the SARS-COV-2 Pandemic. J Palliat Med. 2022 Dec;25(12):18441849. doi: 10.1089/jpm.2022.0006. Epub 2022 Sep 14. PMID: 36108157.

EDUCATION AWARDS AND HONORS

• Charlene Dewey, MD, MEd, MACP – American Medical Women’s Association INSPIRE Award

• Sumathi Misra, MD, MPH – Elected to the VUSM Academy for Excellence in Education

• Chase Webber, DO – 2023 VUSM Immersion Teaching Award

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

New Elections

• Charlene Dewey, MD, MEd, MACP – Board of Regents, American College of Physicians

DIVISION HIGHLIGHT

The Palliative Care Unit hosts a celebration in recognition of providing 10 years of patient- and family-centered care, Sept. 23, 2022.

NEPHROLOGY AND HYPERTENSION

DIRECTOR

T. Alp Ikizler, MD Professor of Medicine

The Division of Nephrology and Hypertension continued to thrive with significant growth and achievements in our clinical and research programs. Notably, we performed 313 kidney or kidney-pancreas transplants in 2022. Our Home Dialysis program was a leader in the region with over 60% of Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) patients initiating at-home therapies. The outpatient clinic provided support for more than 19,000 visits performed by 14 providers. We also expanded our outreach program to Clarksville, in addition to ongoing practices in Cool Springs and Lebanon. The inpatient service experienced similar robust operations with over 9,000 acute treatments for various conditions requiring extracorporeal therapies.

Our basic and clinical research program continued to stand out in multiple areas. Our total extramural grant funding increased by 10% compared to previous year. This was elevated by the Kidney Disease Research Alliance with Bayer, as well as our participation in National Institutes of Health (NIH)funded collaborative projects such as COPE-AKI and HOPE Consortiums.

Our junior faculty were recognized by several prestigious awards. Dr. Andrew Terker received the American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI) Young Physician-Scientist Award and NIH DP5 Early Independence Award. Dr. Fabian

Bock received the ASCI Emerging Generation Award and a K08 from the National Instiute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). In addition to his ongoing Harold Amos Award, Dr. J.P. Arroyo received a K08 from NIDDK. Dr. Mathew Wilson was elected as an ASCI member, and Dr. Ebele Umeukeje was selected as a member of the NIDDK Network of Minority Research Investigators Leadership Planning Committee.

Our training and education program continued to thrive, welcoming nine new clinical fellows – seven in general nephrology and two in transplant nephrology – each year, which represents one of the largest and best programs in the country with a total of 16 clinical trainees. Our research fellowship program, sponsored by our NIH-supported training grant, also thrives with more than 10 postdoctoral research fellows training with various faculty within, and outside, of the division. We continue to support the NIDDK-sponsored Summer Research Training Program with seven medical students, and our faculty steadily participate in the ASPIRNAUT program that provides opportunities in STEM for talented youth from rural and diverse backgrounds.

The Division of Nephrology and Hypertension continues to be a nationally and internationally recognized leader in the care of individuals with or at risk of kidney disease.

CLINICAL AWARDS AND HONORS

• Heidi Schaefer, MD – Elected to the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (VUSM) Academy for Excellence in Clinical Medicine

RESEARCH AWARDS AND HONORS

• Fabian Bock, MD, PhD – “Best Oral Presentation” and “People’s Choice” at the American Society of Nephrology and American Physiological Society’s Basic Research Forum for Emerging Kidney Scientists

• William Fissell, MD – U.S. Presidential Volunteer Service Award

• Eman Gohar, PhD – 2023 Benedict R. Lucchesi Young Investigator Award, American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics

• Andrew Terker, MD, PhD

• 2022 NIH Director’s Early Independence Award

• 2022 VUMC Discovery Scholar in Health and Medicine

NOTABLE PUBLICATIONS

• Arroyo JP, Terker AS, Zuchowski Y, Watts JA, Bock F, Meyer C, Luo W, Kapp ME, Gould ER, Miranda AX, Carty J, Jiang M, Vanacore RM, Hammock E, Wilson MH, Zent R, Zhang M, Bhave G, Harris RC. Kidney collecting duct cells make vasopressin in response to NaCl-induced hypertonicity. JCI Insight. 2022 Dec 22;7(24):e161765. doi: 10.1172/jci. insight.161765. PMID: 36326835; PMCID: PMC9869977.

• Cao S, Pan Y, Tang J, Terker AS, Arroyo Ornelas JP, Jin GN, Wang Y, Niu A, Fan X, Wang S, Harris RC, Zhang MZ.

EGFR-mediated activation of adipose tissue macrophages promotes obesity and insulin resistance. Nat Commun. 2022 Aug 10;13(1):4684. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-32348-3. PMID: 35948530; PMCID: PMC9365849.

EDUCATION AWARDS AND HONORS

• Mary Sorey, MSN – Preceptor of the Year, Vanderbilt University School of Nursing Acute Care NP Track Generalist Cohort

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

New Elections

• Matthew Wilson, MD, PhD – American Society for Clinical Investigation

Leadership

• Anna Burgner, MD – Co-director, American Society of Nephrology In-Training Exam Committee

• Julia Lewis, MD – Chair, FDA Cardiorenal Study Section

• Ambra Pozzi, PhD – President, American Society for Matrix Biology

• Ebele Umeukeje, MD, MPH

• Member, American Society of Nephrology Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee

• Planning Committee, NIDDK Network of Minority Research Investigators Leadership

• Lauren Woodard, PhD – Chair, American Society of Gene + Cell Therapy Nonviral Therapeutic Delivery Committee

Senior Editorship

• Craig Brooks, PhD – Editorial Fellow, Journal of the American Society of Nephrology

• Anna Burgner, MD – Associate Editor, Nephrology News and Issues

• T. Alp Ikizler, MD – Associate Editor, Kidney International

• Devika Nair, MD, MSCI – Feature Editor, American Journal of Kidney Diseases

• Edward Siew, MD – Associate Editor, Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology

• Roy Zent, MD, PhD – Editor, Matrix Biology

DIVISION HIGHLIGHT

Division and Transplant Center faculty and staff attend the 60th anniversary celebration of the first kidney transplant at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Oct. 24, 2022.

A gift of gratitude

Kidney transplant patient gives back to Division of Nephrology and Hypertension

Nearly 10 years ago, John Roberts Jr. was a seemingly healthy, active 26-year-old who had never experienced any medical issues in his life. He was living in Murfreesboro and working in his family’s car dealerships in Manchester.

At work one day he started noticing issues with his vision. While billing out a car deal, he couldn’t read the numbers on the page. He went to see an eye doctor, who had a strange feeling something wasn’t right and decided to check Roberts’ blood pressure. It was 252/152 – Roberts was in hypertensive crisis.

He immediately went to a hospital in Murfreesboro, where a biopsy revealed his kidneys were functioning at just 7% due to an autoimmune disorder. That’s when he was transferred to Vanderbilt University Medical Center and met T. Alp Ikizler, MD, director of the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension. “Once I met Dr. Ikizler, I knew I was in the right place,” Roberts said. “He got me stable and feeling much better.”

Roberts started peritoneal dialysis while his friends and family members were tested to see if they could be a match to donate their kidney. A year and a half later, he finally received a life-changing transplant through a new kidney from his stepmother’s half-sister.

He began seeing Anthony J. Langone, MD, associate professor of Medicine and medical director of the Medical Specialties Clinic, who has cared for him in the decade since his transplant. Roberts credits Dr. Ikizler, Dr. Langone and the rest of his care team at VUMC for getting him back to his normal, healthy life.

In appreciation, the Roberts family recently made a philanthropic gift to support the work of Vanderbilt’s nephrology team. Each year the family supports causes they

care about – so choosing VUMC was a no-brainer.

“Everyone I came in contact with has been so caring, knowledgeable and professional,” he said. “With a group like this that is doing good work, we think it is important to give them the resources they need to continue their work in the future.”

For Roberts, his journey back to health was a scary time in his life and the lives of his family members. They leaned on the relationships built with his doctors, nurses and staff who impacted him along the way.

“I don’t know what I would have done without the nephrology team,” Roberts said. “They made a really hard time a little bit better, so we are honored to support them however we can.”

DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE GIVING

Generous donors like John Roberts Jr. help strengthen the Department of Medicine’s educational, research and patient care programs.

For more information and to make a contribution, scan the QR code, or visit medicine.vumc.org/dom-giving

John Roberts Jr. (left) and Dr. Anthony Langone (right)

Heidi Schaefer, MD, Medical Director of Solid Organ Transplant (left), and Claire Paschal, MSN, FNP-BC

RHEUMATOLOGY AND IMMUNOLOGY

The Division of Rheumatology and Immunology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) continued its unprecedented growth and accomplishments this year. We welcomed several new faculty this year, including Drs. Tyler Reese, Adenrele Olajide and Denis Mogelinko.

Faculty remained committed to the educational mission of the division, department and Medical Center. In recognition of her contributions, Dr. Susan Kroop was elected to the Vanderbilt Academy for Excellence in Clinical Medicine. Drs. Kevin Byram and Narender Annapureddy served as leaders of the American College of Rheumatology State-of-the Art Symposium at the Education Exchange. Dr. Reese, as part of his Master of Education in the Health Sciences program, began to develop a novel clinic that aids patients with pediatric rheumatic diseases transition to the adult rheumatology clinics. As a dually trained Med-Peds Rheumatologist, Dr. Reese is well-positioned to lead this effort. Another new educational and clinical program within the division was spearheaded by Dr. Erin Chew, who embarked on national leadership training in musculoskeletal ultrasound. She began this program as a fellow and will join the faculty in the 2023-2024 year. Our junior faculty also saw a lot of success this year. Drs. Michelle Ormseth, Rachel Bonami and April Barnado were awarded independent research funding following exceptional productivity during their career development funding. All three of these exceptional scientists were selected to present their work at the Annual Edge for Scholars Translational Research Forum.

Our clinical program continued to grow and diversify with a number of specialty services for patients with osteoporosis, led by Dr. Bobo Tanner; psoriatic arthritis, led by Dr. Paras Karmacharya; scleroderma led by Dr. Tracy Frech; myositis, led by Drs. Jennifer YoungGlazer and Erin Wilfong; and vasculitis, led by Drs. Kevin Byram and Jason Springer. Each of these clinical programs are intimately tied to translational research efforts, including a national study, CONQUER – the Collaborative National Quality and Efficacy Registry, led by Dr. Frech, and an institutional cohort, MYSTIC – the Myositis Scleroderma Treatment Initiative Center, led by Dr. Wilfong. The ties between our clinical activities and research efforts allow our patients to receive state-of-the-art treatment and to contribute to cuttingedge research for their diseases.

DIRECTOR

Leslie Crofford, MD Professor of Medicine

CLINICAL AWARDS AND HONORS

• Susan Kroop, MD – Elected to the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Academy for Excellence in Clinical Medicine

RESEARCH AWARDS AND HONORS

• Leslie Crofford, MD – President’s Award, Tennessee Rheumatology Society

NOTABLE PUBLICATIONS

• Barnado A, Hubbard J, Green S, Camai A, Wheless L, Osmundson S. Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Delivery Outcomes Are Unchanged Across Three Decades. ACR Open Rheumatol. 2022 Aug;4(8):711-720. doi: 10.1002/acr2.11447. Epub 2022 Jun 6. PMID: 35670028; PMCID: PMC9374054.

• Chaudhary H, Bohra N, Syed K, Donato A, Murad MH, Karmacharya P. All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality in Psoriatic Arthritis and Ankylosing Spondylitis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken) 2023 May;75(5):1052-1065. doi: 10.1002/acr.24820. Epub 2023 Jan 19. PMID: 34788902; PMCID: PMC9110556.

• Clowse MEB, Oates J, Barnado A, Kirchoff K, Blaske A, Sheikh SZ, Crofford LJ, Eudy AM. Implications of the accuracy of diagnostic algorithms for systemic lupus on our understanding of racial disparities in pregnancy outcomes. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2023 May 24:kead178. doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/ kead178. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37225388.

• Frech TM, Poole JL, Murtaugh M, Matucci-Cerinic M. Expanding the Treatment Team: What Is the Role for Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Wound Care, and Nutritional Support in Systemic Sclerosis? Rheum Dis Clin North Am. 2023 May;49(2):377-387. doi: 10.1016/j. rdc.2023.01.009. Epub 2023 Mar 1. PMID: 37028841.

• McNitt DH, Joosse BA, Thomas JW, Bonami RH. Productive Germinal Center Responses Depend on the Nature of Stimuli Received by Anti-Insulin B Cells in Type 1 DiabetesProne Mice. Immunohorizons. 2023 Jun 1;7(6):384-397. doi: 10.4049/immunohorizons.2300036. PMID: 37261716; PMCID: PMC10448785.

• Mogilenko DA, Sergushichev A, Artyomov MN. Systems Immunology Approaches to Metabolism. Annu Rev Immunol. 2023 Apr 26;41:317-342. doi: 10.1146/annurevimmunol-101220-031513. PMID: 37126419.

• Voss K, Sewell AE, Krystofiak ES, Gibson-Corley KN, Young AC, Basham JH, Sugiura A, Arner EN, Beavers WN, Kunkle DE, Dickson ME, Needle GA, Skaar EP, Rathmell WK, Ormseth MJ, Major AS, Rathmell JC. Elevated transferrin receptor impairs T cell metabolism and function in systemic lupus erythematosus. Sci Immunol. 2023 Jan 13;8(79):eabq0178. doi: 10.1126/sciimmunol.abq0178. Epub 2023 Jan 13. PMID:

36638190; PMCID: PMC9936798.

• Wang-Bishop L, Kimmel BR, Ngwa VM, Madden MZ, Baljon

JJ, Florian DC, Hanna A, Pastora LE, Sheehy TL, Kwiatkowski

AJ, Wehbe M, Wen X, Becker KW, Garland KM, Schulman

JA, Shae D, Edwards D, Wolf MM, Delapp R, Christov PP, Beckermann KE, Balko JM, Rathmell WK, Rathmell JC, Chen J, Wilson JT. STING-activating nanoparticles normalize the vascular-immune interface to potentiate cancer immunotherapy. Sci Immunol. 2023 May 12;8(83):eadd1153. doi: 10.1126/sciimmunol.add1153. Epub 2023 May 5. PMID: 37146128; PMCID: PMC10226150.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

Leadership

• April Barnado, MD, MSCI

• Planning Committee, American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting

• American College of Rheumatology/CDC Working Group for Quality Measures

• Ad hoc Member, Arthritis Musculoskeletal Skin Study Section

• Kevin Byram, MD – President-elect, Vasculitis Foundation Board of Directors

• Leslie Crofford, MD – Member, National Arthritis Foundation Medical and Scientific Committee

• Tracy Frech, MS, MSCI – Scleroderma Foundation Medical Advisory Board

• Michelle Ormseth, MD, MSCI – Planning Committee, American College of Rheumatology Journal Publications Committee

• Bobo Tanner, MD – Board of Directors, International Society for Clinical Densitometry

DIVISION HIGHLIGHT

Vanderbilt University Medical Center was recently listed as a Designated Scleroderma Research and Treatment Center by the National Scleroderma Foundation

Bonami Lab

2022-2023 DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE FACULTY AND ADVANCED PRACTICE PROVIDERS

ALLERGY, PULMONARY AND CRITICAL CARE MEDICINE

Professors

Gordon Bernard, MD

Timothy Blackwell, MD

Brian Christman, MD‡

Joao de Andrade, MD

Ryszard Dworski, MD, PhD**

E. Wesley Ely, MD‡

Tina Hartert, MD

Jacek Hawiger, MD, PhD‡

Anna Hemnes, MD**

James Jackson, PsyD‡

Lisa Lancaster, MD

Fabien Maldonado, MD, MSc

Ray Stokes Peebles, MD‡

Vasiliy Polosukhin, MD, PhD

Jill Pulley, MBA

Todd Rice, MD, MSc

Otis Rickman, DO**

Ivan Robbins, MD

Lorraine Ware, MD‡

James West, PhD

Pingsheng Wu, PhD

Jozef Zienkiewicz, PhD‡

Associate Professors

Julie Bastarache, MD‡

David Erasmus, MD**

Jonathan Kropski, MD‡

William Lawson, MD‡

Yan Liu, MD

Dawn Newcomb, PhD

Meredith Pugh, MD, MSCI

Carla Sevin, MD

Samira Shojaee, MD, MPH

James Tolle, MD

Anil Trindade, MD

Weisong Zhou, PhD

Sr. Associates in Medicine

Janna Landsperger, MSN, RN

Associates in Medicine

Lisa Flemmons, MSN, RN

Assistant Professors

Kenneth Babe, MD

Katherine Cahill, MD

Erica Carrier, PhD

Jonathan Casey, MD, MSCI

Adrienne Conger, MD

Derek Damin, MD*

Rosemarie Beckford Dudenhofer, MD

John Fahrenholz, MD‡

Jason Gokey, PhD**

David Hagaman, MD

Justin Hewlett, MD

Basil Kahwash, MD

Elizaveta Kalaidina, MD*

Michael Kammer, PhD*

Eric Kerchberger, MD

Grace Koo, MD*‡

Blake LeMaster, MD

Robert Lentz, MD‡

Michael Lester, MD

Yang Liu, PhD

Maria Malabanan, PhD

Katie McPherson, MD

Alison Miller, MD‡

Stephanie Norfolk, MD

Anand Rathinasabapathy, PhD

Bradley Richmond, MD‡

Margaret Salisbury, MD

Matthew Semler, MD, MSCI

Ana Serezani, PhD

Ciara Shaver, MD, PhD

Brittney Snyder, PhD

Cosby Stone, MD, MPH

Megha Talati, PhD

Shinji Toki, PhD

Kedir Turi, PhD

Melissa Warren, MD

Paula Watson, MD

Assistants in Medicine

Wren Adkisson, MSN

Christine Allocco, MSN, RN

Leslie Armistead, MSN

Brooke Bailey, DNP, MSN

Jeffrey Barton, MS

Sarah Bloom, MSN

Jesse Michael Byram, MSN, RN

Lynn Clement, MSN, RN

Susan Eastman, MSN

Shannon Ellrich, DNP, MSN

Daniel Ford, MSN

Whitney Gannon, MSN

Candi Hicks, DNP, MSN

Michelle Irwin, MSN

Olivia Kirkpatrick, MSN

Karen McCarty, MSN, RN

Christy Cleveland Noblit, MSN, RN

Christy Sparkman, MSN

Charla Walston, MSN

Cynthia Wasden, MSN, RN

Dana Wirth, MSN, RN

Instructors

Jessica Blackburn, PhD

Edward Iglesia, MD, MPH

See Wei Low, MBBS

Matthew Mart, MD, MSCI‡

Huan Qiao, MD, PhD

Ujjal Singha, PhD, MS

Advanced Practice Providers

Mollie Elizabeth Anderson, APRN

Brittany Barnes, APRN

Amelia Bivens, APRN

Kaitlyn Christine Chapin, APRN

Susan Clendenen, DNP

Ashley Cleveland, DNP

Brian Lee Dixon, APRN

Emily Dugre, APRN

Shannon Ellrich, APRN

Michelle Favulli, APRN

Daniel Ford, APRN

Samantha Green, APRN

Ann Marie Harrington, PA

Kathryn Hughes, APRN

Erica Ludtke, APRN

Hannah Maloney, APRN

Madison Miller, APRN

Regan Myers, APRN

Christina Pichiarello, PA-C

Megan Quintana, APRN

Kendall Brianne Royal, APRN

Wren Sherrill, APRN

Michelle Tough, APRN

CARDIOVASCULAR MEDICINE

Professors

Benjamin Byrd, MD

W. Barton Campbell, MD‡

Andre Churchwell, MD

Walter Clair, MD, MPH

Sheila Collins, PhD

George Crossley, MD

Julie Damp, MD**

Jane Freedman, MD

Matthew Freiberg, MD‡

Soo Hyun Kim, MD, MPH

Marvin Kronenberg, MD‡

JoAnn Lindenfeld, MD

MacRae Linton, MD

John McPherson, MD

Lisa Mendes, MD

Francis Miller, MD*‡

Robert Piana, MD

Jere Segrest, MD, PhD

Lynne Stevenson, MD

William Stevenson, MD

Yan Ru Su, MD

Harikrishna Tandri, MBBS*

Kahraman Tanriverdi, PhD

Associate Professors

Jayant Bagai, MD‡

Colin Barker, MD

Susan Bell, MBBS

Evan Brittain, MD, MSCI

Jonathan Brown, MD

Andrew DeFilippis, MD, MSc

Christopher Ellis, MD

Jane Ferguson, PhD

Pete Fong, MD**

Shawn Gregory, MD‡

Deepak Gupta, MD

Antonis Hatzopoulos, PhD

Sean Hughes, MD

Eiman Jahangir, MD, MPH‡

Arvindh Kanagasundram, MD**

Murali Kolli, MD

Kathryn Lindley, MD*

Brian Lindman, MD, MSCI**

Jonathan Menachem, MD

Jay Montgomery, MD‡

Daniel Munoz, MD

Allen Naftilan, MD

Henry Okafor, MD

Henry Ooi, MD‡

Lynn Punnoose, MD**

Kelly Schlendorf, MD

Ravi Shah, MD

Benjamin Shoemaker, MD, MSCI‡

Kasey Vickers, PhD

Quinn Wells, MD, PharmD, MSCI

Sandip Zalawadiya, MD

Associates in Medicine

Katherine Anderson, MSc**

Beth Meador, MSN, RN**

Alexandra Moran, DNP**

Assistant Professors

Robert Abraham, MD

Ahmad Abu-Halimah, MD

Aaron Aday, MD, MSc

Vineet Agrawal, MD, PhD‡

Brent Anderson, MD

Ahmad Arham, MD

Justin Bachmann, MD, MPH‡

Michael Baker, MD

Sharmin Basher, MD

Marshall Brinkley, MD

Matthews Chacko, MD

Mercy Chandrasekaran, MD*

Geoffrey Chidsey, MD

David Dantzler, MD

Jeffrey Dendy, MD

Temujin Dinaram, MD

Amanda Doran, MD, PhD

Christopher Scott English, MD

Juan Carlos Estrada, MD, MPH

Benjamin Frischhertz, MD

Mark Glazer, MD

Kashish Goel, MD

Holly Gonzales, MD

Rob Reid Hood, MD

David Houff, DO*

Xiangke Huang, MBBS, MS

Steven Humphrey, MD

Rebecca Hung, MD, PhD

Waleed Irani, MD

Henry Jennings, MD

Jessica Joseph-Alexis, DO*

Kathleen Kearney-Gray, MD

Mazen Khalil, MD*

Suman Kundu, PhD

Brian Long, MD

Angela Lowenstern, MD, MHS‡

Ravinder Reddy Manda, MD

Kevin Maquiling, MD

David Meoli, MD, PhD‡

Ken Monahan, MD

James Muldowney, MD‡

Young-Jae Nam, MD, PhD

Jared O’Leary, MD‡

Dawn Pedrotty, MD, PhD‡

Joel Phares, MD

Mamatha Pinninti, MBBS

Adam Prudoff, MD

Leah Raj, MD*

Aniket Rali, MD

Nagendra Ramanna, MD

Thomas Richardson, MD

Travis Richardson, MD

Tania Ruiz, MD*

Pablo Saavedra, MD‡

Suzanne Sacks, MD

Joseph Salloum, MD‡

Raphael See, MD

Sharon Shen, MD

Hasan Siddiqi, MD

Hyun Song, PhD

Wenliang Song, MD

Nadia Sutton, MD, MPH*

Huan Tao, MD, PhD

Timothy Thayer, MD

Janice Vinson, MD

Angela Weingarten, MD, MSCI

Mark Wigger, MD‡

Patricia Yancey, PhD

Lin Zhong, MD, PhD

Assistants in Medicine

Rachel Allison, MSN, RN

Amanda Baker, MSN

Alyssa Bartok, MSN

Ashley Blye, MSN, RN

Whitney Bratcher, MSN

Teresa Carroll, MSN

Margaret Chotard, DNP, MSN

Layla Cochran, MSN, RN

Madeline Crego, MSN

Cindy DeSio, MSN

April Edwards, MSN

Ryan Gant, MSN

Donnalita Harmon, MSN, RN

Deborah Harrington, MSN

Amy Howard, MSN

Linda Howerton, MSN

Jennifer Koonce, MSN

Christi Locklear, MSN, RN

Melissa Long, MSN

Ashley Lord, MSN, RN

Jamie Lowe McCord, MSN

Deborah Payne, MSN, RN

Jennifer Pendergrast, MSN, RN

Holly Pierce, MSN, RN

Ashlee Piercey, MSN

Rachel Schreier, MSN, RN

John Schuerlein, MS

Angelique Shapman, MSN, RN

Barbara Simpson, MSN

Douglas West, MSN, RN

Alexandria Wilson, MSN

Meghann Wilson, MSN

Molly Woods, MSN

Instructors

Kaushik Amancherla, MD*

David Armstrong, MD, PhD*

Minoo Bagheri, PhD, MS*

Ryan Ceddia, PhD*

Andrew Perry, MD*

Fubiao Shi, PhD*

Advanced Practice Providers

Kirstin Alexandria Agent, APRN

Samina Ahmad, APRN

Alexandra Bucheli, APRN

William Cameron, APRN

Natalie Castillo, APRN

Arden Clark, APRN

Elizabeth Criman, APRN

Theresa Davies, APRN

Andrea Davis, APRN

Emma Dorand, APRN

Randi Dossey, PA

Courtney Foulk, APRN

Tiffani Gray, APRN

Amber Green, APRN

Kathryn Hayes (Smith), DNP

Susan Hellervik, APRN

Cara Hill, APRN

Amy Howard, APRN

Morgan Johnson, APRN

Seph Kestner, APRN

Brittany Khotmanivong, APRN

Barbara Kiasatpour, APRN

Althea Leitch-Edwards, PA

Christi Locklear, APRN

R. Leigh Mansfield, APRN

Susan Mason- Parker, APRN

Andrea McFarlane, APRN

Kyle Miler, NP

Lorna Morris, APRN

Melissa Murphy, APRN

Rashundra Oggs, NP

Sabina Palmeri, APRN

Anna Peek, APRN

Ashley Sears, APRN

Carra McKennah Smith, PA

Jaclyn Sojda, APRN

Loriann Wahl, PA

Amanda Whiteman-Baker, APRN

Hollie Williams, APRN

Jody Winters, APRN

Celeste Woolum, NP

CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY Professors

Italo Biaggioni, MD

Andre Diedrich, MD, PhD

Sergey Dikalov, PhD

Fernando Elijovich, MD

David Harrison, MD

Bjorn Knollmann, MD, PhD

Cheryl Laffer, MD, PhD

Ginger Milne, PhD**

Katherine Murray, MD

Dan Mark Roden, MD

C. Michael Stein, MD

Tao Yang, PhD

Associate Professors

Venkataraman Amarnath, PhD

Wei Chen, MD, PhD

Anna Dikalova, PhD

QiPing Feng, PhD

Alfredo Gamboa, MD, MSCI

Rachelle Johnson, PhD**

Annet Kirabo, PhD

James Luther, MD, MSCI

Meenakshi Madhur, MD, PhD

Jonathan Mosley, MD, PhD

Luis Okamoto, MD**

Julie Sterling Rhoades, PhD‡

Cyndya Shibao, MD, MSCI

Assistant Professors

Matt Alexander, MD, PhD

Rebecca Bruccoleri, MD

Swati Dey, PhD

Jorge Gamboa, MD, PhD

Andrew Glazer, PhD

Jose Gomez, PhD

Vivian Kawai, MD, MPH

Marissa Kopatic, MD*

Brett Kroncke, PhD

Dmytro Kryshtal, PhD

David Patrick, MD, PhD‡

Sun Peck, PhD‡

Dungeng Peng, PhD

Elizabeth Rendina-Ruedy, PhD

Monica Santisteban Calvo, PhD*

Zhenjiang Yang, MD, PhD, MPH

Assistants in Medicine

Lan Jiang, MS

Instructors

Daniel Blackwell, PhD

Kyungsoo Kim, PhD

Ashley Pitzer, PhD*

Lili Wang, PhD

Advanced Practice Providers

Morgane Giesecke, MSN

Dustin Mayfield, APRN

Yuliya Vance, APRN

DIABETES, ENDOCRINOLOGY AND METABOLISM Professors

Marcela Brissova, PhD

Kathryn McCrystal Dahir, MD

Maureen Gannon, PhD‡

James May, MD‡

Alvin Powers, MD‡

Associate Professors

Shichun Bao, MD, PhD

Howard Baum, MD

Lindsay Bischoff, MD

Barbara Gisella Carranza Leon, MD

Chunhua Dai, MD

Fiona Harrison, PhD

Kevin Niswender, MD, PhD‡

Lucia Plant, PhD

Gitanjali Srivastava, MD

John Stafford, MD, PhD‡

Melissa Wellons, MD

Assistant Professors

Katherine Bachmann, MD, MSCI‡

Raymond Blind, PhD

Anna Beth Bradley, MD‡

Jeeyeon Cha, MD, PhD**

Katie Coate, PhD**

E. Danielle Dean, PhD

Paul Epstein, MD

Sally Friedman, MD

Erica Dillon Garner, MD, MSCI

Chase Hendrickson, MD, MPH

Leslee Matheny, MD

Michael May, MD, PhD‡

Omolola Olajide, MD*

Richard Printz, PhD

Andrea Ramirez, MD, MSCI

Chanhaeng Rhee, MD

Diane Saunders, PhD

Sahar Takkouche, MD**

Andrea Utz, MD, PhD

S. Sadia Zaidi, MD

Lin Zhu, MD, PhD

Assistants in Medicine

Jennifer Bradley, MSN

Brannan Cole, MSN

Norma Edwards, MSN

Ann Hackett, MSN

Regina Hamlet, MSN

Brett Kinzig, MSN, RN

Tiffanie Marksbury, DNP

James Mills, MSN

Blake Salmony, MSN

Instructors

Mona Mashayekhi, MD, PhD

Jordan Wright, MD, PhD

Advanced Practice Providers

Debra Greenspan, NP

Janie Lipps Hagan, NP

LaToya Hannah, NP

Kristin Jean, APRN

Isabela Kuroyama, NP

Mallory Walters Newton, PA

Coadylynn Ostrowski, APRN

EPIDEMIOLOGY

Professors

John Boice, ScD

Qiuyin Cai, MD, PhD

Qi Dai, MD, PhD

Douglas Heimburger, MD

Loren Lipworth, ScD

Jirong Long, PhD

Martha Shrubsole, PhD

Xiao-Ou Shu, MD, PHD, MPH

Wanqing Wen, MD, MPH

Gong Yang, MD, MPH

Wei Zheng, MD, PhD, MPH

Associate Professors

Hui Cai, MD, PhD

Todd Edwards, PhD

Xingyi Guo, PhD

Danxia Yu, PhD**

Assistant Professors

Ghadeer Dawwas, PhD*

Daniel Escudero, PhD, MPH*

Kelsie Full, PhD, MPH

Andreana Holowatyj, PhD, MSCI

Jie Ping, PhD

Timothy Su, MD, PhD

Staci Sudenga, PhD

Yacob Tedla, PhD

Xiangzhu Zhu, MD, MPH

Instructors

Yaohua Yang, PhD

GASTROENTEROLOGY, HEPATOLOGY AND NUTRITION

Professors

Joseph Awad, MD‡

Robert Coffey, MD

Alain Gobert, PhD

Christopher Lind, MD

Keith Obstein, MD, MPH‡

Richard Peek, MD‡

David Schwartz, MD

Heidi Silver, PhD‡

Walter Smalley, MD‡

Michael Vaezi, MD, PhD

Christopher Williams, MD, PhD‡

Keith Wilson, MD‡

Associate Professors

Dawn Adams, MD, MS‡

Dawn Beaulieu, MD

Lori Coburn, MD**‡

Robin Ligler Dalal, MD**

Sara Horst, MD, MPH

Dawn Israel, PhD

Manhal Izzy, MD**

Reid Ness, MD, MPH‡

Jennifer Noto, PhD

Dhyanesh Patel, MD**

Maria Blanca Piazuelo, MD

Alexandra Shingina, MD, MSc

Patrick Yachimski, MD, MPH

Qin Zhang, PhD

Assistant Professors

Muhammad Aslam, MBBS

Miles Basil, MD‡

Sara Brown, MD

Zheng Cao, MD, PhD

Yash Choksi, MD‡

Thomas Finn, MD

William Fiske, MD, MPH‡

Jeffrey Franklin, PhD

Anthony Gamboa, MD

Jeremy Goettel, PhD

Dennis Jeppesen, PhD

Hannah Kim, MD

Brad Maltz, MD

Nicholas Markham, MD, PhD‡

Stephanie McAbee, MD‡

Mark Miller, MD

Rishi Naik, MD, MSCI

Baldeep Pabla, MD, MSCI

Roman Perri, MD

Neil Price, MD

Shakirat Salvador, MD*

Shabnam Sarker, MD

Andrew Scanga, MD

Elizabeth Scoville, MD, MSCI

Suzanne Sharpton, MD*

Bhuminder Singh, PhD

Ankita Munjal Sisselman, MD

Terrence Smith, MD

Lydia Wroblewski, PhD

Assistants in Medicine

Kimberly Akinyele, MSN

Kristi Albergo, MPAS

Kim Annis, MS

Sarah Campbell, MS

Laura Craddock, MSN

Maria Cruz, MSN

Kimberly Currier, MSNB, RN, ACNP

Caroline Duley, MSN, RN

Sara Hedrich, MSN, RN

Jennifer Pollice-Meservy, MSN, RN

Valerie Shields, MS

Ashley Singleton, MSN

Julianne Wagnon, MSN

Sherry Wright, MSN, RN

Instructors

Matthew Bechard, PhD

Audrey Bennett, MD*

Curtis Gabriel, MD, PhD‡

James Higginbotham, PhD

Neeraj Joshi, PhD*

Sarah Short, PhD

Advanced Practice Providers

Dustin Cross, APRN

Thomas Engle, PA-C

Tammy Loyd, PA

Abigail Lupp, APRN

Brittany Mathews, PA

Emily Smith, PA

Emily Spring, PA-C

GENETIC MEDICINE Professors

Nancy Cox, PhD

Ela Knapik, MD

Tuya Pal, MD

Vivian Siegel, PhD

E. Michelle Southard-Smith, PhD

Georgia Wiesner, MD

Associate Professors

Melinda Aldrich, PhD, MPH

Jennifer Below, PhD

Lea Davis, PhD

Chor Yin Ng, PhD

Douglas Ruderfer, PhD

Jeffrey Smith, MD, PhD‡

Ferrin Wheeler, PhD

Assistant Professors

Ruben Barricarte, PhD

Alexander Bick, MD, PhD

Eric Gamazon, PhD

Jacklyn Hellwege, PhD

Garrett Kaas, PhD

Nikhil Khankari, PhD

Yingchang Lu, MD, PhD

Maria Niarchou, PhD

Megan Shuey-Henthorn, PhD, MS

Sarah Stallings, PhD

Xue Zhong, PhD

Assistants in Medicine

Kyle Davis, MSc*

Heather Herrmann, MS

Lucas Richter, MS

Instructors

Hung-Hsin Chen, PhD

Patrick Evans, PhD

Jibril Hirbo, PhD

Joohyun Kim, PhD

Tyne Miller-Fleming, PhD

GERIATRIC MEDICINE Professors

Laura Dugan, MD‡

James Powers, MD‡

John Schnelle, PhD

Sandra Simmons, PhD‡

Consuelo Wilkins, MD, MSCI

Associate Professors

Mariu Carlo Duggan, MD, MPH**‡

Victor Legner, MD, MSc

Harvey Murff, MD, MPH‡

Assistant Professors

Kimberly Beiting, MD

Alecia Fair, DrPH

Anne Gifford, MD, MPH

Ralf Habermann, MD‡

Kristin Hines, MD‡

Tara Horr, MD

Sean Huang, MD*

Kiffany Peggs, MD

Rachael Petry, MD*‡

Hannah Stewart, DO

Monica Stout, MD

Assistants in Medicine

Mattie Godfrey Brady, DNP

Elizabeth Coughlin, MSN

Alison Davis, MSN

Julia McDaniel, MSN

Instructors

Chelsea Rick, DO

Advanced Practice Providers

Barbara Grimm, APRN

Kanah Lewallen, DNP, MSN

Alice Lowe, APRN

Abigail Parish, DNP, MSN

Shelley Ross, NP

Casey Schwartz, APRN

Hannah Stephens, NP

Victoria Taylor, APRN

Carole Vaden, APRN

Alexis Wohner, APRN

HEMATOLOGY AND ONCOLOGY Professors

Vandana Gupta Abramson, MD

Jordan Berlin, MD

Cathy Eng, MD

Jill Gilbert, MD

Laura Goff, MD, MSCI**

Adetola Kassim, MBBS

Barbara Murphy, MD

Ben Ho Park, MD, PhD

W. Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD, MMHC

Nishitha M Reddy, MBBS

Brian Rini, MD

Bipin Savani, MD‡

Michael Savona, MD

Associate Professors

Muhamed Baljević, MD

Justin Balko, PhD

Dana Cardin, MD, MSCI

Kristen Ciombor, MD, MSCI

Kimberly Dahlman, PhD

Elizabeth Davis, MD

Nancy Davis, MD

Michael Gibson, MD, PhD

Patrick Hu, MD, PhD‡

Paula Hurley, PhD

James Jerkins, MD, MS*

Douglas Johnson, MD, MSCI

Vicki Keedy, MD

Brian Lehmann, PhD

Christine Lovly, MD, PhD

David Morgan, MD

Colleen Morton, MBBCH

Olalekan Oluwole, MD, MPH‡

Sandeep Rajan, MBBS

Robert Ramirez, DO

Salyka Sengsayadeth, MD‡

Katherine Walsh, MD

Sandra Zinkel, MD, PhD‡

Sr. Associates in Medicine

Katie Lang, MS

Kelly Taylor, MS

Associates in Medicine

Jeneth Aquino, DNP

Meredith Gerhart, MS

Assistant Professors

Rajiv Agarwal, MD

Suneetha Amara, MD*

Jennifer Whisenant Amundson, PhD

Kristen Ancell, MD‡

Zach Bacigalupa, PhD*

Kathryn Beckermann, MD, PhD

Michael Byrne, DO

Michelle Chi, MD

Wichai Chinratanalab, MD‡

Jennifer Choe, MD

Sarah Croessmann, PhD

Satya Das, MD

Bhagirathbhai Dholaria, MBBS

Megan Dupuis, MD, PhD

P. Brent Ferrell, MD‡

Melissa Fischer, PhD, MS

Lindsey Goodman, MD

Jennifer R Green, MD

Scott Haake, MD, PhD‡

Daniel Hausrath, MD*‡

Robert Hester, MD, MS*

Thatcher Heumann, MD, MPH*

Wade Iams, MD

Reena Jayani, MD

Laura Kennedy, MD, PhD

Waleed Khalaf, MD, PhD

Tae Kon Kim, MD, PhD‡

Ashwin Kishtagari, MD

Jennifer Lewis, MD‡

Frank Mason, PhD

Christine Micheel, PhD

Sanjay Mohan, MD

Sara Nunnery, MD

Mary Philip, MD, PhD

Laura Ramirez, MD

Haley Ramsey, PhD

Sonya Reid, MD

Brent Rexer, MD, PhD

Kerry Schaffer, MD

Shannon Serie, MD

Natalie Spradlin, MD

Stephen Strickland, MD

Benjamin Tillman, MD‡

Hong Yuen Wong, PhD

Kenneth Wyman, MD‡

Sally York, MD, PhD‡

Assistants in Medicine

Matthew Bumbalough, MSN, RN

Whitney Chase, MSN

Shelton Lacy Harrell, MSN

Deborah Hawkins, MSN

Mryia Hubert, MS*

Virginia Quinn, MSN

Emily Skotte, DNP

Sherlyn Umayam, MSN

Deborah Wallace, MSN

Karina Wilkerson, MSN

Brenda Zuniga, MS

Instructors

Joshua Donaldson, MD, PhD

Jonathan Lehman, MD, PhD‡

Naimisha Marneni, MD*

Pooja Shah, MD

Advanced Practice Providers

Ashley Allington, NP

Anne Austin, APRN

Elizabeth Baca, APRN

Alexandria Barton, NP

Brennan Broadway, APRN

Jennifer Brown, NP

Carey Clifton, APRN

Bethany Cones, NPN

Mary Katherine Cooper, APRN

Lauren Coppens, NP

Shemeka Davis, NP

David Eisner, APRN

Holly Erickson, APRN

Kathryn Estopinal, NP

Angela Fitzpatrick, NP

Jennifer Flake, APRN

Paige Follett, PA

Anne Galloway, NP

Leslie Goebel, NP

Karen Hande, DNP

Meghan Hoffman, NP

Deanna Hopkins, NP

Hayley House-McPhedran, PA-C

Heather Jackson, APRN

Kathryn Kennedy, NP

Krista Kuhnert-Gainer, APRN

Morgan Lambrecht, DNP

Catherine Largent, PA

Melissa Logue, APRN

Katherine Long, APRN

Nancy Long, APRN

Mary McDowell, NP

Hayley McPhedran, PA

Stephanie Mehr, NP

Amy Messimore, APRN

Sarah Murawski, PA-C

Danielle Murphy, NP

Samantha Osborne, PA

Erin Pearson, APRN

Lauren Popp, NP

Austin Rockenhaus, NP

Elizabeth Ryan, NP

Michelle Ryan, NP

Tina Sasso, NP

Lisa Scholl, NP

Jennifer Seitz, NP

Sharon Sims, APRN

Jillian Tremblay, PA

Hannah Tunks, NP

Leigh Vaughan, APRN

Allison Walker, NP

Kathryn Waller, APRN

Megan Wanca, APRN

Olivia West, NP

Elizabeth Winkler, NP

INFECTIOUS DISEASES Professors

Karen Bloch, MD, MPH

Timothy Cover, MD‡

Kelly Dooley, MD, PhD, MPH*

David Haas, MD

Spyros Kalams, MD**

Simon Mallal, MBBS

Mark McClain, PhD**

Elizabeth Phillips, MD

Timothy Sterling, MD

Helen Keipp Talbot, MD, MPH

Thomas Talbot, MD, MPH

C. William Wester, MD, MPH

Patty Wright, MD

Associate Professors

Holly Algood, PhD‡

Ban Mishu Allos, MD

Titus Daniels, MD, MPH

Suman Das, PhD

Shelia Dunaway, MD*

Jennifer Gaddy, PhD‡

Silvana Gaudieri, PhD

Todd Hulgan, MD, MPH‡

Sean Kelly, MD

John Koethe, MD, MSCI‡

Catherine McGowan, MD

George Nelson, MD

Anna Person, MD

April Pettit, MD, MPH

Carlos Henrique Serezani, PhD

Scott Smith, MD‡

Associates in Medicine

Rodney Adams, MSN, RN

Assistant Professors

Aimalohi Ahonkhai, MD, MPH

Rebecca Berhanu, MD

Kelly Byrge, MD

Jessica Castilho, MD, MPH

Cristian Chandler, PhD, MPH

Cody Chastain, MD

Jennifer Cihlar, DO*

Kevin Dee, MD‡

Ryan Doster, MD

Augusto Dulanto Chiang, MD*

Christina Fiske, MD, MPH

Bryan Harris, MD, MPH

Nicholas Herrera, MD*

Paul Jacob, MD, MPH‡

Richard LaRue, MD‡

John Loh, PhD

Michelle Martin-Pozo, PhD

Leslie Meenderink, MD, PhD‡

Jamison Norwood, MD

Sharon Onguti, MD, MPH

Seesandra Rajagopala, PhD

Peter Rebeiro, PhD

Milner Staub, MD, MPH‡

Rebecca Stern, MD*

Yuri van der Heijden, MD, MPH

Celestine Wanjalla, MD, PhD

Katie White, MD, PhD

Assistants in Medicine

Beverly Byram, MSN

K. Amen Eguakun, MSN, RN

Dana Hughes, MSN

Instructors

Samuel Bailin, MD, MSCI‡

Ozioma Chioma, PhD‡

Advanced Practice Providers

Crystal Munday Cornett, APRN

Catherine Crumbo, NP

Joshua Doyle, APRN

Alexandria Harvick, NP

Heather Holm, APRN

Paula Monte, PA

Courtney Pitts, DNP

Jamie Schwartz, APRN

Carleigh Smith, NP

INTERNAL MEDICINE AND PUBLIC HEALTH Professors

Donald Brady, MD

Robert Dittus, MD, MPH

Tom Elasy, MD, MPH‡

Sunil Kripalani, MD, MSc

Robert Miller, MD

Russell Rothman, MD, MPP

Christianne Roumie, MD, MPH‡

Craig Sussman, MD

Associate Professors

Neesha Choma, MD, MPH

Joseph Fanning, PhD

G. Waldon Garriss, MD, MS*

Parul Mani Goyal, MD

Katherine Hanson, MD

Mohana Karlekar, MD

Ashley Karpinos, MD, MPH**

Emily Kurtz, MD

William Martinez, MD, MSc**

Lindsay Mayberry, PhD

Sumathi Misra, MD, MPH‡

Amanda Salanitro Mixon, MD, MPH‡

Karin Moolman, MD

Sandra Moutsios, MD

Neeraja Peterson, MD

Lori Rolando, MD, MPH

Tony Ross, MD

Martha Shepherd, DO**

Kelly Sopko, MD‡

Kelly Sponsler, MD

Christopher Terndrup, MD*

Cecelia Theobald, MD, MPH

Hilary Tindle, MD, MPH‡

Eduard Vasilevskis, MD, MPH‡

Thomas Whitfield, MD

Elizabeth Yakes, MD

Mary Yarbrough, MD, MPH

Assistant Professors

Matthew Abbate, MD

Allison Lott Adams, MD

Mohammad Al-Khdarat, MD*

Amanda Allen, MD

Steven Allon, MD

Jordan Anderson, MD*

Julia Anderson, MD

Rebecca Anderson, MD

Federica Angel, MD

Rachel Apple, MD, MPH

Ashlee Arteaga, MD**

Katelyn Atwater, MD

Francis Balucan, MD

Emily Barker, MD

Corey Batson, MD

Jennifer Poole Blazier, MD

John Boone, MD

Sadiqa Boura, MD

Eve Bowers, MD

John Bowers, MD

Emily Brown, MD

Ryan Buckley, MD

Raigan Burkall-Lewis, MD**

Jessica Burke, MD

Laura Burkhart, MD

Sunny Cai, MD*

Ian Campbell, MD‡

Kristin Cardona, MD*

Babatunde Carew, MD*

Daniel Carmody, MD

Nitara Carswell, MD**

Jonazary Cervone, DO

Mark Chambers, MD

Chayla Chasten, MD

Michael Chin, MD, MPH

Amos Clark, MD

Billy Copeland, MD

Daniel Cottrell, MD

Kaylin Smith Craig, MD

Jennifer DeBruler, MD*

Jan DeLozier, MD

Nanette Dendy, MD

Michael Diatte, MD**

Irina Didier, MD

Nidhi Dole, MD

Maie El-Sourady, MD

Shelley Ellis, MD, MPH

Sabrina Finney, MD

Kevin Flemmons, MD‡

Jacob Franco, MD‡

James Gainer, MD‡

Morli Gandhi, DO

Muteeb Ghaffar, MD

Joan Gorden, MD

Robert Grad, MD*

Jennifer K. Green, MD, MPH

Sharon Green, MD

Megan Gunn, MD

Zinah Hadidi, MD

Kevin Hageman, DO‡

Philip Harrelson, MD

Jacob Hathaway, MD‡

McKinley Heflin, MD

Lawrence Heller, MD

Brook Helmer, MD

Kyrie Herring, MD

Michael Herring, MD

Paula Herrmann, MD

Tiffany Hines, MD

Timothy Hinton, MD

Melissa Hixson, MD

Richard Hock, MD

Lynn Holliday, MD

Merranda Holmes, MD

Angela Horton, MD, MPH

Gwendolyn Howard, MD

Michelle Izmaylov, MD

Taylor Jensen, MD

Emmanuel Johnson, MD

Jill Jones, MD

Lauren Kathary, DO*

David Koh, MD*

Sapna Kripalani, MD, MSC

Nathan Krishnan, MD‡

Derek Kruse, MD‡

Zeynep Kubilay, MD

Robin Lapre, MD

Jessie Lawrence, DO*

Shalacia LeBlanc, MD*

Russell Ledford, MD

Scott Lee, MD, PhD

Martha Leonard, MD‡

Shannon Lester, MD

Michelle Lewis, MD

Helen Lin, MD‡

Albert Linden, MD, PhD*

Catherine Linn, MD

Peter Liu, MD

Cooper Lloyd, MD, MPH

Hannah Lomzenski, MD*

James MacDonald, MD

Bhavish Manwani, MD

Sara Martin, MD

Concepcion Martinez, MD

Tanya Marvi, MD*

Michael McCann, MD

Debra McCroskey, MD

Robert McKnight, MD

Brian McMurray, MD**

Tamera Means, MD, MHS*

Matthew Miller, MD

Richa Misra, MD‡

Kevin Mitchell, MD

Jennifer Montague, MD

Garren Montgomery, MD

Cecily Montgomery-Imani, MD

James Mosley, MD

Lyndsay Nelson, PhD

Ana Nobis, MD, MPH

Alexander Nourse, DO

Harley Odom, MD

Amanda Olson, MD

Daniel Ontenient, MD

Derek Pae, MD‡

Peter Paik, MD‡

Scott Parker, MD

Ilaben Patel, MD

John Peach, MD

Matthew Peachey, MD

John Pendy, MD*

Samuel Perry, MD

Lorina Poe, MD, MPH

Matthew Potter, MD‡

Martha Presley, MD

Jan Price, MD

Angela Qian, MD

Anusha Raja, MD*

William Rasberry, MD

Elizabeth Rice, MD

Heather Ridinger, MD

McKenzie Roddy, PhD

Ben Rowan, MD

Kristin Rutterer, MD

Bethany Scanlan, MD‡

Allison Schwall, MD

John Scott, MD

Maureen Seitz, MD

William Serafin, MD

Claude Shackelford, MD

Hayden Shafer, MD

Donna Shell, MD

Melanie Skelton, MD‡

Michael Smith, MD, PhD

Mark Sonderman, MD*

Ruth Stewart, MD

Catherine Stober, MD

Kathleen Sullivan, MD

William Sullivan, MD

Krista Suojanen, MD‡

Matthew Sweeney, MD

Emily Tarvin, MD

Kristine Tatosyan-Jones, MD

Kellee Taylor, DO*

Shayne Taylor, MD

Stacey Tillman, MD

Carmen Tuchman, MD

Kendall Waddey, MD

Eleanor Weaver, MD

Chase Webber, DO‡

Jule West, MD

Bobby White, MD

Ryan White, MD, MSc

Jonna Whitman, MD

Rachel Wolf, MD

Benjamin Womack, MD

Andrew Wooldridge, MD

Kathleene Wooldridge, MD, MPH

Teresa Zoffuto, MD, MPH

Assistants in Medicine

Deborah Baker, MPAS

Jane Case, DNP, APRN-BC

Christy Claiborne, MS

Caroline Cone, MSN

Lindsey Dalton, MSN

Melissa Doyle, MSN

Sandra Ermini, MSN

Sarah Garrand, MSN

Barbara Grimm, MSN

Merritt Hambrick, MS

Ashley Hoadley, MSN

Linda Johnson, MSN

Fatmata Kamara, MSN

Kristin Kight, MSN

Margaret Moore Laxton, MPH

Melissa Lehmann, MPAS

Candice Lewis, MSN

Jeanne Madden, MS

Robert Kenneth McKenzie, MS

Gordon Melton, MSN

Emily Nardone, MSN

Jill Nelson, MSN

Laurie Omohundro, DNP, MSN

Taina Ovchinnikov, MSN, RN

Christopher Parker, MS

Amanda Phelps, MHS

Mohammad Rassekhi, MSN

Samuel Robbins, DNP

Rone Russell, MS

Morgan Stine, MPAS

Victoria Taylor, MSN

Retha Thomas, MSN

Jason Tillman, MSN

Gina Vaughn, MSN

Megan Vickers, MS

Bethany Wagner, MSN

Elisa Walker, MSN

Gamini Wiyathunge, MSN

Instructors

Sarah Anderson, MD*

Nina Arhin, MD*

Jon Cumberledge, MD

Benjamin Frush, MD*

Aleksandra Frye, MD

Andrew Gibbs, MD*

Laura Heller, MD

Robert Hornsby, MD*

Sharon Katuin, DO

Elizabeth Maxwell, MD

Padma Narra, MD*

Jennifer Nohrden, MD

Christopher Roberts, MD*

Haden Sholl, MD*

Qutina Watson, EdD*

Advanced Practice Providers

Hodan Abdi, APRN

Redor Abdullah, APRN

Amed Abdullah, APRN

Christina Agee, APRN

Negest Alemu, APRN

Candance Alexander, APRN

Sarah Allen, PA-C

Lisa Allen, NP

Louisa Altman, NP

Robert Anderson, DNP

Kristen Anton, NP

Amber Archer, APRN

Amy Armstrong, APRN

Ramy Aziz, PA-C

Nicholas Ballinger, PA

John Baltz, APRN

Saira Bana, PA

Engy Bandary, PA

Tamara Batson, APRN

Aleshia Beene, APRN

Megan Beggs, PA

Sara Best, APRN

Seyum Beyene, APRN

Amanda Blassl, APRN

Aisha Bond, APRN

Jessica Borrenpohl, PA

Carol Bowling, APRN

LaRica Brady, APRN

Junyang Brand, APRN

Sarah Bridge, APRN

Lori Brister, APRN

Keith Caldwell, APRN

Ariel Campbell, APRN

Candice Campbell, APRN

Nicole Campbell, PA

Elizabeth Card, APRN

Joseph Carter, APRN

Jill Cash, APRN

Jorge Celedonio Colquicocha, NP

Rodney Chenault, DNP

Anita Chew, NP

Courtney Clardy, APRN

Shanita Coleman-Dockery, APRN

Sarah Connor, APRN

Gabrielle Cook, APRN

Kate Corbin, PA

Lori Crews, APRN

Kristina Crocker, NP

Lacey Cross, APRN

Dorothy Crowder, APRN

Amy Cutsinger, APRN

Carine D’Angelo, APRN

Tina Darks, NP

Kelvisha Davis, APRN

Velinda DeForge, APRN

Christina DeLeo, PA

Diana Dillehay, APRN

Jeffrey Dinizio, PA

Katherine Dowdall, APRN

Christina Dozier, APRN

Donna Dubois, APRN

John Dunlap, APRN

Patience Echem, APRN

Cassidee Eddings, APRN

Erika Erickson, APRN

Catherine Evans, APRN

Shaina Farfel, APRN

Amy Fortner, APRN

Sheana Fox, APRN

Daniel Fox, APRN

Katherine Furmanski, APRN

Anna Gallion, NP

Christine Galluzzi, APRN

Jennifer Gartman, PA

Jared Geesaman, NP

Monique George, APRN

Katherine Gilliland, NP

Jesi Girton, APRN

Melissa Glassford, DNP

Tracey Goddard, NP

Vallaree Goodwin, APRN

Karen Gordon, APRN

Spencer Goudeau, PA

Jennifer Green, APRN

Elisabeth Groves, APRN

Rachel Hahn, PA

Caleb Hancock, APRN

April Hanlotxomphou, APRN

Megan Hatley, PA

Casea Hayes, APRN

Mary Henderson, APRN

Alexandra Hendrickson, PA-C

Cindy Hogg, APRN

Rhonda Hollins-Dortch, APRN

Andrea Honeycutt, APRN

Leslie Hopkins, APRN

Kyli Hoskins, PA

William Howard, PA

Candace Humes, NP

Karen Hypnarowski, PA-C

Janell Jayamohan, APRN

Jason Jean, APRN

Nora Jewell, APRN

Shelby Johnson, PA-C

Melinda Johnson, APRN

Susan Johnson, APRN

Karyn Jones, APRN

Stephanie Kaelin, DNP, APRN

Aminda Kim, APRN

Leslie King, APRN

Ashlee Lecorps, APRN

Amy Lee, APRN

Kristin Leonard, APRN

Lori Liggin, APRN

Charles Lindsey, PA

Giles Lippard, NP

Rebecca Lomax, PA

Kristen Maida, NP

Aureata Majors, APRN

Julie Malkowski, PA-C

Bethany Malone, APRN

Dana Manning, APRN

Stephanie Marrow, APRN

Kristen Massey, APRN

Rebekah Mattox, NP

Catherine McCarty, PA

Stacey Mcclain, APRN

Jennifer McCord, APRN

Jacqueline McFadden, APRN

Mary McLaughlin, APRN

Jennifer McNaught, NP

Nakeisha Micheaux, APRN

Alyssa Miller, APRN

Jennifer Mitchell, APRN

Audrey Morgan-Cline, APRN

Celia Morse, NP

Emily Murphy, APRN

Sherry Murray, APRN

Nicole Nde, APRN

Lori Netti, APRN

Stephanie Nipper, APRN

Amanda Noblett, APRN

Meredith Nolan, APRN

Allison O’Leary, PA

Shovan Ortiz, APRN

Thomasa Padilla, APRN

Natalie Patterson, APRN

Cynthia Peterson, APRN

Sierra Pickney, APRN

Michele Pruett, APRN

Keqin Qian, APRN

Katherine Rainey, APRN

Daniel Rasbach, APRN

Jillian Ratton, NP

Kathryn Reese, APRN

Katie Reiff, APRN

Danielle Riddle, PA-C

Shelza Rivas, APRN

Jodi Robbe, PA

Heather Robbins, APRN

Stacy Robertson, APRN

Susanna Rudy, APRN

Karen Runyon-Delice, APRN

Angela Rushing, APRN

Kesha Rushing, APRN

Lori Beth Russell, APRN

Brittany San Miguel, NP

Deborah Sanders, NP

Margaret Sanford (Coffman), APRN

Sharon-Lee Santos, APRN

Sandra Savage, APRN

Hannah Scheitel, APRN

Ashley Schmidt, APRN

Aaron Scott, APRN

Jessica Searcy, APRN

Shanna Sharpe, APRN

Tanya Smith, NP

Evan Smith, APRN

Grahm Smith, PA

Kennedy Smith, APRN

Randall Smith, APRN

Deborah Snedegar, NP

Caroline Solomon, APRN

Charlotte Stephenson, APRN

Kate Stewart, PA

Allison Sullivan, APRN

Martha Sutherland, APRN

Sherin Tahmasbi, APRN

Jannyse Tapp, DNP

Amy Thien, PA-C

Latasha Todd, APRN

Ashley Tomlinson, APRN

Kristina Toscano, PA

Brittany Traylor, APRN

Maria Troche-perez, APRN

Erica Truka, APRN

Christina Turner, PA

Amy Tyson, APRN

Candice Vaden, APRN

Sarah Vann, NP

Kathryn Voigt, APRN

Mary Walden, APRN

Amy Jo Walters, APRN

Sara Warren, APRN

Tanicia Washington, APRN

Kathryn Wayne, NP

Robert Weber, APRN

Catherine Weiss, APRN

Gwyn Welch, APRN

Angela Wells, APRN

Neressa White, APRN

Stephanie White, NP

Angela Wiggins, APRN

Joshua Witt, APRN

Barbara Wolff, APRN

Jeannie Wood, APRN

Michael Woods, APRN

Haylee Young, APRN

Jessica Zehring, APRN

Kristen Zeigler, APRN

Angela Zuill, APRN

NEPHROLOGY AND HYPERTENSION Professors

Richard Breyer, PhD

Mark de Caestecker, MBBS, PhD

Volker Haase, MD‡

Raymond Harris, MD‡

Billy Hudson, PhD

Talat Alp Ikizler, MD‡

Julia Breyer Lewis, MD

John Nadeau, MD

Ambra Pozzi, PhD‡

Heidi Schaefer, MD‡

Edward Siew, MD**‡

Mohammed Sika, PhD

Matthew Wilson, MD, PhD‡

Roy Zent, MD, PhD‡

Ming-Zhi Zhang, MD, MSc**

Associate Professors

Gautam Bhave, MD, PhD**‡

Kelly Birdwell, MD, MSCI‡

Kerri Cavanaugh, MD, MHS‡

Jianchun Chen, MD

Beatrice Concepcion, MD

Rachel Fissell, MD**

William Fissell, MD

Adriana Hung, MD, MPH‡

Anthony Langone, MD‡

Takamune Takahashi, MD, PhD

Roberto Vanacore, PhD

Associates in Medicine

Toddra Liddell, MSN**

Assistant Professors

Khaled Abdel-Kader, MD‡

Juan Pablo Arroyo Ornelas, MD, PhD**‡

Laura Binari, MD*

Corina Borza, PhD

Craig Brooks, PhD

Kyle Brown, PhD

Sergey Budko, PhD

Nada Bulus, MD

Anna Burgner, MD

Manuel Chiusa, PhD

Chidiebube Egwim, MD, MPH‡

Osama El Shamy, MD‡

Bertha Elias, PhD

Eman Gohar, PhD

Edward Gould, MD

Hunter Huston, MD*

Ming Jiang, MD, PhD

Renjie Jin, MD, PhD

Hanako Kobayashi, PhD

Wentian Luo, MD, PhD

Marika Manolopoulou, MD

Natalie McCall, MD

Devika Nair, MD, MSCI‡

Tetyana Pedchenko, PhD

Elena Pokidysheva, PhD

Cassianne Robinson-Cohen, PhD

Megha Salani, MD

Neil Sanghani, MD‡

Bonnie Sarrell, MD

Saed Shawar, MBBS

Andrew Terker, MD, PhD**

Ebele Umeukeje, MD, MPH

Yinqiu Wang, PhD

Lauren Woodard, PhD‡

Assistants in Medicine

Mary Rogers Sorey, MSN

Tanaya Summers, MSN

Zhijian Wang, MSN, RN

Instructors

Bethany Birkelo, DO*

Fabian Bock, MD, PhD

Shirong Cao, MD, PhD

Ruth Ann Veach, BS

Advanced Practice Providers

Hibo Abdi, NP

Kyle Espinoza, NP

Clayton Freeman, NP

Madison Papp, APRN

Yelena Reese, APRN

RHEUMATOLOGY AND IMMUNOLOGY

Professors

Thomas Aune, PhD

Jin Chen, MD, PhD‡

Leslie Crofford, MD

John Sergent, MD

James Thomas, MD

Associate Professors

Narender Annapureddy, MD, MSCI

Kevin Byram, MD

Tracy Frech, MD, MSCI‡

James Gore, MD

Susan Kroop, MD

Amy Major, PhD‡

Jason Springer, MD, MS‡

Assistant Professors

April Barnado, MD, MSCI

Erica Benvenutti, MD

Rachel Bonami, PhD

Sallaya Chinratanalab, MD

Glenn Douglas, MD

Deanna Edwards, PhD

Sarah Homann, MD‡

Joseph Huston, MD

Hillary Kaplan, MD

Samantha Minkin, MD

Denis Mogilenko, PhD*

Kevin Myers, MD

Adrenrele Olajide, MBBS*‡

Michelle Ormseth, MD, MSCI‡

Sujana Reddy, MD

Tyler Reese, MD*

Eli Steigelfest, MD

S Bobo Tanner, MD

Erin Wilfong, MD, PhD**

Jennifer Young-Glazer, MD, MSCI

Assistants in Medicine

Julie Barnes, MSN

Instructors

Paras Karmacharya, MBBS

Advanced Practice Providers

Nichole Bonzano, PA

Kristin Sisemore, NP

IN MEMORY OF THOSE WE LOST

Raymond BurkJr., MD

Fernando Elijovich,MD

Sanford Krantz,MD

JohnMurray,MD,PhD

TomThomasII,MD

Jackson RobertsII,MD

Harry Page,MD

PHILANTHROPY HIGHLIGHTS

Gifts from our generous donors support our mission to advance scientific discovery, elevate patient care and train future leaders in health care.

$24M+ IN TOTAL GIFTS

1,724 MEDICINE DONORS

Clip In 4 the Cure is a high-energy, team cycling event that raises funds to defeat cancer. In its second year, the event brought 500 attendees to First Horizon Park, where they raised over $210,000 to support cancer research and enjoyed spin sessions led by Nashville’s top instructors and DJs. The third annual Clip In 4 the Cure will take place in Fall 2024 at our exciting new location, GEODIS Park, home of the Nashville Soccer Club. To register or learn more, visit ClipIn4TheCure.org.

7 NEW DIRECTORSHIPS

3 FUNDRAISING EVENTS

For more information and to make a contribution, scan the QR code, or visit medicine.vumc.org/dom-giving

For Pete’s Sake, a benefit concert held in February at City Winery, was organized by Erin Huttlinger in honor of her late husband, Pete Huttlinger. The fourth annual event raised more than $30,000 to benefit the Pete Huttlinger Fund for Adult Congenital Cardiac Research. The fund supports cardiology training and research efforts related to the care of adults with congenital heart disease. Here, Erin Huttlinger poses with Frank Fish, MD, professor of Pediatrics and Medicine.

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