Impact

Nursing homes and play a unique dual role in the long-term care continuum, serving as a place where people receive needed health care and a place they call home. Ineffective responses to the complex challenges of nursing home care have resulted in a system that often fails to ensure the well-being and safety of nursing home residents. 

Dr. William Schaffner, professor of Health Policy and primary investigator for the Tennessee Emerging Infections Program has begun to turn over his responsibilities to Dr. H. Keipp Talbot, a transition that began in late 2022.Dr. Schaffner has been the PI for the multi-state program for more than 10 years, and has been with VUMC since the 1960s, effectively making him one of the longest tenured physicians ever at VUMC. Under his leadership, the EIP Program has grown in scope, staffing and focus, adding disease surveillance activities often.

 

(Originally published in March 2023.) Stacie Dusetzina, PhD, Ingram Professor of Cancer Research and Professor of Health Policy, joined Mark Cuban, billionaire and founder of Cost Plus Drugs Co., and Ruchika Talwar, MD, Urologic Oncology fellow in VUMC’s Department of Urology, for a lecture and discussion on the efforts to reduce prescription drug prices for Americans.

For years, Professor John Graves, PhD, has been studying health care markets and the policies that influence them. Using statistical models and data from multiple sources, Graves develops models to inform decision-makers and policymakers.Graves heads a small group of faculty in the Department that aims to answer a simple question asked in dozens of different contexts within health care: Is it worth it? For example, is what we spend on a particular intervention returning the results we want in terms of lives saved or expensive care reduced or averted?