U.S. News and World Report has named the Vanderbilt University Peabody College of Education and Human Development the nation’s top graduate school of education for the fifth consecutive year.

The magazine’s Best Graduate Schools 2014 guidebook will be available April 9. Peabody bested programs at Johns Hopkins University (No. 2) and Harvard (No. 3) for the top spot, in addition to having its programs in administration/supervision and special education named No. 1 by education school deans.

“These are challenging times for educators, and our faculty works hard to contribute knowledge through research and to prepare leaders who can be a force for positive change,” Camilla Benbow, Patricia and Rodes Hart Dean of Education and Human Development at Peabody, said in a release.

Relatedly, the VU Law School improved one position to tie with the University of Texas at No. 15 in the law school category, while the VU School of Medicine kept its No. 14 spot on the list of best research medical schools. Harvard was No. 1.

“During a period in our nation where there are serious and competing pressures facing medical education, the outstanding commitment demonstrated by our faculty and leadership to train the nation’s next generation of physician-leaders is evident in this year’s ranking,” said Jeff Balser, vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

For the first time since 2009, U.S. News and World Report ranked the social sciences and humanities doctorate programs. The Vanderbilt Ph.D. program in history is tied for the No. 24 ranking, English is tied for No. 26, psychology is tied for No. 30, sociology is tied for No. 31 and political science and economics are both tied for No. 36 in their categories. In English specialties, Vanderbilt is tied for fourth place in the African American literature category.

“It’s gratifying to see the remarkable strides we’re making in the College of Arts and Science at Vanderbilt recognized by the U.S. News and World Report poll,” said Dean Carolyn Dever. “The social sciences and humanities remain a core priority at Vanderbilt.”

The VU School of Engineering was ranked No. 36, and the Owen Graduate School of Management was tied for No. 30 in the business school rankings.

Vanderbilt University Chancellor Nick Zeppos last week said his administration plans to make their elite MD/PhD training program the largest in the country. Such education tracks are funded with the help of the National Institutes of Health.

The Legal Aid Society has teamed up with Shade Tree Clinic, a venture run by Vanderbilt School of Medicine students, to offer basic legal services — think Social Security issues or housing assistance — to the clinic's patients. As part of the partnership, Legal Aid attorney Chay Sengkhounmany (pictured) is spending time at eight-year-old Shade Tree three days a month.

Shade Tree is a free medical clinic that Vanderbilt medical students have run since 2004. Brad Lindell, a former Vanderbilt medical student volunteer who helped organize the MLP explained, “the idea of adding legal assistance to Shade Tree became clear once I saw the success that my wife’s law firm had with its partnership with a Boston medical clinic. Our patients face many of the same issues that she had seen in Boston. We knew that adding the legal component to our services would help make our medical treatment more successful.”

Vanderbilt University Medical Center and its affiliates will use an $18.8 million grant from the federal agency that operates the federal Medicare and Medicaid health programs to improve the management of high blood pressure, heart failure and diabetes in 18 counties in Tennessee and Kentucky, according to MyVU.com.

Given by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the three-year grant is one of the largest federal research grants awarded to VUMC investigators.

The Health Care Innovation Award will support the implementation and evaluation of MyHealthTeam (MHT), a model of team-based care that combines collaborative health care teams with health information technology in order to improve control of chronic conditions.

“The receipt of this award brings to fruition years of thoughtful innovation, preparation and successful pilot programs in population-based disease management by our clinicians and biomedical informatics experts,” Dr. Jeff Balser, vice chancellor for health affairs for Vanderbilt University and dean of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, said in the MyVU.com story.

“They have been the architects for this exciting effort that, together with our affiliates, will provide carefully coordinated management for these costly and devastating chronic diseases,” he added.

The project will include Vanderbilt affiliate hospitals Maury Regional Medical Center, NorthCrest Medical Center and Williamson Medical Center, according to Dr. C. Wright Pinson, deputy vice chancellor for health affairs and CEO of the Vanderbilt Health System.

Craig Ferrell, one of the orthopedic specialists who founded The Bone & Joint Clinic in Franklin, has died from injuries sustained during a recent polo game. Ferrell was vice chairman of orthopedic surgery at Vanderbilt, which acquired Bone & Joint in the summer of 2009.

Vanderbilt University is launching a new master's degree program geared toward educators in the health care field.

Through a collaboration among Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Vanderbilt University School of Nursing and Peabody College of Education and Human Development, the university this fall will begin enrolling students in a Master of Health Professions Education degree. The mission of the program is to help health education professionals develop the skills needed to lead in a rapidly changing health services environment.

“This program gives students a science behind the education so they can practice their area of expertise in a scholarly way,” said Associate Professor of Medical Education and Administration and MPHE program director John Shatzer. “Teaching is a learnable skill and is why Peabody is a strong partner in our program. They are current in educational theory and principles that will help create the bridge between the learning sciences and teaching practice.”

The degree, which models an Executive MBA weekend format, will be awarded by the school of medicine.
 

“As a pediatrician, I can see it happening right in front of me. An overweight preschooler is four to five times more likely to stay overweight as an adolescent. And if you stay overweight as an adolescent, there is a 70 percent likelihood you will stay overweight as an adult,” Barkin said.