A Season of Thanks | A Message from Dean Rick Page

Dear Larner Community,

The time for gathering with friends and family to give thanks has arrived. I have much to reflect upon this Thanksgiving. Jeannie and I arrived just 13 months ago, and as I think back on the past year, what stands out most is the overwhelming welcoming spirit I've felt from the Larner community.

A medical school is only as good as its faculty, staff, and students. Since day one I've been impressed by the quality and commitment of the people throughout our College community. This was driven home for me again last week, when we hosted a large number of Vermont legislators for a half-day showcase of the education and research work being conducted at our institution. As I listened to a broad selection of presenters from across our College, I was filled with pride in the work we have accomplished and the important goals we have set. It was evident that the legislators and University of Vermont President Garimella were equally impressed.

Thank you for everything you do to advance our mission to educate future physicians and scientists, accomplish leading-edge research, and serve the patients and families who are the ultimate beneficiaries of all our work. I wish all of you a healthy and happy Thanksgiving.

Faculty Recognized as Most Influential Researchers  

Mary Cushman, M.D., M.Sc., professor of medicine and pathology and laboratory medicine, and William Copeland, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry, have been named as two of the world’s most influential researchers, based on the number of times their published studies have been cited by other researchers over the past decade. The UVM Gund Institute’s Taylor Ricketts, Ph.D., was also recognized.

Researchers on the list are in the top one percent of all scholars whose work has been cited. The prestigious Highly Cited Researchers list is compiled and published annually by Clarivate Analytics.

“The Highly Cited Researchers list is the gold standard for work that is making a real difference,” said University of Vermont Provost Patty Prelock, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, BCS-CL,. “We couldn’t be more proud that the research accomplishments of Drs. Copeland, Cushman, and Ricketts have earned them inclusion in this select group.”

Education, Research Focus of UVM Legislative Summit

On November 21, the Larner College of Medicine hosted the seventh annual University of Vermont Legislative Policy Summit. State representatives from across Vermont gathered in the Larner Classroom, one of the College's active learning facilities, to hear from 15 Larner faculty members, students, and affiliated administrators on the theme of “Innovations in Education and Research for the Benefit of Vermont.”

UVM President Suresh Garimella, Ph.D., kicked off the half-day session by welcoming approximately 30 representatives, and highlighting the connections between the future of Vermont and future of the University. Dr. Garimella stressed the importance of the University’s continuing commitment to its role as a  land-grant institution, providing public education and dissemination of knowledge in service to the community. John Brumsted, M.D., president and CEO of the UVM Health Network, CEO of the UVM Medical Center, and professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences, followed with remarks on the close collaboration between the University and Health Network.

Students and Staff Present at AAMC Conference

More than a dozen members of the Larner College of Medicine community, including Dean Rick Page, M.D., education leaders, faculty, staff, and medical students, joined more than 4,800 medical school colleagues from across the country at the Association of American Medical Colleges’ (AAMC) 2019 Learn Serve Lead conference November 8-12 in Phoenix, Ariz.

Invited session topics and authors included: “Educational Research, Program Evaluation and Educational CQI Infrastructure: Does One Size Fit All?” and “Personality Compatibility within Faculty Mentoring Dyads and Perceived Mentoring Outcomes”–Kathryn Huggett, Ph.D.; “Education Technology and MedBiquitous Joint Knowledge Sharing” panel–Laurie Gelles, M.A., Ph.D.

Poster session topics and authors included: “Saturday School: A Student-designed, Student-led Step 1 Preparation Program”–Lee Rosen, Ph.D., and Leigh Ann Holterman, Ph.D.; “Direct Integration of Social Determinants of Health Content into Medical School Curriculum”–Class of 2021 medical students Raghav Goyal, Samuel Epstein, Christina Dawson, Trina Thornburgh, and Elizabeth Lynch; “Student & Faculty Responses to a New Social Medicine Theme in the Pre-Clinical Curriculum”–medical students Sheridan Finney ’22 and Richard Brach ’22; “Success of OB/GYN Shadowing Program for Pre-Clinical Medical Students”–medical student and AAMC Organization of Student Representatives (OSR) member Gia Eapen ’22; “Impact of an Online Prematriculation Program on Readiness for Medical School”–medical student and OSR member Charles Nicoli ’20; “Gratitude in Medical Education: Antidote to Burnout?”–medical student Abby Belser ’22, Nathalie Feldman, M.D., Summer Griffin, and Holterman; “Where Do We Go from Here? The UVM? Voice in Building Diversity”–medical student Adam Ross ’22, Elizabeth A. Mcelhinney M.Ed., Cary Jewkes, M.Ed., Dr. Holterman, Eileen CichoskiKelly, Ph.D., and Janice Gallant, M.D.

In addition, Dennis Beatty, M.D., assistant professor of medicine and Doctoring in Vermont course director, attended as a member of the AAMC Council of Faculty and Academic Societies.

Read more about the AAMC Learn Serve Lead 2019 conference here.

Nina Jaffe, Editorial Assistant- Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics

Nina Jaffe helps to produce one of the most reputable medical journals in the world – Pediatrics. For over seven years she’s worked with Chair of Pediatrics and Pediatrics Editor-in-chief Lewis First, M.D., to ensure the 71-year-old publication maintains its high quality and prestige.

Among her many responsibilities is the daunting task of checking roughly 4,500 submitted manuscripts per year to determine their compliance with a long list of required elements. Many, she says, are missing information, and must be returned for corrections. She also preps spreadsheets for Dr. First’s “triage call” with the executive editorial board, and manages the appeal process for rejected manuscripts.

Before joining the Pediatrics team, Ms. Jaffe was a freelance proofreader and copyeditor for both Vermont Medicine and Vermont Quarterly. As a child, she often visited the Given Building where her father was a professor of pharmacology for nearly 30 years.

“I appreciate any opportunity to ease someone’s burden, or lower their stress,” says Ms. Jaffe, in reference to both the researchers trying to navigate the article submission process or Chief of Pediatrics Dr. First. “When he tells me I make his life easier, that is very gratifying.

Lessard Demystifies at KIF1A at KAND Family & Scientific Conference

KIF1A Associated Neurological Disorder (KAND) is a rare neurodegenerative disorder with no cure or treatment. Caused by a mutation in the KIF1A gene, the condition typically appears at birth or in early childhood and can affect both the brain and the body. In August, Dominique Lessard, a senior graduate student working with Professor of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics Christopher Berger, Ph.D., presented on her KIF1A research to family members navigating the disease at the 2019 KAND Family & Scientific Engagement Conference.

CITATION HIGHLIGHTS

Moore J, Searles S, Holterman LA, Simone C, Huggett K. Universal Design for TBL®: Promoting Inclusion and Access for All Learners. Medical Science Educator. 26 Oct 2019.

Carson E, Wilcox R. Choosing Wisely in Pre-clinical Medical Education: a Direct Comparison of Active Learning Methods for Teaching Metabolic Liver Disease. Medical Science Educator. 28 Oct 2019. 

Feldman N, Lewis J, Patel C, Ackerman S, Howe A, Harari D, Evans K, Adams D. The Other Side of Medical Student Mistreatment: Teaching Cultural Competency Across the Generational Divide. MedEdPORTAL. 25 Oct 2019. 

Greene SJ, Rosen L. Sharing personal information about anatomical body donors: What first‐year medical students want to know and how it affects emotional responses to dissection. Clin. Anat. 32:1019–1032, 2019.

Raza A, Xie Z, Chan EC, Chen WS, Scott LM, Robin Eisch A, Krementsov DN, Rosenberg HF, Parikh SM, Blankenhorn EP, Teuscher C, Druey KM. A natural mouse model reveals genetic determinants of systemic capillary leak syndrome (Clarkson disease). Commun Biol. 2019 Oct 31;2:398. doi: 10.1038/s42003-019-0647-4.eCollection 2019. PubMed PMID: 31701027; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6823437.

Warrington JS, Lovejoy N, Brandon J, Lavoie K, Powell C. Integrating Social Determinants of Health and Laboratory Data: A Pilot Study To Evaluate Co-Use of Opioids and Benzodiazepines. Acad Pathol. 2019 Oct 30;6:2374289519884877. doi10.1177/2374289519884877. eCollection 2019 Jan-Dec. PubMed PMID: 31700992; PubMedCentral PMCID: PMC6823980.

Evans CR, Long DL, Howard G, McClure LA, Zakai NA, Jenny NS, Kissela BM, Safford MM, Howard VJ, Cushman M. C-reactive protein and stroke risk in blacks and whites: The REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke cohort. Am Heart J. 2019 Nov;217:94-100. doi: 10.1016/j.ahj.2019.08.003. Epub 2019 Aug 12. PubMed PMID: 31520899; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6861684.

González-Roz A, Gaalema DE, Pericot-Valverde I, Elliott RJ, Ades PA. A Systematic Review of the Diagnostic Accuracy of Depression Questionnaires for Cardiac Populations: IMPLICATIONS FOR CARDIAC REHABILITATION. J Cardiopulm Rehabil Prev. 2019 Nov;39(6):354-364. doi: 10.1097/HCR.0000000000000408. PubMed PMID: 30870244.

Elko EA, Cunniff B, Seward DJ, Chia SB, Aboushousha R, van de Wetering C, van der Velden J, Manuel A, Shukla A, Heintz NH, Anathy V, van der Vliet A, Janssen-Heininger YMW. Peroxiredoxins and Beyond; Redox Systems Regulating Lung Physiology and Disease. Antioxid Redox Signal. 2019 Nov 10;31(14):1070-1091. doi:10.1089/ars.2019.7752. Epub 2019 Apr 5. PubMed PMID: 30799628; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6767868.

Veith C, Boots AW, Idris M, van Schooten FJ, van der Vliet A. Redox Imbalance in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis: A Role for Oxidant Cross-Talk Between NADPH Oxidase Enzymes and Mitochondria. Antioxid Redox Signal. 2019 Nov 10;31(14):1092-1115. doi: 10.1089/ars.2019.7742. Epub 2019 Apr 5. PubMed PMID: 30793932; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6767863.

Leclair TR, Zakai N, Bunn JY, Gianni M, Heyland DK, Ardren SS, Stapleton RD. Vitamin D Supplementation in Mechanically Ventilated Patients in the Medical Intensive Care Unit. JPEN J Parenter Enteral Nutr. 2019 Nov;43(8):1037-1043. doi: 10.1002/jpen.1520. Epub 2019 Feb 12. PubMed PMID: 30756402.

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