April 6, 2022 | Volume IV, Issue 7

Koch Named UVM Clinical Simulation Laboratory Director

After a comprehensive internal search and interview process, Larner College of Medicine Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine Nick Koch, M.D., has been named clinical director of the UVM Clinical Simulation Laboratory (CSL). Dr. Koch will be the laboratory’s fourth director, replacing former Associate Professor of Anesthesiology Vincent Miller, M.D., who served in the position for five years, from 2016-2021.

A 2014 graduate of Larner, Koch applied for the CSL clinical director position spurred by a passion for simulation-based learning he developed during his own medical education.

“During my four years of medical school, the robust simulation program became an integral part of my preparation for clinical practice, seeding my professional interests in this educational modality,” Koch says. “I appreciated the effectiveness in teaching the humanistic side of medical care delivery [that clinical simulation provides], including effective and empathetic verbal and non-verbal communication and bedside demeanor.” 

Koch was nominated from among three highly qualified candidates by a search committee including Cate Nicholas, Ed.D., M.S., P.A., director of education and operations for the Clinical Simulation Laboratory, College of Nursing and Health Sciences Director of Simulation Education Nancy Lemieux, MSN, R.N., Associate Professor of Surgery Jesse Moore, M.D., and University of Vermont Medical Center Chief Medical Officer Isabelle Desjardins, M.D. 

Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education, Christa Zehle, M.D., is excited for the future of the laboratory under Koch’s guidance. “Dr. Koch is familiar with the Larner College of Medicine curriculum and understands the value of simulation education in the professional development of both current and future health care providers,” she says. “As the Clinical Simulation Lab continues to expand its services, Dr. Koch and Dr. Nicholas will continue to explore opportunities for expansion of the lab’s impact on learners and our community.”

Read the full article.

Pictured above: Dr. Koch poses for a photo in the sky bridge leading from the Given Building to the Clinical Simulation Laboratory. He wears a blue surgical mask covering his nose, mouth, and chin.

Med Students Hold Medical Supply Drive for Ukraine

When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, first-year Larner College of Medicine medical students Caitlin Marassi and Ellen Mats were inspired to act. 

Marassi earned a degree in political science with a focus on Eastern Europe and worked for the U.S. Department of State prior to starting medical school. Mats, a first-generation American of Ukrainian heritage, spent many summers during her childhood visiting her grandparents, who lived in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, and other family members on the Crimean peninsula. 

“I have some family friends and family who are still there or recently left as refugees,” Mats says.

She and Marassi began investigating ways to help the Ukrainian people, and decided to work through Razom, a 501(c)(3) organization that has been shipping medical supplies by sea and air directly to Ukraine.

“Razom, meaning ‘together’ in Ukrainian, has long established relationships with Ukraine, operating since 2014,” explains Mats. She adds that the nonprofit collaborates with Meest America, a shipping company with extensive logistics contacts and shipping routes throughout Eastern Europe. 

“As medical students, we figured that it would make the most sense to collect medical supplies,” she says. They also set up a GoFundMe through which financial donations go directly to Razom. 

On March 26, 2022, Mats and Marassi, along with other Larner first-year medical students, launched a three-week medical supply drive in collaboration with Vermont Flannel, where they held a donation drop-off event. Mats reports that, at the Burlington Church Street Marketplace retail location alone, the group collected six bins of supplies, including items such as gauze, self-adherent wrap, antibiotic cream, thermal blankets, tourniquets, gloves, tactical backpacks, walkie-talkies, surgical supplies, syringes, and a drone. The drive will continue until April 16, 2022.

Read the full article. 

Pictured above: (Left) Ellen Mats and Caitlin Marassi behind the Vermont for Ukraine Medical Supply Drive sign on the Church Street Marketplace on March 26; (Right) Bins filled with donated medical supplies. (Courtesy photos)

Research Shows Link Between Phthalates, the "Everywhere Chemical," and Childhood Cancer

In a first-of-its-kind study, research led by Thomas Ahern, Ph.D., M.P.H., associate professor of surgery and University of Vermont Cancer Center member, has linked chemical additives called phthalates to higher incidence of specific childhood cancers.

Used to enhance the durability or consistency of plastics and a wide range of consumer products, phthalates are also found in delayed-release medications. 

The study, published by Ahern and colleagues at Aarhus University and Odense University Hospital in Denmark in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, suggests that exposure to medication-associated phthalates may contribute to the development of some childhood cancers, and that minimizing exposure to phthalates may help prevent some childhood cancers in the future.

The researchers measured the association between gestational and childhood phthalate exposures and childhood cancer incidence using data from the Danish Medical Birth Registry, the Danish Medicines Agency, and the Danish Cancer Registry from all live births between 1997 and 2017, totaling nearly 1.3 million children. Among the 2,027 cases of childhood cancer, researchers measured associations between gestational and childhood phthalate exposure and the incidence of specific cancers.

Childhood, but not gestational (in utero) phthalate exposure was associated with 20 percent higher rate of childhood cancer overall, with a nearly three-fold higher rate of osteosarcoma diagnosis and a two-fold higher rate of lymphoma diagnosis.

Read the full article.

Pictured above: A photo of blue- and yellow-colored medication capsules. (Stock image from Creative Commons)

New Service Offers Easier Access to Elsevier-Controlled Publications

For decades the biomedical community has dealt with a scientific publishing system that exclusively owns the copyright on any published material and restricts reader access to those articles. Scientific authors sign over all rights and sometimes have to pay the publisher to re-use their own research. Even government-funded research that results in published literature hasn’t been freely accessible immediately upon publication to everyone who needs and wants those results.

At UVM, that situation has complicated access to new articles in journals controlled by Elsevier, the Netherlands-based company that specializes in scientific publications, since 2020. Now, the Dana Medical Library is offering a new document delivery service, called Article Galaxy, that will make it easier for Larner faculty, students, and affiliates to request journal articles, including those from Elsevier publications, and have them delivered to their email inbox within a day ­– frequently sooner.

The process for utilizing Article Galaxy is covered on the Dana Library's blog and includes a step-by-step video to guide users.

Pictured above: A photo of a laptop showing the Dana Medical Library blog post about Article Galaxy.

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