Department of Family Medicine

Thanks to health outreach groundwork laid prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, farm worker communities across Vermont had access to on-site vaccine clinics through a partnership between UVM Extension, the Vermont Department of Health, UVM College of Nursing and Health Sciences, UVM Larner College of Medicine and UVM Medical Center.

In a salute to graduating medical students’ accomplishments and to honor the faculty and staff who have supported them during their medical education journey, the University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine launched a virtual 2021 Honors Celebration on May 6, 2021.

The Larner College of Medicine was ranked 24th for medical education in primary care and 13th for training in rural care in the 2022 U.S. News and World Report Best Graduate Schools rankings, released March 30, 2021.

A new study shows that individuals who receive stroke care at facilities that offer consults via stroke telemedicine, known as telestroke, fare better than patients who get stroke care at places without such services, according to researchers from the University of Vermont and the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School.

Medical education leaders and scholars gathered virtually on January 13 and 14, 2021 for the Larner College of Medicine Teaching Academy’s 2021 Induction and Award Ceremony and Snow Season Education Retreat. Co-presented with the University of Vermont Health Network Medical Group, the ceremony recognized medical educators and kicked off the annual education program, which this year featured several sessions on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Thomas Peterson, M.D., chair of the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine, was invested as the inaugural Morris Goldman ’29 MD’32 Professor of Family Medicine. The ceremony was the first of its kind to be held remotely, via Zoom, on August 13, 2020.

John King, M.D., M.P.H., professor and vice chair for academics and regional development in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine, has been appointed associate dean for continuing medical and interprofessional education (CMIE) at the institution.

On May 11, awardees from the Larner College of Medicine Class of 2020, faculty and staff were recognized through an online Honors Celebration featuring remarks from Dean Page and videotaped presentations of each award.

Class of 2002 UVM alumnus Ben Katz is a detective in the Vermont State Police’s major crimes unit whose work to investigate homicides, process crime scenes and interview witnesses has changed in the world of COVID-19. His wife, Megan Malgeri, a Class of 2012 alumna of the Larner College of Medicine and family medicine specialist, now sees most of her patients via telehealth visits. They are working to safely balance their roles as professionals and parents of two young children during the pandemic.

As president and CEO of a Delaware organization that includes major health systems and research universities, UVM medical alum and family physician Omar Khan, M.D. ’03, is at the frontlines of the COVID-19 response. He and his team are working to ramp up testing and treatment, source PPE for healthcare workers, and keep the community informed.

The phrase “keep your distance” has taken on a whole new and deeply important meaning in the era of COVID-19 and even Match Day, the annual senior medical student rite of passage, was not “immune” to honoring this behavior. On March 20, 2020, members of the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont’s Class of 2020 went virtual to ensure social distancing while celebrating the news of where they will be spending the next three to seven years training as residents following graduation.

With new funding from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, UVM Associate Professor of Medicine Halle Sobel, M.D., and Elly Riser, M.D., UVM clinical instructor in medicine, are working to bring training on treating opioid use disorder as a chronic condition to physicians at the beginning of their careers – during medical school.

​The Teaching Academy at the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont held its annual Snow Season Education Retreat on January 15-16, 2020 in the College’s Medical Education Center and UVM Davis Center. Highlights included an Induction Ceremony for 2019 new members and advanced members, the presentation of the annual Teaching and Education Awards, and the first annual Snow Season Debate, moderated by Professor and Chair of Pediatrics Lewis First, M.D.

(DECEMBER 9, 2019) News about a study on machine learning and end-of-life conversations led by Robert Gramling, M.D., D.Sc., Miller Chair in Palliative Medicine, and published in the journal Patient Education and Counseling, was picked up by several online news outlets.

(NOVEMBER 19, 2019) Coverage of the U.S. News & World Report's Healthcare of Tomorrow conference in Washington, D.C., included quotes from Alicia Jacobs, M.D., vice chair and associate professor of family medicine, who served on a panel addressing the opioid crisis and how hospitals and healthcare providers are approaching this epidemic. Jacobs discussed how the University of Vermont Medical Center began to address the opioid crisis and what steps they are taking to help the crisis. Read more at U.S. News & World Report and on the American Hospital Association website.

Researchers at the University of Vermont’s Vermont Conversation Lab, including Miller Chair of Palliative Medicine Robert Gramling, M.D., D.Sc., have used machine learning and natural language processing to better understand what conversations surrounding life-threatening and serious illnesses look like, in order to help healthcare providers improve their end-of-life communication. Their work was published December 9 in the journal Patient Education and Counselling.

The UVM Health Network is partnering with Invitae and LunaPBC on a pilot project to offer Genomic DNA Testing to patients as part of their clinical care. The pilot program is the beginning of an effort to increase the integration of genetic disease risks into routine medical care, which holds promise for providing Vermonters with valuable information to guide their health decisions.

(NOVEMBER 9, 2019) A study led by John McPartland, D.O., M.S., clinical assistant professor of family medicine, suggests that while cannabis is generally believed to have evolved in Asia and later dispersed to Europe by people, the plant was most likely indigenous to Europe long before humans were present.

(OCTOBER 7, 2019) A story about the University of Vermont’s Conversation Lab, “which uses machine learning to develop algorithms designed to optimize clinician-patient discussions of serious illness, palliative care and end-of-life care," led by Robert Gramling, M.D., associate professor of family medicine and Miller Chair in Palliative Medicinewas featured in Hospice News.

The Larner College of Medicine Global Health Program hosted three events during the week of September 23 that focused on the topic of migrant healthcare. Presenters included Jonathan Melk, M.D., CEO and chief medical officer for the Chiricauhua Community Health Centers in Douglas, Ariz., Darlene Melk, M.D., medical director of the Southern Arizona Children's Health Project and director of community pediatrics, and Naomi Wolcott-Maccausland, migrant health coordinator of Bridges to Health in UVM Extension.