Office of Medical Communications

Reviews from January’s Emergency Medicine Update in Stowe have been wildly over the top. By all accounts, the conference was a great success. Drawing participants from 20 states, the program provided dozens of presentations in addition to optional workshops. Attendees were happy with the short-talk format.

Research findings, published in JAMA Network Open and led by University of Vermont Cancer Center researcher Brian Sprague, Ph.D., show that breast cancer screening with digital breast tomosynthesis (also known as 3D mammography) improves breast cancer screening performance among most radiologists.

(MARCH 30, 2020) Expert advice from Professor of Medicine and Director of Clinical Ethics Tim Lahey, M.D., M.M.Sc., has been featured in multiple local, regional and national media outlets, including the New York Times and Medium.

(MARCH 27, 2020) Local television station NBC 5 aired a story about Meals on Wheels volunteers helping deliver food to seniors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Second-year medical student Richard Brach, who was featured in the story, says that since the College of Medicine's move to remote learning, he has some time in his schedule to help out in the community.

Dear Larner Community: I am writing to provide further updates on the Larner College of Medicine during these changing and challenging times. For the first time, this is being written at home, as I adhere to our Governor’s order and good public health practice in this difficult time. Medical Education: The education of the next generation of physicians, continues unabated. We just finished our third week of entirely remote classroom education, for which we were well prepared by our commitment to active learning. For the time being, and consistent with AAMC recommendations, all medical student participation in clinical care has been suspended. For our M1 students this means only that “Doctoring in Vermont” is on hold. The M2 class has a delay in initiating clerkships, made up for by the choice of a few non-clinical courses including Medical Spanish and a new public health project, “Pandemic Response: Understanding COVID 19”. Our M3 students just finished a two-week non-clinical course “Prep 4 Practice”, delivered with synchronous (Zoom) and asynchronous teaching methods. And our M4 students, coming off the heels of a successful virtual Match Day event and anticipating graduation in May, are completing non-clinical duties to fulfill their graduation requirements; any modifications of our curriculum will undergo review by our Medical Curriculum Committee, consistent with guidance from the AAMC and LCME.

Gary Ward, Ph.D., professor of microbiology and molecular genetics at the UVM Larner College of Medicine has been working to make scholarly research available to those who would benefit from the information. In a story published in Vermont Medicine, Dr. Ward recounts the precise moment he decided to champion for change in scientific publishing. Read more about his story here from Vermont Medicine Fall 2019 edition.

(MARCH 26, 2020) Joshua Farkas, M.D., associate professor of medicine in the Division of Pulmonary Disease & Critical Care Medicine, was quoted in a New York Times article, titled "‘The Other Option Is Death’: New York Starts Sharing of Ventilators."

(MARCH 24, 2020) James Hudziak, M.D., professor of psychiatry and pediatrics, chief of child psychiatry, and director of the Vermont Center for Children, Youth, and Families, provides advice to coaches on how to continue working with their teams using virtual sessions in a Washington Post article.

MARCH 22, 2020) Professor of Medicine in the Hematology/Oncology Division, Mary Cushman, M.D., M.Sc. was quoted in a recent Healthline article, titled "Does Your Blood Type Increase Your Risk for Coronavirus?"

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.

As this unprecedented pandemic unfolds, I want to provide this update and word of thanks to all of you.

(MARCH 13, 2020) Majid Sadigh, M.D., Director of the Global Health program at the University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine was quoted in a Fox News article regarding the recent coronavirus outbreak and the importance of people following best practices put forth by the CDC and local officials.

(MARCH 12, 2020) The University of Vermont Medical Center held a press conference on March 12 regarding its first presumptive positive case of COVID-19, which was widely covered by local and regional media.

Richard L. Page, M.D., Dean of the Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine at The University of Vermont, has announced that, following a national search, Christa Zehle, M.D., has accepted the position of Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education at the College. Dr. Zehle, who has served as Interim Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education at Larner since January 2019, assumes the new role effective immediately.

The Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont held its first-ever event to celebrate and recognize achievements in gender equity on March 4, 2020. Governor Madeleine Kunin provided a keynote address, followed by an awards ceremony at which Ramsey Herrington, M.D., Mary Cushman, M.D., M.Sc., Debra Leonard, M.D., Ph.D., and Lauren Elizabeth Faricy, M.D., were recognized.

(MARCH 10, 2020) Tim Lahey, M.D., professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Disease at the UVM Larner College of Medicine and director of clinical ethics at the UVM Medical Center, is featured in a WCAX news story about UVM Medical Center actions and preparations for dealing with the coronavirus.

​Charles Irvin, Ph.D., received the inaugural W. Fred Taylor PhD Award in recognition of his significant contributions to enhance the impact of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Institutional Development Award (IDeA) Program at the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR)/Institutional Development Award (IDeA) Coalition and Foundation Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. on February 24, 2020.

From the tiniest ticks of genetic expression to the sweep of organ systems, medical students gain a deep understanding of human body function. They spend hundreds of hours learning how to use tools and technologies, from stethoscopes to point of care ultrasound, to deliver the best patient care they can. However, when it comes to thorny societal issues like the intersection of race and class in medicine, unequal access to health care, and the outsized toll chronic disease can take on marginalized populations, medical students have historically had little opportunity to engage.