Office of Medical Communications

(DECEMBER 9, 2019) Associate Professor of Nursing Jennifer Laurent, Ph.D., FNP, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry Scott Mackey, Ph.D., were featured in an Associated Press story about their JAMA Pediatrics study looking at BMI and brain function that was picked up by multiple national outlets, including the New York Times.

(DECEMBER 4, 2019) A study published in JAMA Network Open last week and coauthored by Timothy Plante, M.D., Asst. Prof of Medicine, and Daniel Silverman, M.D., cardiology fellows, has been covered fairly widely in the media, including U.S. News & World Report, HealthDay News and Breitbart.

(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.

On Wednesday, December 11, 2019, the University of Vermont Graduate College and UVM Graduate Student Senate hosted the annual Graduate Hooding Ceremony at the Ira Allen Chapel. Among the attendees were 14 master and doctor of philosophy graduates from the UVM Larner College of Medicine. They are part of a cohort of 41 students graduating from the College's master and doctor of philosophy programs in the 2019-2020 academic year.

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.

A new publication by UVM Clinical Instructor in Medicine Daniel Silverman, M.D., and Assistant Professor of Medicine Timothy Plante, M.D., M.H.S., in JAMA Network Open links use of beta-blockers to heart failure hospitalizations among those with this common “stiff heart” heart failure sub-type.

Two University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine faculty have been named to a list 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. Researchers on the list are in the top 1 percent of all scholars whose work has been cited. The prestigious Highly Cited Researchers list is compiled and published annually by Clarivate Analytics.

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.

A study that evaluated opioid prescribing patterns at the University of Vermont Medical Center (UVMMC) before and after state-mandated regulations went into effect was presented by UVM Larner College of Medicine Clinical Instructor of Surgery Mayo Fujii, M.D., M.S., at the American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress 2019.

On October 25, 1976, Mike Cross joined UVM’s custodial services team, working alongside his father in the College of Medicine’s Given Building. As a young man, Mike Cross says he was shy. That characterization might come as a surprise to the hundreds of Larner College of Medicine students, faculty, staff, and alumni who have come to call the longtime University of Vermont staffer their friend over the past 43 years.

The Larner College of Medicine's fourth annual "Celebrating Excellence in Research" series featured two days of presentations and recognition designed to highlight research performed by junior faculty, senior faculty, postdoctoral trainees, and graduate students at the College.

Once a week, second-year medical students Noorin Damji and Kristina Valentine drive north to rural communities in Franklin County, Vt., in a well-stocked mobile outreach van to deliver free packs of sterile hypodermic syringes, fentanyl testing strips, and Narcan to people who inject drugs. This effort is known in public health as harm reduction.

Steve Firestone, M.D.’69, has been an annual donor to the University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine since the 1970s, and in the early 2000s, donated artwork to help enhance the students’ learning environment. When plans began to take shape for a new biomedical research facility at the College, Firestone was inspired to step forward with his first major gift to the University. And, as over two hundred attendees learned in a ceremony held at the Larner College of Medicine earlier this month, that gift is an important one.

Anne Dixon, M.A., BM BCh, professor of medicine and division chief of pulmonary disease & critical care medicine at the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont, has been named the new director of the Vermont Lung Center.

It was a beautiful fall day of education and inspiration at the 22nd annual Women’s Health and Cancer Conference. More than 800 patients, providers, exhibitors and family members took part in this one-day, free event.

New Guidelines for Long-Term Use of Opioids