University of Vermont pediatric cardiologist Niels Giddins, M.D., is featured in a news story about the American Heart Association's February 2016 "Little Hats, Big Hearts" campaign to increase awareness about congenital heart defects in newborns. Giddins, an associate professor of pediatrics, commented that structural problems in the heart can often appear following a seemingly healthy and normal birth. The story's video footage, taken at the UVM Medical Center's Mother-Baby Unit, also featured Molly Rideout, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics.

James Hebert, M.D., UVM professor of surgery, authored an editorial discussing the gross underfunding of Medicaid in the state of Vermont and a newly-proposed 2.35 percent tax on independent physicians, which threatens to put non-hospital employed doctors “out of business and leave some Vermonters without care.”

An editorial in the Salt Lake City, Utah Deseret News about sentences for juveniles features comments from David Fassler, M.D., clinical professor of psychiatry and Burlington, Vt. child and adolescent psychiatrist.

On September 21, 2016, the National Institutes of Health announced $157 million in awards in fiscal year 2016 to launch a seven-year initiative called Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO). The ECHO program will investigate how exposure to a range of environmental factors in early development — from conception through early childhood — influences the health of children and adolescents.

The University of Vermont announced today an estate commitment with an estimated current market value of $66 million from UVM dual-degree alum and Vermont native Robert Larner ’39, M.D.’42, and his wife, Helen. The commitment to donate – the largest gift ever to a public university in New England – caps decades of philanthropic support from the Larners, whose lifetime giving now will likely reach $100 million.