Office of Primary Care and Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) Program

(MAY 10, 2023) Natasha Withers, D.O., clinical assistant professor of family medicine, will soon start treating depression with a mind-altering drug that’s shown promise in helping people who don’t respond to traditional medicine — despite lingering questions about the drug’s long-term safety and effectiveness — Seven Days reported.

(MAY 10, 2023) With the COVID-19 public health emergency expiring on the national level, WCAX-TV interviewed Vermont Health Commissioner Mark Levine, M.D., associate dean for graduate medical education and professor of medicine, and Jan Carney, M.D., M.P.H., associate dean of public health and health policy and professor of medicine, about what changes Vermonters can expect.

(MAY 5, 2023) Whether or not the COVID-19 pandemic is over, the mental health crisis for young people that spiked over the past two years continues, child psychiatrist Andrew Rosenfeld, M.D., associate professor of psychiatry and pediatrics, told WCAX-TV.

(MAY 3, 2023) Vermont has become one of the only states in the nation to grant out-of-staters the right to exercise medical aid-in-dying. Palliative medicine specialist Diana Barnard, M.D., associate professor of family medicine — the Middlebury doctor who’s credited with helping to change the law — says it’s a victory for equal access to health care, WCAX-TV reported. (Click on headline for more.)

(MAY 3, 2023) Judith Shaw, Ed.D., M.P.H., RN, FAAP, professor emerita of pediatrics, told Healio that the annual Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting, held April 28–May 1 in Washington, D.C., “highlights a broad issue of interest across the full spectrum of pediatric research, science, and education.” Shaw served as program chair for the 2023 conference.

(MAY 2, 2023) Jan Carney, M.D., M.P.H., associate dean for public health and health policy, professor of medicine, and director of the graduate public health program at Larner, was interviewed by WalletHub about the future of the nursing profession and how recent graduates can find success.

(APRIL 30, 2023) According to Medical Dialogues, a new study by pulmonologist Anne Dixon, B.M.B.Ch., professor and interim chair of medicine, and colleagues has found that people with asthma and obesity have significant dysfunction in the distal airways at baseline that worsens with methacholine.

(APRIL 30, 2023) New research led by neonatologist Leslie Young, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics, shows that babies exposed to opioids in the womb have shorter hospital stays when care includes more parent involvement and a quieter environment, the Associated Press reported.

(APRIL 26, 2023) Health care professionals play a critical role in promoting safe firearm storage, Associate Professor of Pediatrics Thomas Delaney, Ph.D., — who does suicide prevention work at the Larner College of Medicine — told Vox.

(APRIL 26, 2023) CBS3 reported that Vermont legislators are contemplating a proposal to ban menthol and flavored tobacco products, including vapes, something medical experts say is crucial to preventing problems later in life. “It’s not a clear risk or outcome when you start smoking or vaping when you’re 16-17 years old. These are things that start to cause problems when you’re 40, 50, 60 years old,” said cardiologist Prospero Gogo, M.D., professor of medicine.

(APRIL 25, 2023) Mary Cushman, M.D., M.Sc., professor of medicine and of pathology & laboratory medicine, is a co-author of a study on COVID-19 vaccines and their alleged risk of causing blood clots that was highlighted in World Today News.

(APRIL 21, 2023) An internal memo obtained by VTDigger, dated April 20 and signed by Health Commissioner and Larner Professor of Medicine Mark Levine, M.D., laid out a plan to stockpile a two-year supply of mifepristone, one of two pills taken in tandem to induce an abortion.

(APRIL 20, 2023) Kae Ravichandran ’25 won the newly created nonbinary division at the 2023 Boston Marathon on April 17 with a time of 2 hours and 38 minutes, NBC5 and numerous other media outlets reported.

(APRIL 19, 2023) Associate Professor of Psychiatry Andrew Rosenfeld, M.D., who for the past decade has focused his research on the impacts of screen time on our brains, spoke to WCAX-TV about weighing the costs and benefits of having time away from screens.

(APRIL 17, 2023) A study by Professor of Medicine Anne Dixon, B.M.B.Ch., and colleagues found that using oscillometry testing may allow physicians to identify patients with asthma and obesity who have a phenotype that may be related to worse symptoms and more severe disease, Healio.com reported.

(APRIL 3, 2023) Judith Shaw, Ed.D., M.P.H., RN, FAAP, professor emeritus of pediatrics and PAS program chair, spoke to Yahoo Finance about the upcoming Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) 2023 Meeting in Washington, D.C., April 27 – May 1, the largest and most prestigious pediatric research meeting in the world.

(MARCH 31, 2023) Elizabeth Cote, director of the Office of Primary Care and Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) Program at the Larner College of Medicine, spoke to NBC5 during National AHEC Workforce Development Week.

(MARCH 30, 2023) Researchers at the UVM Cancer Center released the findings of a study showing fewer women being screened for breast cancer, NBC5 reported. The study reports that Vermont had the second-largest drop in the entire country in screenings for women over the age of 40 between 2009 and 2018.

(MARCH 29, 2023) Palliative medicine specialist Diana Barnard, M.D., associate professor of family medicine, commented in a New York Times article about a terminally ill Connecticut woman’s desire to take advantage of a Vermont law that allows certain in-state residents to seek and self-administer a lethal dose of medication to hasten their death.

(MARCH 24, 2023) Commenting to Vermont Public on the social benefits of a new free-form game designed for people with dementia, John Steele Taylor, M.D., assistant professor of neurological sciences, said being socially isolated is “one of the worst things possible for the brain.” (Click on headline for more.)