Office of Medical Communications

Sprague's study, “Association Between False-Positive Results and Return to Screening Mammography in the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium Cohort,” published recently in the Annals of Internal Medicine, found that false-positive mammogram results are discouraging many women from returning for important follow-up screenings. Researchers say the additional imaging or biopsies performed after a suspicious finding often cause significant anxiety.

(SEPTEMBER 11, 2024) Brian Cunniff, Ph.D., assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, spoke with WCAX-TV about the long-term health effects of 9/11 on first responders.

(SEPTEMBER 10, 2024) News Medical Life Sciences featured a study led by Stephen Higgins, Ph.D., professor and vice chair of psychiatry, on flavored e-cigarettes.

(SEPTEMBER 10, 2024) Maureen Leahy, M.Ed., UVM Health Network director of psychiatry and neurology health care services, and Robert Althoff, Ph.D., M.D., professor and chair of psychiatry, commented to NBC5 about a new Mental Health Urgent Care Center opening soon in Burlington.

On Sunday, September 9, the Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine, in collaboration with the UVM Cancer Center, the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, UVM’s Prism organization, and the UVM Health Network, proudly participated in Burlington’s 41st annual Pride Parade.

(SEPTEMBER 9, 2024) Infectious disease specialist Timothy Lahey, M.D., M.M.Sc., spoke to the Vermont Cynic about Vermont Department of Health warnings about the presence of eastern equine encephalitis, or EEE, in the local area.

(SEPTEMBER 9, 2024) Lauren MacAfee, M.D., M.Sc., associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences, spoke to WCAX-TV about new CDC guidelines to address the pain often associated with IUD placement.

(SEPTEMBER 8, 2024) Janet Franz, creative content manager for Larner’s Office of Medical Communications, was interviewed by NBC5 for a segment on the 41st annual Pride Parade in Burlington.

(SEPTEMBER 3, 2024) James Stafford, Ph.D., assistant professor of neurological sciences, along with Kirk Dombrowski, vice president for research and economic development at UVM, and pathology and laboratory medicine senior research technician Sandra May, were featured in a VT Digger article about the launch of a new startup incubator space in Colchester.

Last month at Vermont State University’s Castleton and Lyndon campuses, 11 Larner medical student volunteers from the Class of 2027—Lajla Badnjević, Jeremiah Bates, Shannon Bennett, Alison Chivers, Aaron Dees, Lindsey Gleason, Ian Kent, Taylor Krause, Elizabeth Medve, Chloe Ruscilli, and Eli Zettler—served as Southern Vermont Area Health Education Center (AHEC) student mentors at the week-long summer Governor’s Institutes of Vermont (GIV) Health and Medicine Institute.

(SEPTEMBER 4, 2024) Bader Chaarani, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychiatry, was quoted in a Tulalip News story about the community benefits of connecting kids and cops through video games.

Local and health system-wide investments in care and treatment for patients across Vermont and northern New York who suffer from a collection of rare, progressive and deadly heart-and-lung related conditions have earned University of Vermont Medical Center’s Pulmonary Hypertension Program national accreditation as a Pulmonary Hypertension Care Center (PHCC) – a designation that highlights the program’s clinical excellence and will improve access to national clinical trials and support groups for patients across the rural region served by the hospital.

(SEPTEMBER 3, 2024) HealthDay featured a study by Brian Sprague, Ph.D., professor of surgery, et al. investigating the effect of false-positive mammogram results on women’s willingness to return for future screening.

Art Papier, M.D.’88, was a first-year medical student when he attended a lecture by the late Lawrence Weed, M.D., which focused on the advantages of keeping detailed, shareable medical records to improve patient care. Papier was fascinated by Weed’s work. That fascination eventually led Papier to create a clinical decision tool that visually shows, describes, and categorizes thousands of diseases. The tool, VisualDx, today is used in clinics and medical schools throughout the nation and across the globe. It delivers time-sensitive, clinically relevant information for diagnosing and treating common and rare diseases and brings public health to the point of care.

Larner students work with real patients in the first year of medical school. In Doctoring in Vermont, a course that pairs students with physicians in the community, they provide direct patient care and practice history-taking and examination skills. First-year students also shadow nurses in the hospital, investigate social determinants of health, and do clinical work in community settings.

(AUGUST 31, 2024) In a column on injury prevention for the Adirondack Daily Enterprise, Lewis First, M.D., M.S., professor and chair of pediatrics, explains how to put together a family first aid kit.

(AUGUST 28, 2024) Stephen Leffler, M.D.’90, president and COO of the UVM Medical Center, was quoted by the Valley News in an article on Vermont’s ever-escalating health insurance prices.