Office of Medical Communications

The Class of 2022 medical students marked their completion of the first level of the Vermont Integrated Curriculum at the annual Foundations Celebration event January 30, 2020. The event provides an opportunity for second-year medical students to join with faculty and staff and express their gratitude for the contributions of these College community members to their medical education journey.

Lee Rosen, Ph.D., assistant professor psychiatry and director of student well-being, recently published an essay, titled “Tumbling into Mindfulness–A Novice at Age 50,” in the November 2019 issue of The Snowboarder’s Journal. His essay explores how learning to snowboard as an adult forced him to practice the “growth mindset” he teaches to students and patients.

In the fall of 2019, more than 400 students from different health science professions came together over the course of three evening sessions to care for a dying patient—virtually. Medical and nursing students, physical therapy doctoral candidates, social workers-in-training, speech pathology trainees and pharmacy students from the Albany College of Pharmacy watched standardized patients on screen as they played the roles of a patient with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, family members, and health care providers.

The Wellness Committee, Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society, and Gold Humanism Honor Society at the University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine hosted the second annual “StorySlamRX – Voices in Medicine” event on January 23 from 6:30 to 9 p.m. in the Hoehl Gallery in the Health Science Research Facility.

​The Teaching Academy at the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont held its annual Snow Season Education Retreat on January 15-16, 2020 in the College’s Medical Education Center and UVM Davis Center. Highlights included an Induction Ceremony for 2019 new members and advanced members, the presentation of the annual Teaching and Education Awards, and the first annual Snow Season Debate, moderated by Professor and Chair of Pediatrics Lewis First, M.D.

As a child, James Huang, M.D.'09, witnessed his parents’ struggle to access the health care they needed, memories that now fuel his life’s work.

At the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont, the impact of generous gifts from alumni and other friends of the College are clearly illustrated by our students, who are grateful for donor support that has afforded them the opportunity to attend and present at national conferences through travel awards, conduct research trough fellowship awards, and scholarships.

(DECEMBER 9, 2019) News about a study on machine learning and end-of-life conversations led by Robert Gramling, M.D., D.Sc., Miller Chair in Palliative Medicine, and published in the journal Patient Education and Counseling, was picked up by several online news outlets.

(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.