Office of Medical Communications

Cholera outbreaks continue to plague areas like South Sudan, Eastern Uganda, and Kerala, India, but there’s hope for addressing this infectious disease: Last month, the Food and Drug Administration approved the only vaccine for use in the U.S. to protect against cholera infection. The University of Vermont’s Vaccine Testing Center was one of three national sites to test the vaccine – called Vaxchora – for effectiveness.

In May, Vermont became the 28th state to adopt legislation mandating reporting of breast density information to patients. New University of Vermont (UVM) research - published July 18, 2016 in the Annals of Internal Medicine - shows that density assessment, as currently practiced, is subjective and highly variable across radiologists and warns of the implications of relying on the subjective measurement for clinical decision-making for breast cancer screening.

The National Institutes of Health Center for Scientific Review has announced that internationally renowned immunobiologist Mercedes Rincon, Ph.D., University of Vermont professor of medicine, has been appointed chairperson of the Cellular and Molecular Immunology-A Study Section, Center for Scientific Review, the portal for National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant applications. She is serving a one-year term from July 1, 2016 through June 30, 2017.

Steve Leffler, M.D., is Chief Medical Officer at the University of Vermont Medical Center. He posted the following information on the investments in housing and health the UVM Medical Center has made to the Vermont community on the UVM Medical Center HealthSource blog.

Clear communication between a doctor and patient is essential, especially when patients with advanced cancer wish to participate in decision-making about their medical treatment options, and trade-offs between quality and quantity of life emerge.

The University of Vermont Foundation set new records in its fundraising activities on behalf of the university during the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2016, surpassing historic milestones reached a year ago for both commitments and receipts from donors.

On April 15, the University of Vermont Foundation announced a historically significant gift from philanthropist and College of Medicine alumnus Robert Larner, M.D.'42, and his wife, Helen Larner -- $19.7 million in commercial property and cash to further their commitment to ensuring excellence in medical education at UVM.

Dr. Ruth Seeler earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Vermont in 1958 and her M.D. from UVM's College of Medicine in 1962 and is currently emerita professor of pediatric hematology-oncology at the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago.

For the high school student who loves biology or chemistry and has a penchant for helping people, the pre-med path is not the only option available. Exposing future undergraduates to a variety of specialties, roles, and vocations in medicine is the primary goal of the new summer Health & Medicine Academy at the University of Vermont, a three-college-credit course taught by UVM College of Medicine faculty members that will take place in July.

Artist-turned-medical-student Ross Sayadi ’17 approaches most things with one important question in mind: “Why?”

Two molecular physiologists at the University of Vermont (UVM) have taken a step closer toward a possible new treatment to address the underlying root cause of familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, an inherited disease that causes the heart muscle to thicken and struggle to pump blood.

The University of Vermont honored several faculty members and graduate students responsible for nine patents at the 2016 annual Invention 2 Venture (I2V) conference on April 7. Three faculty members from the College of Medicine were honored for their patents, which were awarded in the year since the last I2V conference was held in April 2015.

Jen Lavoie’s daughter began showing symptoms of Crohn’s disease at age nine, but most of her clinicians found nothing wrong with her, and one suggested the girl’s gastrointestinal discomfort was “all in her head,” a symptom of stress.

Kidney stones occur in one out of 11 people during a lifetime. The number of people forming stones has doubled in the past 15 years. A person who has had a kidney stone has a 50 percent chance of forming another stone over 5 to 10 years. The good news is that for many people, another kidney stone can be prevented or the number reduced by simple measures.

In honor of World Health Day, the University of Vermont College of Medicine hosted nine distinguished international guests from Russia, Dominican Republic, Vietnam and Uganda on Monday, April 4 and Tuesday, April 5, 2016 for a “Celebration of Global Health Day” featuring a broad range of activities.

University of Vermont (UVM) medical students, along with students from the Northeast Medical Student Queer Alliance (NMSQA), are promoting #PushForPronouns on social media as part of National LGBT Health Awareness Week.

A team of University of Vermont researchers has pinpointed a unique self-controlling characteristic of an arenavirus that offers hope of a possible vaccine for now-untreatable infections.

University of Vermont medical students, residents and faculty gathered March 22, 2018 to celebrate the Class of 2017’s completion of the Clerkship level of the Vermont Integrated Curriculum, induct new student members into the Gold Humanism Honor Society, and formally recognize their mentors through the presentation of the Arnold P. Gold Foundation Humanism and Excellence in Teaching Award.

Banana suturing, splint-making and stethoscopes were on the agenda at the second annual Med Mentors Health Career Exploration Day on March 12, where College of Medicine students became teachers for more than 80 area high school students.

Researchers might make wonderful discoveries in the lab, but if those ideas never reach the clinical arena, they can’t help patients.