Division of General Internal Medicine

Department of Medicine

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.

The Larner College of Medicine's fourth annual "Celebrating Excellence in Research" series featured two days of presentations and recognition designed to highlight research performed by junior faculty, senior faculty, postdoctoral trainees, and graduate students at the College.

Anne Dixon, M.A., BM BCh, professor of medicine and division chief of pulmonary disease & critical care medicine at the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont, has been named the new director of the Vermont Lung Center.

(OCTOBER 15, 2019) Several news outlets recently covered a research study on flavored e-cigarettes and asthma published in Nature Scientific Reports by Larner faculty and trainees, including senior author and Professor of Medicine Charles Irvin, Ph.D. The study was funded through UVM's Tobacco Center on Regulatory Science (TCORS) grant.

(OCTOBER 7, 2019) Coverage of recommendations from an Endocrine Society-convened panel of diabetes experts published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society and led by Professor of Medicine and Director of Endocinology, Diabetes & Metabolism John Leahy, M.D., received coverage in several media outlets.

UVM’s Faculty Activity Network, or FAN, presents a unique opportunity to find collaborators in different disciplines. The program comes with a perk: a lunch in Waterman Manor after the lab session with Richard Galbraith, M.D., Ph.D., whose only cost for participants is to weather the friendly interrogation the research vice president launches at his lunch companions.

(AUGUST 7, 2019) Prema Menon, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine and director of the Interstitial Lung Disease Clinic at the University of Vermont Medical Center, was featured in a WCAX-TV Channel 3 segment about the Medical Center's new designation from the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation as a member of their Care Center Network.

Interim Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education and Associate Dean for Students Christa Zehle, M.D., recently announced the appointments of Shaden Eldakar-Hein, M.D., M.S., associate professor of medicine, and Prema Menon, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine, as interim assistant deans for students in the Office of Medical Student Education.

​Gordon Jensen, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine and senior associate dean for research at the University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine, has been appointed to a parallel role as University of Vermont Health Network Director of Research by John Brumsted, M.D., CEO of the UVM Health Network.

Associate Dean for Public Health Jan K. Carney, M.D., M.P.H., has been named associate dean for public health and health policy and senior advisor to the dean. In addition, she will serve as Liaison Committee for Medical Education (LCME) faculty accreditation lead for the College’s 2021 site visit for reaccreditation.

(JUNE 11, 2019) Assistant Professor of Medicine and rheumatologist Narandra Bethina, M.D., is featured in an article in Creaky Joints regarding arthritis in the ankle.

(MAY 29, 2019) Devika Singh, M.D., UVM assistant professor of medicine and UVM Medical Center infectious disease specialist was interviewed at the Larner College of Medicine in April for a May 29th WCAX-VT story about the need to be more proactive with HIV testing for Vermont patients.

(MAY 28, 2019) Dean Richard L. Page, M.D., was the subject of a recent NBC5 story, titled “Medical school dean continues to see patients, promotes professionalism."

(April 24, 2019) WCAX featured the Larner College of Medicine research studies currently be conducted in relation to slowing the progressing of pulmonary fibrosis. Prema Menon, M.D., UVM assistant professor of medicine, spoke about the study saying, "We're creating these mini lungs and looking at if these new patented catalysts can actually reverse fibrosis in humans, which is such a step forward in the research".

More than a dozen Larner College of Medicine faculty and scientists were recognized during the awards portion of the 14th annual Invention to Venture (I2V) conference April 5, 2019.

Investigators in UVM's Vaccine Testing Center and Center for Translational Global Infectious Disease Research (TGIR) have uncovered details of the human immune response to infection with dengue - a close "cousin" of the Zika virus - which 40 percent of the global population is at risk for contracting. Their study findings were reported recently in the Lancet’s open-access journal EBioMedicine.

On Monday, April 8, Professor of Medicine Jason Bates, Ph.D., Sc.D., a world-class researcher and internationally recognized expert in the field of lung mechanics, will present his Research Laureate lecture, titled “A Physicist’s Approach to the Lung,” at noon in the Sullivan Classroom in the Medical Education Center at the Larner College of Medicine.

(MARCH 15, 2019) The American Heart Association recently featured comments by Mary Cushman, M.D., UVM professor of medicine, in a story highlighting a Danish study that found a correlation between childhood obesity and the development of blood clots in adulthood.

Twenty years ago, a small local chapter of the American Lung Association took on the daring task of bringing an Airways Clinical Research Center (ACRC) to Vermont. On February 28, clinicians, patients, donors, staff and board members gathered to celebrate two decades of lung disease treatment research in the only ACRC in a rural area - the Vermont Lung Center at UVM's ACRC, part of the nation’s largest not-for-profit network of clinical research centers dedicated to asthma and COPD treatment.