Division of General Internal Medicine Research

Department of Medicine

Two University of Vermont research teams have been awarded SPARK-VT grants by the university to help commercialize their work and move it a step closer to the marketplace, following a faculty pitch competition held June 16, 2017.

Patients whose hearts have a faulty mitral valve and are considered high risk for open-heart surgery now have a treatment option offered by cardiologists at the University of Vermont Medical Center. Called Transcatheter Mitral Valve Repair (TMVR), the procedure uses a catheter inserted through a vein in the leg to reach the heart and make the repair. The mitral valve performs a check-valve function and is located between the left atrium, where blood enters the heart from the lungs, and the left ventricle, which pumps the blood to your entire body.

Michael LaMantia, M.D., M.P.H., associate professor of medicine and section head of geriatric medicine at the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont, was among 18 leading healthcare professionals honored as elected AGS Fellows at the 2017 American Geriatrics Society (AGS) Annual Scientific Meeting held May 18-20 in San Antonio, Texas.

The “Stem Cells, Cell Therapies, and Bioengineering in Lung Biology and Diseases” conference at the University of Vermont now offers a new, competitive travel scholarship that honors the legacy of late Alpha-1 Foundation co-founder John W. Walsh, who passed away March 7, 2017.

Larner College of Medicine Research Laureate and University Distinguished Professor of Medicine Ralph Budd, M.D., will present the inaugural Research Laureate Lecture on May 9, 2017 at 4:30 p.m. in the Sullivan Classroom in the Medical Education Center. His talk is titled “The El Greco Lesson: 33 Years of Thinking Lupus.”

Like spicy food? If so, you might live longer, say researchers at the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont, who found that consumption of hot red chili peppers is associated with a 13 percent reduction in total mortality – primarily in deaths due to heart disease or stroke – in a large prospective study.

On January 10, 2017, the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH), in partnership with John Wiley and Sons, Inc., announced the launch of the Society’s new open access journal, Research and Practice in Thrombosis and Haemostasis (RPTH), with its inaugural issue to publish in conjunction with the meeting of the ISTH 2017 Congress in Berlin, Germany, which will take place July 8 to 13, 2017.

The newest members of the Teaching Academy at The Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine at The University of Vermont were inducted during a ceremony and dinner held January 5, 2017 that kicked off the Snow Season Education Retreat at the Sheraton Burlington Hotel and Conference Center.

On Wednesday, January 4, 2017, Vermont Governor Phil Scott announced the appointment of Mark Levine, M.D., professor of medicine and associate dean for graduate medical education at the Larner College of Medicine at UVM, as Vermont's new Commissioner of Health.

Commentary authored by Jan Carney, M.D., M.P.H., UVM professor of medicine and associate dean for public health, discussing the myths and facts about e-cigarettes is featured in on VT Digger.

UVM College of Medicine faculty members James Hudziak, M.D., professor of psychiatry, pediatrics and medicine and director of the Vermont Center for Children, Youth & Families, and Jon Porter, M.D., clinical assistant professor of family medicine and director of the UVM Center for Health & Wellbeing, are featured in an article about UVM’s Wellness Environment (WE) program on NBCNews.com.

Winooski, Vt.-based BioTek Instruments announced August 31, 2016 that University of Vermont graduate student Christopher Ziegler is the recipient of the 2016 Norman R. Alpert Research Prize.

Traveling roughly 90 miles to the White River Junction, Vt.-based Veterans’ Administration Medical Center from the Burlington, Vt. area can be difficult, especially in winter. It’s even more challenging for the veteran who is living with chronic pain or has been diagnosed with a sleep disorder or cardiac arrhythmia.

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.

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.

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

Are we genetically doomed when the double helix we all identify with DNA breaks? No, say a team of researchers led by University of Vermont (UVM) immunologists, who discovered a novel mechanism that provides life support to cells while DNA double-strand break repairs are in progress.

Mary Cushman, M.D., M.Sc., UVM professor of medicine and director of the Thrombosis and Hemostasis Program at the UVM Medical Center discusses why elite athletes can develop abnormal blood clots.

Ralph Budd, M.D., professor of medicine and director of the Vermont Center for Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the University of Vermont College of Medicine, was recognized with the 2016 University Distinguished Professor Award during the University’s 215th Commencement Ceremony on May 22, 2016.