Department of Medicine

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.