Larner College of Medicine students Brittany Rocque '18 and Adam Petchers '18 stand in front of their Public Health Project poster at the 2016 APHA Annual Meeting in Denver. (Courtesy photo)

Twelve members of The Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine at The University of Vermont’s Class of 2018 traveled to Denver, Colo. Oct. 31 through Nov. 2 to present their groups’ Public Health Projects at the American Public Health Association 2016 Annual Meeting.

APHA’s Annual Meeting is the largest public health gathering in the world, bringing together the most influential health advocates, researchers, practitioners and other specialists. Nearly 12,000 public health officials and experts from around the world attended the 2016 conference, which centered on the theme “Creating the Healthiest Nation: Ensuring the Right to Health.”

Ten students displayed their projects during the meeting’s poster sessions, while two students – Alison Mercier and Yazen Qumisyeh – had the opportunity to deliver an oral presentation on their project on the benefits and barriers to providing food in childcare programs in Vermont.

Poster presenters and topics included: Ian Grant – oral health & school-based programs; Miles Grunvald – art intervention’s effect on pediatric anxiety & pain; Theo Cisu – drug addiction recovery & comorbidities; Stefan Wheat – human trafficking electronic screening tool; Kelsey Sullivan – naturopathic physicians’ attitudes on vaccinations & primary care; Sherilyn DeStefano – food shelf-based social worker need; Theresa Flanagan – attitudes and barriers to prescribing PrEP for HIV Prevention; Lauren Haggerty – restaurant perspectives on creating heart-healthy kids’ meals; and Brittany Rocque and Adam Petchers – physician barriers to providing office-based opioid treatment in Chittenden County, Vt.

Learn more about the Larner College of Medicine’s Public Health Projects course.