Division of Geriatric Medicine

Department of Medicine

(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.

On the fourth floor of the Given Building at the Larner College of Medicine, Adam Atherly, Ph.D., surveys the space outside of his newly-painted office. Two adjacent doors open into rooms with empty desks. A common area includes space for a few more cubicles with top-notch views of the Green Mountains. In one corner, a coat rack hangs on otherwise empty walls. Outside the glass door, a sign reads: UVM Center for Health Services Research. Although the offices may be a work-in-progress, the mission for the new center is clear: Foster cutting-edge research that improves the delivery of healthcare, leading to better population health in Vermont and across the country.

University of Vermont biomedical scientists Mary Cushman, M.D., M.Sc., Richard Page, M.D., and Russell Tracy, Ph.D., are among the most Highly Cited Researchers in 2018, according to a recently-released report compiled by Clarivate Analytics.

University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine faculty members Mary Cushman, M.D., and Richard L. Page, M.D., were honored with the Council on Clinical Cardiology (CLDC) Distinguished Achievement Award at the Couawards at the American Heart Association (AHA) 2018 Scientific Sessions in Chicago.

An innovative initiative that will use a public health approach to inform opioid prescribing policies will be launched in northern New England thanks to a new $339,000 grant to the Northern New England Clinical and Translational Research (NNE-CTR) Network from the National Institutes of Health.

Three innovative projects spanning the fields of regenerative medicine, electrophysiology, and infectious diseases were selected to receive SPARK-VT research funding following a June 22 proposal presentation meeting at which University of Vermont faculty applicants pitched ideas to a panel of consultants from the biomedical and biotech arena. The awardees include UVM Larner College of Medicine Department of Medicine faculty members Daniel Weiss, M.D., Ph.D., Jason Botten, Ph.D., and Peter Spector, M.D.

Harvey J. Grill, Ph.D., presented the Annual Stetson Lecture in Technological Advances in Medicine on Friday, September 14, 2018 in the UVM Davis Center’s Silver Maple Ballroom. Grill, a professor of behavioral neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania and director of the Obesity Unit at the Institute of Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, discussed “Treating the Hyperphagia Driving Obesity: Neural Mechanisms of Feeding Inhibition.”

Although malnutrition is a serious concern associated with adverse outcomes and cost, no single existing approach to malnutrition diagnosis has achieved broad global acceptance. Now, thanks to more than two years’ work by members of the Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) working group, a consensus report, which outlines five criteria for malnutrition, has just been published in the latest issue of both the Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition and Clinical Nutrition.

More than 150 people gathered for a formal investiture ceremony honoring the University of Vermont’s newest endowed faculty members and recognizing the donors who made the positions possible on August 21, 2018 at the UVM Alumni House. Michael LaMantia, M.D., M.P.H., was invested as the inaugural Holly and Bob Miller Chair in Memory and Aging and Rosemary Dale, Ed.D., A.P.R.N., was invested as the first Holly and Bob Miller Professor in Nursing Leadership.

Kathryn Huggett, Ph.D., director of the Teaching Academy at the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont, has announced the names of 16 new members of the Teaching Academy.

Vaccinations have begun in a first-in-human trial of an experimental live, attenuated Zika virus vaccine developed by scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health. The trial will enroll a total of 28 healthy, non-pregnant adults ages 18 to 50 at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Immunization Research in Baltimore, Md., and at the Vaccine Testing Center at the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont in Burlington.

The University of Vermont Center on Aging and UVM Geriatric Medicine program will host a presentation, titled “Caring for Caregivers and Transitions from Hospital to Home,” by international experts Horst Vollmar, M.D., M.P.H., and Mary Austrom, Ph.D., on August 3, 2018.

At the American Thoracic Society 2018 International Congress, held in May 2018, UVM E.L. Amidon Chair of Medicine Polly Parsons, M.D., was installed as president, and she and Larner College of Medicine colleagues Jason Bates, Ph.D., Sc.D., Anne Dixon, M.A., B.M., B.Ch., and Renee Stapleton, M.D., Ph.D., were inducted as the inaugural class of ATS Fellows.

Patricia King, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine at the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont, was elected chair of the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) at the organization’s 106th annual meeting in Charlotte, N.C., on April 28, 2018.