Research

“Many doctors haven’t received training in exercise, nutrition, and holistic ways of taking care of yourself,” says first-year medical student Briana Leger. A new course, developed by a fourth-year student/Catamount athlete Alex Jenkins, aims to change that paradigm.

UVM Cancer Center researchers Sarah Nowak, Ph.D., and Brian Sprague, Ph.D., found that a 2009 U.S. Preventive Services Task Force change in guidelines led to an unintended consequence: a decline in mammography screening rates for all age groups, including the 50-74 group, which is most at risk of developing breast cancer and most in need of screenings. Their results were recently published in The American Journal of Preventative Medicine.

In fall 2022, public health warnings of a possible ”tripledemic” blared across news headlines due to an early-season surge in cases of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), reported to be the leading cause of infant hospitalizations in the U.S. Sean Diehl, Ph.D., UVM associate professor of microbiology and molecular genetics, is a co-inventor on the patented technology that led to an RSV preventative treatment.

The University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine features some of the world’s foremost cardiovascular researchers, experts in cardiovascular disease risk factors, thrombosis, atherosclerosis, stroke, and heart failure. the science shared by early-career investigators at the Cardiovascular Research Institute of Vermont’s fourth annual Viridis Montis Challenge, it was apparent that the institution’s reputation and legacy in the field of cardiovascular research will continue to have a global impact.

A new study published in JAMA Cardiology by UVM cardiovascular medicine fellow Margaret Infeld, M.D., M.S., and colleagues found evidence that by implementing a tailored acceleration of heart rates, they could reduce congestion and improve the circulation of blood in heart failure patients with "stiff" hearts.

Sherrie Khadanga, M.D., M.S., assistant professor of medicine at UVM's Larner College of Medicine and assistant director of cardiac rehabilitation at the UVM Medical Center, was recently featured in a UVM Health Network HealthSource blog post titled "Women Find Strength with Cardiac Rehab" that focused on how High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) exercise can help women's recovery after a cardiac event.

The Cardiovascular Research Institute of Vermont held its 4th Annual Viridis Montis Early Career Investigator Challenge on February 1, 2023, and Toishi Sharma, MBBS, cardiovascular disease fellow in the Department of Medicine, was selected as the winner.

An analysis by UVM medical student Benjamin Weaver and UVM Cancer Center member and Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology Nataniel Lester-Coll, M.D., illustrated both health disparities and parities across a cohort of 100,000+ patients with the most common form of liver cancer. Their results were published in the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology.

Albert van der Vliet, Ph.D., professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, participated in a six-week Invited Fellowship at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, engaging in research on environmental medicine and molecular toxicology. The fellowship coincided with a medley of scientific meetings and symposia that brought together leading scientists from around the world in the specific research fields of nitric oxide biology. Dr. van der Vliet, Yvonne Janssen-Heininger, Ph.D., and Brian Cunniff, Ph.D. participated as invited speakers. Additional Japanese federal funding supports the exchange of invited researchers, graduate students and post-doctoral scholars to collaborate on research.

Racial minorities and people with lower incomes or who are insured by Medicare or Medicaid are significantly less likely to receive the most advanced therapies and more likely to die after suffering a pulmonary embolism, according to a new analysis conducted by University of Vermont Professor of Medicine Mary Cushman, M.D., M.Sc., and colleagues.