Teaching tomorrow's surgeons

In collaboration with the University of Vermont Health Network, the Department of Surgery strives to recruit and retain the best faculty members to train our medical students.  The Department provides surgical services and training at the University of Vermont Health Network and is proud to be an integral part of this high quality, cost efficient health care center.  Our mission is to provide excellent patient care, superb resident and medical student training, and to foster research and innovation.   

Faculty and student practice microsutures

Education

From the entering novice medical student to the most experienced practitioner, the educational contribution of our department significantly and positively impacts the quality of care throughout Vermont and the areas throughout the country where our graduates practice. The major focus of our educational programs lies in Medical Student Education, Resident Education, Continuing Medical Education and Skills Labs.

Physicians in the skull base lab

Research

A broad spectrum of activities are directed toward improving the quality of our patient care and toward developing novel, innovative therapies. Through investigator-initiated trials, as well as national cooperative group, and industry-funded trials, department faculty are able to offer our patients access to cutting-edge treatments not otherwise available.

Department Highlights

Brian Sprague, PhD, Division of Surgical Research, was awarded a Health Services Research Pilot Grant from the Larner College of Medicine, for his proposal, “Evaluation of a cancer risk assessment questionnaire to guide cancer screening decision-making in primary care.”

Bruce Leavitt, MD (Cardiothoracic Surgery) and a team of 10 from UVM, are part of Team Heart, a nonprofit focused on bringing cardiac care to people in Rwanda.  Watch the WCAX segment. 

Departmental News

Herrington Appointed Inaugural Chair of New Department of Emergency Medicine

July 1, 2022 by Ed Neuert

University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine Dean Richard L. Page, M.D., and UVM Health Network Medical Group President and Larner Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs Jason Sanders, M.D., M.B.A., have announced the appointment of Ramsey Herrington, M.D., as the inaugural chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine, effective July 1, 2022.

Ramsey Herrington, M.D., Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine (Photo: David Seaver)

University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine Dean Richard L. Page, M.D., and UVM Health Network Medical Group President and Larner Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs Jason Sanders, M.D., M.B.A., have announced the appointment of Ramsey Herrington, M.D., as the inaugural chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine, effective July 1, 2022.

Emergency medicine had its beginnings at UVM in the 1950s and 1960s and has functioned for nearly 50 years as a division of the Department of Surgery. Over the last half-century, the field of emergency medicine has developed a body of research and instructional offerings that are recognized as belonging to a discrete academic field. While this has long been recognized nationally, until now, the Larner College of Medicine was one of very few allopathic medical schools in the country without an academic Department of Emergency Medicine. This May, the UVM Board of Trustees voted to approve the College of Medicine’s request to form this new department – the first new department at the College in a decade.

An associate professor of surgery, Herrington joined the UVM faculty in 2006. He has served as division chief of emergency medicine since 2017 and in 2021, was appointed as the inaugural Emergency Medicine Health Care Service Leader for the UVM Health Network. Under his leadership, the UVM Medical Center successfully launched an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education-accredited residency in emergency medicine, graduating its first class of six residents in June 2022.

“In addition to aligning our institution with the national standard, the formation of our new Department of Emergency Medicine puts us in a strong position to build on the progress made in this area at UVM and across all UVM Health Network clinical sites,” said Page and Sanders in a joint announcement to the Larner and network communities. 

Along with the launch of its nationally competitive residency program, emergency medicine accomplishments have included a doubling of the faculty from 19 to 45, the positioning of academically focused physicians and providers at affiliate hospitals across the UVM Health Network, the implementation of high value care processes and technology, and greatly expanded funded research efforts.

“This progress has been led most recently by Ramsey Herrington, M.D., and we are pleased that Dr. Herrington will continue his leadership as the inaugural Chair of the new department,” Page and Sanders said in their announcement.

Herrington was appointed after an internal search chaired by Claude Nichols, M.D., chair of the Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation. Mitchell Norotsky, M.D., chair of the Department of Surgery, and his entire department provided significant support for this important transition.

Upcoming Events

Surgery Grand Rounds is held every Thursday during the academic year (September - June) in the Davis Auditorium from 7:30-8:30 am followed by M&M Conference from 8:30-9:30 am.

Visit the detailed department calendar >>