Accolades & Accomplishments
July 31, 2024
The University of Vermont’s Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine was recently recognized for excellence in both primary care and research in the 2024 U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate Schools rankings.
“Placement in the top tiers for both categories acknowledges our commitment to medical education that provides a balance between excellence in primary care and excellence in research,” summarized Larner dean Richard L. Page, M.D. “Thanks to the outstanding faculty and staff at Larner, our graduates are prepared to pursue diverse career opportunities.”
In its 2024–25 edition of “Best Medical Schools,” U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Vermont Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine in these categories:
• Most Graduates Practicing in Rural Areas: No. 49
• Most Graduates Practicing in Health Professional Shortage Areas: No. 82
• Most Graduates Practicing in Primary Care: No. 69
• Most Diverse Medical Schools: No. 4
• Primary Care: Tier 2
• Research: Tier 2
This year, U.S. News categorized medical schools into one of four tiers for research and primary care. Tier 1 medical schools represent the 15 highest performing, and Tier 2 includes the next 35. Inclusion in either tier 1 or 2 provides eligibility for a “badge” as one of the “Best Grad Schools” from U.S. News. Each school’s tier was derived from an overall score, calculated across several factors. The first two tiers comprise approximately 50 medical schools. The Larner College of Medicine shares this designation with other highly regarded medical institutions including Dartmouth, UC-Davis, and Tufts.
The U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) Physician Professional Advisory Committee selected eight Class of 2026 medical students at the Larner College of Medicine—Anika Advant, Connor Barton, Jackson Bressor, Caity DeCara, Akhil George, Briana Leger, Khadija Moussadek, and Regan Staudenraus—to receive a 2024 Excellence in Public Health Award. USPHS Lieutenant Commander Oyebola Oladeinde, M.D., recognized the students during an award ceremony that took place on Zoom on July 24, 2024.
The Larner College of Medicine nominated the students to receive this award based on their contributions through their 2023 public health project, “Professional Educators’ Perceptions of Active Shooter Drills,” which was initiated by the Vermont Public Health Association. The project was further described in a nomination letter from Larner dean Richard L. Page, M.D., and Associate Dean for Public Health and Health Policy Jan K. Carney, M.D., M.P.H.: “The purpose of this study was to gain insight on professional educators’ perceptions of preparedness, emotional consequences, and efficacy of active shooter drills in Chittenden County (Vermont’s largest county) public schools.” Advant, a student award recipient, commented, “Our project was focused on understanding more about the emotional impact that active shooter drills have on school aged children, a lesser-researched topic related to gun violence. We felt it was important to hear from those who are participating in these drills and interacting with students every day, so we surveyed and interviewed teachers, school administrators, and other educators who provided valuable insight into these drills.”
Read more about the USPHS Awards
Assistant Professor of Medicine Sherrie Khadanga, M.D., has been awarded her first R01 grant, from the National Institute on Aging for “Optimizing Aerobic Fitness and Functional Response to Exercise in Older Adults.” The project aims to combine high-intensity interval training and high-intensity resistance training to improve peak oxygen uptake and physical function in older patients needing cardiac rehabilitation.
Investigators David Jangraw, Ph.D., M.S. (left), and Denise Peters, Ph.D., D.P.T., PT, awardees of the 2024 Armin Grams Memorial Research Award by the University of Vermont’s Center on Aging
A collaborative research team co-led by investigators David Jangraw, Ph.D., M.S., and Denise Peters, Ph.D., D.P.T., PT, has been awarded the 2024 Armin Grams Memorial Research Award by the Center on Aging. The project will assess in-home instruments designed to measure mobility, activities of daily living, and speech production in aging rural Vermonters with and without mild cognitive impairment.
Endocrinologist Jennifer Kelly, D.O., professor of medicine at the Larner College of Medicine and director of the Osteoporosis and Metabolic Bone Clinic at the UVM Medical Center, was recently appointed as the new chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism at the University of Vermont Health Network; she had been serving as interim division chief since September 2022. Dedicated to quality improvement and mentorship and nationally known for her work in bone health, Kelly serves as chair for the International Society for Clinical Densitometry annual meeting and is recognized as an exceptional continuous medical education educator. She also has been actively involved in DEI efforts within the Department of Medicine and leads the Faculty Engagement Committee.
Kelly attended medical school at the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine in Old Westbury, followed by an internal medicine residency at Wilson Hospital in Binghamton, where she was chief resident in her senior year, and then an endocrine fellowship at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse. She then joined the faculty at Upstate, where she worked as an attending in endocrinology, co-director of the metabolic bone program, and director of the clinical densitometry program prior to being recruited to the University of Vermont in July 2017.
Heart disease, including heart failure, has been the leading cause of death in the U.S. since 1950. About 50 percent of the 5 million Americans with heart failure have heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), where the heart’s left ventricle becomes stiff and doesn’t relax properly. Despite a normal ejection fraction, the blood volume pumped is inadequate due to poor ventricular filling.
Matthew Caporizzo, Ph.D., assistant professor of molecular physiology and biophysics, along with researchers at the University of Pennsylvania—in partnership with pharmaceutical company MT-Act—have developed a small molecule inhibitor to repair the heart’s microtubule network (MTN), addressing a key issue in HFpEF. Their recent paper, “Vasohibin Inhibition Improves Myocardial Relaxation In Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction,” describes the creation of a vasohibin inhibitor (VASHi) that blocks MTN detyrosination, showing promising results in live animals.
After successful trials in rats, Caporizzo’s team tested VASHi on isolated human heart cells from non-failing and failing hearts and found VASHi also improved relaxation in failing human heart cells. Excitingly, this suggests that VASHi could be a potential treatment to reduce stiffness and improve heart relaxation in HFpEF.
Christopher Anker, M.D., radiation oncologist at the University of Vermont Health Network, professor of radiation-oncology at the Larner College of Medicine, and co-leader of the UVM Cancer Center’s Cancer Host and Environment research program, is the inaugural recipient of the Clinician Investigator-Initiated Therapeutic Trial Opportunity (CIITTO) award from the University of Vermont Cancer Center. Anker will develop clinical trials to help ease cancer treatment side effects, specifically by helping patients receive radiation therapy more efficiently and perhaps avoid it completely. A positive outcome would also reduce financial and scheduling burdens on caregivers.
Prior to receiving this award, Anker was already committed to reducing costs to patient families through his monthly volunteer commitment at the Hope Lodge in Burlington, run by the American Cancer Society, which provides free lodging to both patients and caregivers.
The CIITTO award was initiated to support investigators who are actively working to bring treatment-related, investigator-initiated clinical trials to patients of the UVM Cancer Center by offering up to 20 percent effort and $20,000 toward running the trials. Investigator-initiated trials provide many benefits to patients, including addressing the specific and unique needs of UVM Cancer Center patients, increasing treatment options, and providing real-world data.
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Mary Cushman, M.D., M.Sc., University Distinguished Professor of medicine and pathology & laboratory medicine, was invited to present at the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH) congress in June in Bangkok, Thailand. Her project, “Circulating C-reactive Protein and D-dimer Concentrations and Risk of Severe Covid-19: the Collaborative Cohort of Cohorts for Covid-19 Research (C4R),” details preliminary findings from the C4R study.
The C4R project combined 14 longitudinal studies to explore various questions about COVID-19 risk factors and outcomes. In five of these studies—the Framingham Heart Study, the Atherosclerosis Risks in Communities Study, the REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) Study, the Jackson Heart Study, and the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis—Cushman led a team that used laboratory data from 20 years prior to the pandemic to examine the association between thrombo-inflammation status and the risk of severe COVID illness.
Participants were, on average, 75 years old when the pandemic started. Cushman’s team found that people with higher pre-pandemic C-reactive protein—reflecting higher inflammation status—developed more severe illness if they became infected with COVID. People with higher D-dimer, a prothrombotic risk factor, did not show this relationship. Further study is needed to identify the reasons why inflammation status 20 years before the pandemic relate to greater susceptibility to severe COVID.
The research for this project was funded through the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and the National Institute on Aging.
New research from Elzerie de Jager, M.B.B.S., Ph.D., who recently joined UVM as an assistant professor of medicine in Larner’s public health program, introduces a novel methodology to benchmark hospitals on in-hospital disparities in surgical care. Her research focuses on health care quality improvement, health equity, and disease and injury prevention, and this fall she will be teaching a new 3-credit graduate elective Health Equity course.
_with_isaura_menzies_m_d_m_p_h/com-top-tier-images/deansnewsletter/acc10-owenmaguire-300x300.png?sfvrsn=632d885f_0 "Owen Maguire, M.D. (left), with Isaura Menzies, M.D., M.P.H.")
Geriatric medicine fellowship graduate Owen Maguire, M.D. (left), with Isaura Menzies, M.D., M.P.H., associate professor of medicine and program director for the geriatric medicine fellowship program at the UVM Medical Center
The Division of Geriatric Medicine celebrated on July 6 the graduation of its first geriatrics fellow, Owen Maguire, M.D., and the culmination of the division’s academic goal to train geriatricians. Maguire, who upon graduation became an assistant professor of medicine, was toasted and celebrated by all who attended the graduation celebration, including faculty, nurse practitioners, fellowship program administrators, and family and friends.
“The geriatrics fellowship at the University of Vermont is a new fellowship that is a big step in the building of a pipeline to care for older adults in Vermont, the fourth-oldest state in the country,” said Isaura Menzies, M.D., M.P.H., associate professor of medicine and program director for the geriatric medicine fellowship program at UVM Medical Center.
Read more about Dr. Maguire’s graduation
