For January Cervical Cancer Awareness Month, the January 27 episode of the University of Vermont’s Across the Fence program features Kate Tracy, Ph.D., senior associate dean for research at the Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine and director of research for the UVM Health Network. A scientist with extensive expertise in women’s health, particularly in cervical cancer prevention among underserved populations, Tracy and her research were highlighted in the Fall 2024 issue of Vermont Medicine magazine.
Across the Fence is a daily 15-minute television program co-produced by UVM Extension and WCAX-TV informing viewers about activities being conducted by University of Vermont faculty, staff, and students that benefit viewers and their communities. It airs weekdays at 12:15 p.m. on WCAX-TV Channel 3.
Watch Kate Tracy, Ph.D., on Across the Fence
Aequitas Health has announced the recipients of its 2024–25 Chapter Project and Fellow Project Grants, showcasing innovative approaches to addressing health equity in communities all across the country. Among those recognized were three Aequitas Health Honor Society Fellows in the Larner medical Class of 2025.
Jasmine Bazinet-Phillips, M.S.Ed., was awarded a Chapter Project Grant for her project “CVHS UVMMC Vision Screening Program” to improve pediatric vision care access. Adaugo Chikezie and Karena Nguyen were recognized as finalists for the Fellow Project Grant. Project summaries of Fellow and Chapter Grant recipients will be published in the Aequitas Health Journal.
The University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine chapter of the National Aequitas Health Honor Society was formed in 2023 with the mission of identifying, recognizing, and developing future physician leaders to address the glaring health inequities that exist in our society today. Aequitas Fellows are committed to addressing health disparities in their communities and centering anti-racism in their efforts. Their peers have recognized them as individuals who have a deep understanding of social medicine and the structural causes of inequities, are very capable of learning with humility, and are excellent collaborators.
The Dermatology Student Interest Group (Derm SIG) at the Larner College of Medicine, under the guidance of faculty advisor Santana VanDyke, M.D., assistant professor of medicine, organized free skin cancer screenings for the South Burlington Fire Department on Saturday, January 11. Larner Class of 2027 medical student Claire Baptiste, M.P.H., was inspired to organize this event through recent dermatology research and pitched the idea to the Derm SIG and the UVM Cancer Center. Baptiste and her Derm SIG co-leader, Amir Zafaranian ’27, planned the event and were joined by other Larner College of Medicine students. UVM dermatology residents Mark Derbyshire, M.D., and Sheridan Joseph, M.D., assisted VanDyke in conducting the skin checks. The American Academy of Dermatology provided a screening toolkit, and the UVM Cancer Center’s Community Outreach and Engagement team supplied free sunscreen, sun-protective bucket hats, and educational materials.
Toshiko L. Uchida, M.D., medical director of outpatient simulation and element leader of clinical medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, has been appointed as the inaugural associate dean for curriculum at the Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine at the University of Vermont, effective July 1.
In her new role, Uchida will work closely with medical educators and colleagues in the Office of Medical Education at Larner and the UVM Health Network. She will oversee the ongoing development of the curriculum, mentor both students and faculty, and help further establish Larner as a national leader in medical research and education.
Uchida earned her medical degree from Harvard Medical School and completed her residency in primary care internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Over more than two decades, she has been involved in nearly every aspect of medical education, from teaching to curriculum development, assessment, program evaluation, and the LCME accreditation process.
“I am delighted to welcome Dr. Toshiko Uchida to the Larner College of Medicine as our inaugural associate dean for curriculum,” said Zehle. “Dr. Uchida brings a wealth of experience … Her involvement and leadership in the Directors of Clinical Skills Education and Association of American Medical Colleges Central Group on Educational Affairs, as well as her commitment to inclusive practices, will be an asset to our medical education community.”
Dean Page echoed Zehle’s welcome, stating, “I look forward to Dr. Uchida’s contribution to our college’s rich tradition of innovation in medical education.”
Last month, data scientists from the Larner College of Medicine were among the presenters at the Data and Open Science Summit at the University of Vermont. This free event open to the public offered training, workshops, and networking sessions on data and open science topics for UVM students, staff, and faculty. Patrick Payne, M.P.H., a clinical data analyst in the Department of Anesthesiology, opened the summit with remarks on Software Carpentry’s data analysis tool, R for Reproducible Scientific Analysis.
“I was thrilled to be partnered with the folks of the UVM Libraries to put on the Software Carpentry R workshop,” said Payne. “The efforts from our libraries have been fantastic in ensuring that students, faculty, and staff have access to the training and resources to meet their goals.”
On day two, Emily Curd, Ph.D., bioinformatics analyst for the Vermont Biomedical Research Network Data Science Core, and Princess Rodriguez, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics for the Vermont Integrative Genomics Resource, co-led a “Data Visualization in Metagenomics” workshop. In this workshop, attendees explored the taxonomy and diversity of supplied metagenomic samples. RStudio by Software Carpentry was used to analyze and plot taxonomic assignments and abundance information as well as assess sample diversity.
The Data and Open Science Summit, hosted by the UVM Libraries, the Vermont Research Open Source Program Office, the Graduate College, and the Office of the Provost with instructional support from NASA and Software Carpentry, supports UVM’s commitment to transparent, collaborative, and accessible research.
About the Presenters
Patrick Payne joined the UVM Department of Anesthesiology as a data scientist in 2023. He is an experienced software engineer and computational physicist with a strong commitment to community and public health.
Emily Curd is a biologist who stumbled into computational biology while working on microbial metagenomic and environmental DNA projects. She now works on a wide variety of large-scale-omics studies as a bioinformatics analyst for the Vermont Biomedical Research Network at UVM.
Princess Rodriguez is an assistant professor at UVM who collaborates with multiple principal investigators, leveraging her expertise in bioinformatics to analyze NGS data and investigate disease etiology, gene regulation, and epigenetic mechanisms. Both she and Curd are deeply committed to fostering the development of future bioinformaticians.
Read more about the Data and Open Science Summit
Kate Tracy, Ph.D., senior associate dean for research at the Larner College of Medicine and director of research for the UVM Health Network, joined Beth Kirkpatrick, M.D., professor and chair of microbiology and molecular genetics and director of the Vaccine Testing Center (VTC), and polio research PI Jessica Crothers, M.D., assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, along with other leading UVM biomedical scientists, in welcoming members of the World Health Organization’s Polio Research Committee (PRC) to Larner for a visit December 11 and 12, 2024.
The PRC officials met with VTC investigators, who have been involved in research (some of which is funded by the PRC) toward more effective and safe oral and inactivated/injectable polio vaccines for more than a decade. The group reviewed study data, discussed research to reach full eradication of polio around the world, and exchanged ideas with Larner biomedical scientists.
On December 12, members of four local Rotary clubs—Rotary International has been instrumental in spearheading worldwide efforts to eradicate polio—joined the meeting to learn more about the VTC’s research and hear an update on the global progress toward polio eradication. The PRC members, Larner scientists, and Rotarians exchanged questions, discussed ideas, and explored avenues for future collaboration and communication.
Rotary International joined the ambitious Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) in 1988. A partnership among Rotary, the Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization, and UNICEF, the GPEI was established with the goal of eradicating polio through vaccination of all children throughout the world. Over the past 36 years, due to vaccination and surveillance efforts of the massive GPEI team, cases of paralytic polio have fallen >99.9 percent, and two of the three wild polio viruses have been eradicated. Rotary members themselves have raised close to 3 billion dollars in support of the GPEI, supplied countless volunteer hours, and have personally participated in vaccinating more than 2.5 billion children.
Serious challenges remain to finally reach full polio eradication, particularly due to unstable regions of the world where the remaining wild viruses persist and children are unreachable for full vaccination.
Osama Harraz, Ph.D., M.Sc., assistant professor of pharmacology, congratulated members of his lab team—postdoctoral associate Xin Rui Lim, Ph.D., and visiting student Luc Willemse, M.Sc., of the Netherlands—for publication of a paper in Biophysical Journal. Harraz is listed as third author on the paper, titled “Amyloid beta Aβ1-40 activates Piezo1 channels in brain capillary endothelial cells.”
In the Harraz Lab, Lim contributes to ongoing research that investigates molecular mechanisms underlying blood flow control. As a visiting student in the Harraz Lab, Willemse worked on research investigating capillary blood flow regulation in Alzheimer’s disease.
In a recent JAMA Viewpoint titled “Bullets as Pathogen-The Need for Public Health and Policy Approaches,” Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics Christian Pulcini, M.D., M.Ed., M.P.H., and his co-authors explore how public health principles related to communicable diseases and bullet-specific regulations could be applied in the U.S. to prevent further injury and death due to gun violence.
“In our careers as emergency physicians and firearm violence researchers,” the authors state, “we have interviewed and treated thousands of patients injured by bullets. We know what bullets do to human bodies: they tear through flesh, shred tissue and vital organs, and their destructive path leads to bleeding, pain, shock, disability, and death. They leave permanent emotional scars and lasting mental health burdens on people who have experienced gun violence, families, and communities.”
“Guns don’t kill people, bullets do.” — Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, following the 1993 Long Island Rail Road shooting, amidst proposing bans on select ammunition and taxes on others, as well as increased scrutiny in general
Read the full article in JAMA Viewpoint
Three Larner faculty members who practice emergency medicine in communities across New York’s North Country have been recognized as Unsung Heroes of Emergency Medicine by the New York chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP).
Wendell Bliss, M.D., assistant professor of emergency medicine and director of emergency ultrasound at Alice Hyde Medical Center, and Michael D’Urso, M.D., clinical assistant professor of emergency medicine, are part of a shared team of physicians and providers caring for patients in emergency departments (ED) at University of Vermont Health Network (UVMHN)–Alice Hyde Medical Center and UVMHN–Elizabethtown Community Hospital. Michael McMahon, M.D., is clinical assistant professor of emergency medicine at UVMHN–Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital.
The clinicians said they were honored to be recognized by ACEP and nominated by ED medical directors at Alice Hyde Medical Center, Elizabethtown Community Hospital, and Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital.
Bliss, D’Urso, and McMahon are among more than two dozen ED physicians from across New York State highlighted by New York ACEP.
“Their impact goes well beyond those they directly treat,” wrote the New York chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians, announcing the recognition. “They train young clinicians, share their skills, knowledge and experience and are always willing to do whatever is needed for their patients and colleagues.”
Three Larner College of Medicine faculty members have joined the University of Vermont Health Network (UVMHN) Board of Trustees, adding clinicians, clinical educators, and researchers to the health system’s 21-member volunteer board.
Dragos Banu, M.D., assistant professor of medicine, is division chief of primary care for UVMHN–Alice Hyde Medical Center, UVMHN–Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital, UVMHN–Elizabethtown Community Hospital, and UVMHN–Porter Medical Center. Banu currently practices general internal medicine at Adult Primary Care in Essex, Vermont; she previously served as clinical chief community practice and medical director of long-term care and rehabilitation medicine at Alice Hyde Medical Center.
Sarah Harm, M.D., M.S., associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, is an expert in transfusion medicine and leads the integration of laboratory medicine services across the UVM Health Network. Harm completed her undergraduate education in biomedical engineering at Boston University and her graduate education in bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, which led to a career as a process engineer at Merck & Co. before she attended medical school.
Heidi Melbostad, Ph.D., M.A., M.S., research assistant professor of psychiatry, collaborates on behavioral pharmacology research at the Vermont Center on Behavior and Health. She serves as the chief executive officer of Mountain Community Health, a Federally Qualified Health Center in Bristol, Vermont. Previously, she was director of the Howard Center’s Chittenden Clinic, an opioid treatment program in Burlington, Vermont, where she led key initiatives in expanding treatment access and building community partnerships to address the opioid crisis in Vermont.
The board works closely with the health system CEO and senior leadership and is responsible for key governance oversight functions, including system finances, budgeting, and strategic planning. UVM Health Network physicians are nominated to serve on the board to ensure that the group includes members with direct insight into the medical needs and care experiences of patients and clinicians throughout the region.