Accolades & Accomplishments
January 24, 2024
Anne Dixon, B.M.B.Ch., M.A., professor of medicine, has been appointed the E. L. Amidon ’32 Endowed Chair in Medicine at the University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine. This chair endowment was established to recognize and honor Ellsworth Lyman Amidon, M.D.’32, M.S., a revered teacher and former chair of the Department of Medicine, for his years of dedicated service to the College and to the community.
An endowed chair is one of the highest honors the University can bestow on a faculty member. Dixon was recommended for this appointment by a committee of her peers, confirmed by Dean Richard L. Page, M.D.
“Your selection for this professorship is a testament to your commitment to teaching, research, and service, and your high productivity and visibility in each of these important areas,” UVM Provost and Senior Vice President Patricia Prelock, Ph.D., stated in her appointment letter to Dixon. “I look forward to your continued success and many important contributions in the years ahead.”
On January 22, 2024, the Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology at the Larner College of Medicine Rebecca A. Aslakson, M.D., Ph.D., received the Shubin-Weil Master Clinician/Teacher: Excellence in Bedside Teaching Award from the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM). The award, the highest honor the SCCM can bestow on a physician, is in memorial of two early leaders in the field of critical care from the 1970s—Herbert S. Shubin, M.D. (1925-1975) and Max Harry Weil, M.D. (1927-2011)—who, besides being master clinicians, were also the first to define the pathophysiologic states of circulatory shock and pioneers in developing critical care units, then known as “centralized hospital care for the critically ill.”
“At its essence, the Shubin-Weil Master Clinician/Teaching Award recognizes the physician you would want for yourself, or loved one, in the most vulnerable times of health care needs,” stated Rebecca Wilcox, M.D., associate dean for faculty affairs. “Dr. Aslakson embodies this—both in practice and as a role model—for the next generation of health care professionals. We are proud to have Dr. Aslakson, this year’s recipient, as a tenured Larner College of Medicine professor and Chair of Anesthesiology.”
A 25,000-member international critical care society, the Society of Critical Care Medicine bestows this award once a year. The Shubin-Weil Master Clinician/Teacher: Excellence in Bedside Teaching Award recognizes a member of the Society of Critical Care Medicine who is a role model in both the teaching and ethical practice of critical care. Nominees must have substantially furthered the expert and appropriate use of life support interventions. It is the highest honor that this prestigious institution can bestow to a physician.
Each January, the Larner community gathers for the Teaching Academy’s Snow Season Education Retreat, an annual event lifting up the work of our medical education community and honoring outstanding educators among our faculty and leaders. Highlights of this year’s two-day event included the Teaching Academy Induction and Award Ceremony, a plenary session, an in-person poster session, workshops, and oral abstract presentations.
Read the full story, including the names of the new inductees and those honored.
A $2M National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant is poised to drive groundbreaking research led by Bader Chaarani, Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Vermont. The study aims to delve into the effects of screen time on adolescents’ brain development and mental health, utilizing data from the ongoing Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study.
Congratulations to Paola Peña Garcia, Ph.D. candidate in cellular, molecular, and biomedical sciences, and the Poynter lab, whose publication “Bariatric surgery decreases the capacity of plasma from obese asthmatic subjects to augment airway epithelial cell proinflammatory cytokine production” was selected to be part of the APSselect monthly showcase of the best recently published articles in physiological research.
A renewed five-year $3.4M National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant is set to propel groundbreaking research in the development of a dengue vaccine, spearheaded by Sean Diehl, Ph.D., associate professor of microbiology and molecular genetics, and Beth Kirkpatrick, M.D., professor and chair of microbiology and molecular genetics. The focus of this substantial grant is to unravel the immune mechanisms behind durable protection against all four serotypes of the dengue virus.
The researchers are building on their collaborative efforts since 2009, working with partners at Johns Hopkins University, the NIH, and the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b). The team has been developing a live-attenuated tetravalent dengue vaccine called TetraVax (TV) that shows promise in clinical studies in both the U.S. and dengue-endemic Bangladesh. Participants from TV vaccine trials conducted 6–12 years ago in Burlington, Vermont, and Baltimore, Maryland, will be invited to return for blood samples and participation in a safe experimental infection study. Additionally, blood samples from a TV clinical trial in Bangladesh, performed six years ago, will be analyzed.
A new study published in Neurology by Robert Shapiro, M.D., Ph.D., professor emeritus of neurological sciences, and colleagues is shedding light on how feelings of stigma surrounding migraine affect quality of life.
Migraine can impact many aspects of a person’s life, but little is known about the effects of stigma. For people with migraine, these feelings of stigma were linked to more disability, increased disease burden, and reduced quality of life, the researchers found. The study looked at 59,000 people with migraine with an average age of 41. Among all participants, 41 percent reported experiencing four or more headache days per month on average. Findings concluded that 32 percent of the participants experienced migraine-related stigma often or very often, and that the amount of stigma experienced increased with migraine severity. Those with 8–14 headache days or more than 15 monthly headache days were far more likely to report at least one form of stigma (42 percent and 48 percent, respectively) compared to those with less than four monthly headache days (26 percent).
“Stigma is common where the disease is not readily apparent to others, and there is indication that it could be especially relevant for those living with migraine,” the study authors wrote. “This stigma may arise when a person with migraine recognizes negative stereotypes about the disease and experiences shame for having the disease, fear of experiencing stigma from others, or other negative emotions.”
The study, “Migraine-Related Stigma and Its Relationship to Disability, Interictal Burden, and Quality of Life,” was published in the January 17, 2024, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Congratulations to the newly elected Class of 2027 representatives for the Larner College of Medicine’s Student Education Committee (SEC): Caitie Beattie, Clara Goebel, Nick Jowkar, Erin Manogaran, and Simran Multani. The SEC is dedicated to and actively involved in the improvement of the medical school curriculum and liaises with faculty regarding the student experience within the Vermont Integrated Curriculum.
A perspective piece published in Pediatrics, the peer-reviewed journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, written by Christian Pulcini, M.D., M.Ed., M.P.H., assistant professor of emergency medicine and pediatrics, illustrates the experiences of children who survive firearm injuries and recommends actions to improve their clinical care and health outcomes. Firearm injury is a leading cause of death among children, and 40 percent of children who survive firearm injuries suffer chronic, complex medical conditions. Pulcini is co-author on a nationwide study that found children who are victims of firearm injuries do not receive mental health care when they need it most, and the impacts can be devastating for the children and their families. The perspective was published in December.
Read a feature story about the study on the Larner College of Medicine website.
