medicine Ingredient Maine the

medicine
vermont
U N I V E R S I T Y
O F
V E R M O N T
C O L L E G E
O F
the
Maine
Ingredient
Three decades of cooperation in medical education
M E D I C I N E
medicine
vermont
the place where your medical career began.
Recall the good times. Renew old friendships.
Reconnect with faculty. Revisit
U V M
C O L L E G E
O F
M E D I C I N E
S P R I N G
FROM THE DEAN
2
COLLEGE NEWS
3
M A G A Z I N E
2 0 0 6
Dean Evans steps down, a $5 million gift,
Match Day results, and more.
June 9-11
2006
ALUMNI VIEW
12
HALL A
27
28
29
33
38
PRESIDENT ’ S CORNER
CLASS NOTES
DEVELOPMENT NEWS
OBITUARIES
14
FOCUSING IN ON THE SILENT EPIDEMIC
A wide range of College of Medicine
researchers are exploring diabetes.
by jennifer nachbur
20
THE MAINE INGREDIENT
For more than a quarter century, Maine
Medical Center and the College of Medicine
have partnered to enhance the education of
medical students.
Attention Classes of 1951, ’56, ’61, ’66, ’71, ’76, ’81, ’86, ‘91, ’96 & ’01!
he UVM Medical Alumni Association invites you and your family to join
us for Reunion 2006 — June 9-11, 2006. Come back to Burlington and the
UVM campus, your home during medical school. You may have lost contact with
your classmates and faculty, but reunion will give you the chance to rekindle old
friendships, check out favorite places, talk with faculty, meet medical students, and
experience the growth and evolution of your medical alma mater.
Events Include: Medical Education Today Session • Tour of the College and the new
Medical Education Center • Golden Reunion Awards and Reception • Continuing Medical
Education Seminar • Medical Alumni Picnic • Nostalgia Hour • Class Receptions and Dinners
For more information, call the
UVM Medical Development
& Alumni Relations Office
at (802) 656-4014 or email:
[email protected]
Plan ahead—Save the date for your reunion! www.alumni.uvm.edu/com
by edward neuert
on the cover:
photography by Bridget Besaw Gorman
medicine
S P R I N G
President Fogel and Provost Bramley have set a
clear vision for the future of the University of
Vermont, and all around there are visible signs of
an exciting revitalization. The College of
Medicine is an important component of this
vision, and today has the stability, momentum
and excellence to build an extraordinary future.
We are on the verge of recruiting strong leadership for the departments of Surgery and
Medicine, and will have a new Provost to provide
academic leadership. Therefore, as I approach
the end of the three years I agreed to serve, I feel confident in making the decision to step down as Dean at the end of June.
I plan to take a one-year administrative leave beginning in July,
providing me the first opportunity in 20 years to step back and
explore the many options that I’m lucky to have before me. As many
of you know, I am an entrepreneur at heart, always looking to build
something, and I am especially interested in exploring the complexities of how new businesses are developed and the role a university can
play in concert with the private sector and the state. There is no
greater imperative for the future of Vermont than to create challenging and economically rewarding jobs if we are to ensure opportunities
for the generations to come. I look forward to creating new collaborations and partnerships, and hope to engage with many of you in
these new initiatives.
Nearly 14 of my 30 years at the College have been spent in the
Dean’s Office. During this time, so much has been accomplished and
I am proud of all that we at the College have done together. The
implementation of the Vermont Integrated Curriculum, the opening
of the new Health Science Research Facility and Medical Education
Center, and two full 8-year LCME accreditations are just a few of our
shared successes. I am certain that the College will continue to build
on these achievements, and that the shared governance we are
launching will grow as a model for engagement and participation of
our most important resource, our people.
To all the students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends I have interacted with I would like to offer my personal thanks for your contributions
to our shared success and for your support during my tenure as Dean.
I am grateful for the opportunity to have worked with each of you, as
well as Deans John Frymoyer and Joe Warshaw, and am thankful for
the many friendships I have made. In the weeks ahead, the President
and Provost will appoint an interim dean to serve while the University
conducts a national search for the next Dean of the College. I know
each of you will join me in working to ensure a smooth transition to
continue the focus on our core missions of educating physicians and
scientists, expanding knowledge through research, delivering compassionate patient care, and serving our communities.
2
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
COLLEGE NEWS
vermont
FROM THE DEAN
MICHAEL SIPE
2 0 0 6
EDITOR
edward neuert
UVM Names Research Wing for Starbuck Family
MEDICAL COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR
carole whitaker
ASSISTANT
andrea rathje
WRITER
jennifer nachbur
ART DIRECTOR
elise whittemore-hill
UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT
COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
DEAN
john n. evans, ph.d.
EDITORIAL ADVISORS
rick blount
ASSISTANT DEAN FOR
DEVELOPMENT & ALUMNI RELATIONS
marilyn j. cipolla, ph.d.’ 97
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
OF NEUROLOGY
christopher s. francklyn,
ph.d.
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
OF BIOCHEMISTRY
cardiovascular health. UVM had
leased the facility for more than a
decade and purchased it this year to
keep pace with its growing research
activities. The sale price was significantly below its market value.
“We are very grateful indeed to the Starbuck family for their extraordinary generosity,” said UVM president Daniel Mark Fogel. “Their gift has a profound
impact on UVM and our capacity to engage in
research of the highest caliber.”
The Starbuck family has longstanding ties to UVM.
George Starbuck served for fifteen years as a member
of the advisory board to the College of Engineering
and Mathematical Sciences. His father, also George,
completed undergraduate work at UVM in 1935,
received his M.D. in 1938, and served as president of
the Medical Alumni Association. His mother, Rachel
Closson Starbuck, was also a UVM graduate, class of
1934, as is a son, Michael, class of 1986.
The Starbuck family was honored for their gift at a
reception in the university’s new Medical Education
Pavilion in November.
George Starbuck
speaking in front
of a photograph
of the Starbuck
Family Wing.
The University of Vermont has named a wing of its
Colchester Research Facility in honor of alums George
’62 and Pammella Starbuck ’83 and their family, in
recognition of a $2.7 million gift resulting from the
sale of the former Aquatec building on South Park
Drive in Colchester.
The 37,500-square-foot Starbuck Family Wing of
UVM's Colchester Research Facility houses research
laboratories of the College of Medicine, where groundbreaking work has been done on risk factors related to
james c. hebert, m.d.’ 77
ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR GRADUATE
MEDICAL EDUCATION
russell tracy, ph.d.
SENIOR ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR RESEARCH
& ACADEMIC AFFAIRS
vermont medicine is published three times a
year by the University of Vermont College of Medicine.
Articles may be reprinted with permission of the editor.
Please send address changes, alumni class notes, letters
to the editor, and other correspondence to
University of Vermont College of Medicine Alumni
Office, Farrell Hall, 210 Colchester Ave, Burlington,
VT 05405. telephone: (802) 656-4014
Letters to the editor specifically may be e-mailed to:
[email protected]
Richardson-Nassif
Appointed Associate Dean
In February, College of Medicine Dean John
Evans announced the appointment of Karen
Richardson-Nassif, Ph.D., as the College’s first
associate dean for faculty and staff development
and diversity.
Richardson-Nassif will lead initiatives around faculty
and staff diversity, develop a faculty and staff orientation program, monitor faculty recruitment, appointment and promotion, and play a key role in identifying
opportunities and implementing mentoring and development initiatives for faculty and staff. RichardsonNassif assumes these responsibilities in addition to her
primary appointment as research associate professor in
the Department of Family Medicine.
Richardson-Nassif, who also serves as director of predoctoral programs and research in Family Medicine and
TOP : ANDY DUBACK ; BOTTOM : RAJ CHAWLA , BOTH UVM MEDICAL PHOTOGRAPHY
director of assessment in
the Office of Medical Education, joined the UVM faculty in 1991. She has an
extensive background in
research, evaluation, and
assessment.
Richardson-Nassif holds
a B.A. in education and biology from St. Michael’s College and a Ph.D. in pharmacology and toxicology from the University of Connecticut.
This past fall, she received the Vermont Women in
Higher Education Jackie M. Gribbons Leadership Award
in recognition of her demonstrated leadership ability,
service as a model, mentor and developer of innovative
programs, and significant contributions to the institution and profession. She also serves the Association of
American Medical Colleges as chair-elect of the Northeast Group on Educational Affairs and as a member of
the Research in Medical Education Steering Committee.
S P R I N G
2006
3
COLLEGE NEWS
LABOW GIFT FUNDS PROFESSORSHIP AND LECTURESHIP
Retired surgeon Samuel Labow, M.D. and his
wife, Michelle, a retired registered nurse, have
pledged current and estate gifts estimated at over
$5 million to the Department of Surgery at the
College of Medicine. An initial gift of $350,000
will fund the Samuel B. and Michelle D. Labow
Green & Gold Professor in Colon & Rectal
Surgery and the Samuel B. and Michelle D.
Labow Lectureship in Colon & Rectal Surgery.
A trust established by the Labows will in the
future provide significantly more support to the
Department of Surgery.
The Labows retired to Stowe ten years ago
after 20 years in a colon and rectal surgery practice at North Shore University Hospital in New Michelle and Samuel Labow, M.D. have pledged more than
York, where Dr. Labow was also clinical associ- $5 million to the Department of Surgery.
ate professor of surgery at Weill Medical
College at Cornell University. Dr. Labow is currently Hyman, earned a medical degree from the University
a clinical associate professor of surgery at the College of Vermont in 1984 and completed a surgical internof Medicine.
ship and residency at Mount Sinai Medical Center in
As a registered nurse, Michelle Labow pursued a New York City, followed by a colon and rectal surgical
career in the operating room. She joined Dr. Labow’s fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. Since
surgical practice and eventually took over the manage- joining the UVM faculty in 1990, Dr. Hyman has
ment of the practice. Throughout their careers, they earned eight teaching awards, including the Jerome S.
both served in national leadership positions in profes- Abrams Teaching Award and the Leonard Tow
sional societies, including the American Society of Humanism in Medicine Award.
Colon and Rectal Surgeons, for which Dr. Labow
Dr. Hyman is a past president of the Vermont chapserved as president from 1993 to 1994.
ter of the American College of Surgeons. He is also a
Neil Hyman, M.D.’84, professor of surgery and senior examiner of the American Board of Colon and
chief of general surgery at the College, has been named Rectal Surgery, and is an associate editor of the journal
the first Samuel B. and Michelle D. Labow Green & Diseases of the Colon and Rectum.
Gold Professor in Colon & Rectal Surgery. Dr.
CLINICIAN CEREMONY MARKS END OF CLERKSHIP
The Student Clinician Ceremony, a milestone in the Vermont
Integrated Curriculum since 2002, was held on March 9 in Carpenter
Auditorium, with a reception in the Brickyard. Students from the
Class of 2007 chose Peter Cataldo, M.D., as keynote speaker and
selected six residents to receive the Arnold P. Gold Foundation
Humanism and Excellence in Teaching Award. The residents were:
Nadia Bambace, M.D., Krishnendu Bhadra, M.D., Chad Brown, M.D.,
Dean Stephens, M.D., and Christopher Sullivan, M.D., from Fletcher
Allen Health Care, and Margaret Dow, M.D., from Maine Medical
Center. The third-years welcomed the Class of 2008 at the ceremony
as they began their Clerkship year.
4
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
RAJ CHAWLA , UVM MEDICAL PHOTOGRAPHY
30 YEARS OF REMARKABLE ACCOMPLISHMENT
On April 18, 2006 Dean John N. Evans, Ph.D., announced that he was stepping down as the
College of Medicine’s sixteenth dean to pursue a one-year leave before returning to the faculty.
After receiving his doctorate from the University of Florida College of Medicine, Dean
Evans came to UVM in the mid-1970s as a post-doctoral fellow in physiology, and became a
member of the faculty in 1976. This was the beginning of three decades of accomplishment as
a researcher in pulmonary physiology, a teacher of lung biology, and an administrator of the
school.
During the course of his years in the Dean’s office, research funding has more than tripled,
the medical curriculum has been dramatically reformed, and the medical campus has been
renewed. Dean Evans’ importance to the shaping of the College of Medicine as it stands today
is summed up by the following statement from Associate Dean for Primary Care Mildred A.
“Mimi” Reardon, M.D.’67.
“Dean Evans has been outstanding in his leadership, vision and
achievements for the College of Medicine. Since joining the faculty in
1976, he has excelled as a teacher and academic researcher. Most recently, since 1992, he has distinguished himself in his dedicated leadership of
the College as Executive Dean, Interim Dean, Acting Dean and these
last years as Dean. His commitment to curriculum reform has been evidenced in his
active role in the College’s implementation of
the new Vermont Integrated Curriculum. He
has played a major role in the conceptualization, planning and realization of a new
research building and a new medical education center. John successfully led the College
though a major reaccredidation process just
one year ago.
I have been honored to have been able to serve with John and to feel
his extraordinary dedication to excellence at the College of Medicine. As
Associate Dean for Primary Care for these last thirteen years, I am deeply
grateful for John’s appreciation for and commitment to, the Vermont
statewide community in the work of the
College. In my many years associated with
this College, I have come to have the highest respect and admiration for John and his
dedication to, and achievements for,
Vermont and its College of Medicine. I am
very sorry we are losing his enthusiastic and
effective leadership as Dean.”
—Mildred A. Reardon, M.D.’67
Associate Dean for Primary Care
UVM College of Medicine
S P R I N G
2006
5
&
COLLEGE NEWS
AWARDS
Bridges to Biotechnology
FORMER SURGEON
GENERAL SPEAKS AT UVM
David Satcher, M.D., former
Surgeon General of the
United States, spoke on
“The Future of Healthcare:
Health and Wellbeing” on
March 14 in Ira Allen
Chapel as part of the Aiken
Lecture Series. Dr. Satcher
served simultaneously in
the positions of surgeon
general and assistant secretary of health from
February 1998 through
January 2001 at the U.S.
Department of Health and
Human Services. Associate
Dean for Public Health Jan
Carney hosted Dr. Satcher
and students at a prelecture discussion in the
Martin Luther King room
in the Billings Center.
6
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
Beneath the lab coats, microscopes, pipettes,
and vials of UVM’s many biomedical
research labs, there’s an entrepreneurial
undercurrent that’s been running through
campus for years. For many faculty and even
some students, scientific discoveries can lead
to patents and products that provide the
foundation for international biotechnology
corporations.
Mark Brann’s company, Acadia Pharmaceuticals, develops treatments for central
nervous system disorders. His story is just
one of several examples of successful “technology transfer” — the movement of ideas,
inventions and discoveries from the research
lab into the commercial sector — at UVM.
It all started when Brann was working on his
Ph.D. in pharmacology, which he received
from the College of Medicine. Early in his
career, he developed molecular tools that
paved the way for drugs now used to treat
Alzheimer’s disease. Later research, directed
by Brann at the National Institutes of
Health, resulted in a patented process for
identifying whether drugs were achieving
their targeted effects. He attempted to start
a business, but it never got off the ground.
In 1991, he returned to UVM as an associate professor of psychiatry and pharmacology.
Brann credits his start-up failure in
Maryland for his start-up success in
Vermont where, in 1993, following extensive efforts to garner investment capital and
other funding, Receptor Technologies was
incorporated.
“Being inquisitive and taking risks makes
a good scientist and entrepreneur,” says
Brann, who in February received the
College of Medicine’s first Graduate Alumni
Award in honor of his outstanding research
achievements. Brann moved the company to
San Diego in 1997, changed its name, set up
a second facility in Denmark, and shifted the
focus to drug discovery. In 2004, the company went public. As president and chief scientific officer at Acadia, Brann concedes his
role has evolved from focusing on science to
focusing on stockholders. “That is the
RECOGNITION
• G. Scott Waterman, M.D., associate professor of
Mark Brann, Ph.D.’84 is president of Acadia
Pharmaceuticals and the recipient of the
College’s first Graduate Alumni Award.
nature of the beast,” he admits.
For UVM researchers ready to wade into
commercial waters, Todd Keiller, director of
technology transfer at UVM, is the critical
link. The founder of six biotechnology companies, Keiller is something of an intellectual property superhero. He works to protect,
market, and negotiate the sale of rights of
patentable inventions — whether tangible
or conceptual — to business partners that
can bring the property to market. Keiller
collaborates with multiple partners at UVM,
including the Office of Sponsored Programs, Vermont Experimental Program to
Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR),
the Vermont Technology Council, and the
Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies, as well as the Vermont Department of
Economic Development.
According to Keiller, there is a rapidly
accelerating level of activity in UVM’s tech
transfer and intellectual property arena. “Of
the 53 patents issued to the University of
Vermont since 1979, 22 were issued in the
past three years,” says Keiller. “In addition,
over 20 licenses have been signed with
diverse local, regional, national, and international companies.”
The Office of Technology Transfer hosted an Invention to Ventures conference at
the Sheraton Burlington Hotel &
Conference Center on April 21. John Abele,
founder and chairman of Boston Scientific
Corporation, delivered the keynote address,
and Dean John Evans was the luncheon
speaker at the event.
LEFT: WILLIAM DILILLO, UNIVERSITY PHOTOGRAPHY ; TOP RIGHT: RAJ CHAWLA , UVM MEDICAL PHOTOGRAPHY
psychiatry and associate dean for student affairs,
received the Nancy C.A. Roeske, M.D., Certificate
of Recognition for Excellence in Medical Student
Education from the American Psychiatric
Association committee on Medical Student
Education. The award is presented annually to
members who have made outstanding and sustaining contributions to medical student education. Dr. Waterman has been invited to receive
the award certificate at the APA meeting in May.
• Stephen Higgins, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry
and psychology, was elected president of the
College on Problems of Drug Dependence for
2006-2007. The College on Problems of Drug
Dependence is the longest-standing scientific
organization in the United States dedicated to the
study of drug dependence.
• Dennis Vane, M.D., has been elected a governor
of the American College of Surgeons (ACS).
Founded in 1913, the ACS is the largest organization of surgeons in the world, with over 64,000
members. Vane is a professor of surgery and associate professor of pediatrics and serves as vicechair for clinical affairs of the Department of
Surgery at the College of Medicine, and is a
trustee of Fletcher Allen Health Care.
• Mimi Reardon, M.D.’67, associate dean for primary care, has been nominated unanimously by
Vermont’s congressional delegation as a Local
Legend. A partnership of the National Institutes
of Health’s National Library of Medicine, the NIH
Office of Women’s Health Research, and the
American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA),
the Local Legends program celebrates America's
local women physicians. On behalf of these partners, the AMWA annually calls upon the Congress
to nominate outstanding women physicians
from their state or district who have demonstrated commitment, originality, innovation, or creativity in their field of medicine.
• Stacey Sigmon, Ph.D., research assistant professor of psychiatry, received the 2006 Young
Psychopharmacologist Award of the Division of
Psychopharmacology and Substance Abuse from
the American Psychological Association. This
award honors a young scientist doing original,
meritorious work in psychopharmacology and
encourages excellence in research at the interface between the disciplines of pharmacology
and psychology.
• The College of Medicine Class of 2008 held an
awards ceremony and reception on February 3 in
honor of their completion of the Foundations
level of the Vermont Integrated Curriculum (VIC).
The awards and recipients were as follows:
OUTSTANDING FOUNDATIONS COURSE: “Human
Structure and Function”
FOUNDATIONS COURSE DIRECTOR AWARD: Brad
Wright, lecturer of anatomy and neurobiology
FOUNDATIONS TEACHING AWARD: Nicholas Hardin,
M.D., professor of pathology
INTEGRATION AWARD (for the faculty member
whose teaching best captured the spirit of the
VIC): Gerald Silverstein, Ph.D., lecturer in
microbiology and molecular genetics
THE SILVER STETHOSCOPE AWARD (for the faculty
member who had few lecture hours, but made
a substantial contribution to students’ education): James Hudziak, M.D., associate professor
of psychiatry
ABOVE AND BEYOND (for the faculty member, not
necessarily a lecturer, who went above and
beyond the call of duty to help the students in
their learning objectives): Masatoshi Kida,
M.D., associate professor of pathology
AMERICAN MEDICAL STUDENTS ASSOCIATION GOLDEN
awarded posthumously to Bruce
Fonda, lecturer in anatomy and neurobiology
APPLE AWARD:
AMERICAN MEDICAL WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION GENDER
EQUITY AWARD: Pamela Gibson, M.D.’90, assistant professor of pathology
• Vermont Medicine magazine has received its
second consecutive Award of Distinction from
the Association of American Medical
Colleges Group on Institutional
Advancement (AAMC/ GIA) for its issues
covering the year 2005. The AAMC/GIA
awards honors “the most creative and
effective approaches used to promote
academic medicine in the United
States through alumni, development,
public relations and marketing vehicles.” The award was presented at the
AAMC/GIA national conference in
Austin, Texas, on March 29.
S P R I N G
2006
7
COLLEGE NEWS
WHITE COAT
What hasn’t changed
Rigorous Rounds Teach
Clinical Decision-Making
The conference room in the surgical intensive care
unit at Fletcher Allen is packed. The group is focused
on Steven Shackford, M.D., Stanley S. Fieber professor and chair of surgery, who is about to launch into
one of his famous “Shack rounds” — a class characterized by intense, sustained questioning of individual
students — and there’s a buzz of nervous anticipation
in the room. “This is easy!” he says to the eight or so
third-year medical students and a few surgical residents. “Wait until you’re in the emergency department
and someone’s writhing in pain.”
The qualities that earned Shackford a 2005-06 UVM
Kroepsch-Maurice Award for Excellence in Teaching
are clear within minutes as he kicks off the session of the
affectionately nicknamed clinical decision-making
course. Famous for relentlessly challenging his students,
Shackford skillfully uses empathy, humor, passion, and
knowledge to inspire learning — and excellence.
First, Shackford reviews the ground rules for the
rounds: Only the person getting grilled can answer his
questions when it’s their turn. “It’s intimidating, I
know, in front of your peers,” Shackford admits. Next,
a surgical resident presents the basic facts on the
patient case up for review. Then the professor asks the
student to his right “What are you thinking?” Much
more than a conversation-starter, Shackford’s question
PUBLIC HEALTH PROJECTS DISPLAYED
Second-year medical students presented their Public Health
Projects in a poster session open to the medical community on
January 23. More than a hundred people attended, and saw
posters detailing twelve public health oriented research projects.
8
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
2006
In her remarks to first-year students at the 2006 White Coat Ceremony,
excerpted here, Fletcher Allen Health Care President and Chief Executive
Officer Melinda Estes, M.D., noted the sweeping changes occurring in the
field of medicine, and pointed out some enduring truths.
Steven Shackford, M.D., is a 2005-2006 Kroepsch-Maurice
Award winner for excellence in teaching.
aims to jump-start the clinical decision-making
process.
“He takes very complex patients and shows how
understanding basic physiology allows third- and
fourth-year medical students to identify the primary
medical issues and necessary interventions,” says 2005
College of Medicine graduate Zechariah Gardner,
M.D., who is currently serving a surgical residency at
Fletcher Allen. “It’s like the ABC’s of critical care medicine and it's fun, because you can do it.”
Everything happens quickly, mimicking real-life
surgical decision-making. But instead of being discouraged, students say they like being put on the spot and
pushed to the limit.
“He’s doing it to make us better doctors,” says
third-year medical student Jennifer Gillis, who, with
several of her classmates, is attending the rounds as
part of the College of Medicine’s surgical clerkship —
one of a number of required discipline-specific clinical
training courses.
Surgical resident Gardner believes Shackford was
probably the strongest influence in his choice of surgery as a career. “He has high expectations and won’t
settle for anything but our best and his students rise to
the occasion. He is also very realistic and keenly aware
of appropriate expectations for your level of training,
which creates a culture of students and residents who
work hard to do well for their patients.”
The Kroepsch-Maurice Award for Excellence in
Teaching highlights faculty for excellent classroom
instruction and memorializes Robert H. and Ruth K.
Kroepsch and her parents, Walter C. and Mary L.
Maurice, who were all teachers.
—Jennifer Nachbur
TOP : RAJ CHAWLA ; LEFT: ANDY DUBACK , BOTH UVM MEDICAL PHOTOGRAPHY
As you navigate these complex and
constant changes, my advice to you
is: Focus on what has not changed
— and what is therefore most
important as you take this crucial
step today.
What has not changed is the fact
that as physicians and scientists we
are all people with feelings, who
face conflicts every day: how to tell
a family member that their loved
one has died; how to approach the
patient’s bedside, the bench or the
microscope with 100 percent of
your attention — regardless of what
might be happening in your day.
What has not changed is that
the patients we are treating are also
people with feelings, many who are
worried and sometimes despairing,
whose lives may be in upheaval due
to their illness; others who are
seeking knowledge and counsel —
a warm smile and a kind word.
To be specific:
The need to care for your
patients — and to remember that
the patient is at the center of everything you do — has not changed. To
listen to what your patient says. To
take your time. To be respectful. To
think.
The desire of the patient for
unlimited time has not changed. No
matter how much the field of medicine changes, one thing will never
change — the fact that your patients
will want from you what they wanted from their doctors 50 years ago:
Unlimited time. One-on-one attention. Compassion. Knowledge.
The characteristics of a good
physician have not changed. To listen and lay hands on the patient. To
RAJ CHAWLA , UVM MEDICAL PHOTOGRAPHY
be honest about what you don’t
know, because knowing what you
don’t know is as important as knowing what you do. To maintain balance in your life, when all is said and
done, you only have two things:
your integrity and your family. Be
good to the people around you; be
good to those who support you.
The art of medicine has not
changed. The magic that happens
when you figure out what is wrong
with your patient and how to fix it
… when you find the cure or treatment that previously eluded you.
When you watch your patient
improve and get better.
The privilege of being a physician has not changed. Practicing
medicine is a great privilege. We
are being let into someone’s personal life. We are told things they
have told no one else. We are trusted with their deepest, darkest
secrets, and with their lives.
The need for lifelong learning
has not changed. Even once you
complete your training, the learning never stops. You learn from colleagues, from students, from books,
from patients, from your significant
others and family members, from your neighbors
and community.
And the symbol that is
before us today — the
White Coat — has not
changed. It remains a symbol of humanism in medicine. Of the duty of the
physician — to accept not
only the authority of medicine, but the responsibility that comes with it.
DRESS CODE:
WHITE COAT PREFERRED
The white coat, universally associated with medical
professionalism, provides a visual representation of
a physician’s commitment to providing compassionate patient care and maintaining scientific proficiency. On January 13 the College of Medicine Class of
2009 made that commitment as they participated in
the White Coat Ceremony. Hosted by Dean John
Evans, the event took place for the first time in the
East Pavilion Atrium of the Ambulatory Care Center
at Fletcher Allen Health Care. Melinda Estes, M.D.,
president and chief executive officer of Fletcher
Allen Health Care, delivered the keynote address.
The Presentation of Coats ceremony was led by
Associate Dean for Student Affairs G. Scott Waterman,
M.D. Faculty members assisting included: Dean Evans;
Dr. Estes; Richard Pinckney, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine and 2005 recipient of the Leonard
Tow Humanism in Medicine Award; Tania Bertsch,
M.D., associate professor of medicine and director of
clerkship programs; and Steven Lidofsky, M.D., Ph.D.,
director of the M.D./Ph.D. program and associate professor of medicine and pharmacology.
S P R I N G
2006
9
Residency Matches for the College of Medicine Class of 2006
COLLEGE NEWS
Amanda Thompson
ANESTHESIOLOGY
Anya Chandler
Sarah Blair
Stanley Kang
Daniel Parsons
University of Utah Affiliated Hospitals
University of Utah Affiliated Hospitals
(PGY1 - UVM/Fletcher Allen)
Mount Sinai Medical Center
(PGY1 - St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center)
UVM/Fletcher Allen
(PGY1 - VA Medical Center, Boise, Idaho)
DERMATOLOGY
Arash Koochek
Deede Liu
Yale-New Haven Hospital
(PGY1 - UC San Diego Medical Center)
University of Kansas Medical Center
EMERGENCY MEDICINE
Jason Aines
Jason Heiner
Joyce Libunao
Jeffrey Randazza
Azalea Saemi
Match Day 2006
FAMILY MEDICINE
For senior medical students at the College, the
waiting is definitely the hardest part. Amidst
the intense final months of their medical
school career comes a day that engenders
stress and anxiety, but also lots of hope. On
March 16, at precisely noon, they and graduating medical students across the country learned of
their fate for the next few years via “the Match” — the
annual rite of passage that reveals where they will
receive residency training.
For students, time appears to tick more slowly during the final minutes before the Match. Not so for
UVM’s Associate Dean for Student Affairs G. Scott
Waterman, M.D., who must hurry to deliver the
envelopes that hold the key to nearly 100 students’
futures in time for mail staff to sort and stuff the appropriate students’ mailboxes by exactly noon. The
STUDENTS ON UGANDAN ROTATION
Just six days after they found out their residency match
results, Andrew Cummins ’06 (at right) and Daniel Parsons
’06, along with Heather Fremgen ’07 (at left), left Vermont
to participate in a clinical rotation sponsored by the
Association of Ugandan Women Medical Doctors. Over the
course of a month, they worked at a rural “bush” clinic in
Maewumpe, Uganda, a village where there
are virtually no medical supplies, and in
Kampala, Uganda’s capital. Following the
association’s request for medical supplies,
Cynthia Forehand, Ph.D., UVM professor of
anatomy and neurobiology, donated a
microscope, and the UVM student health
center donated a large box of medical supplies. In addition, Cummins secured roughly
Sheilla Bachelder
Kohar DerSimonian
Elizabeth Green
Daniel Letinsky
Jessica Rouse
Mattie Towle
responses thereafter varied, and then students returned
to their busy routines, wearier, but relieved that the
wait was finally over.
A total of 91 senior medical students will graduate from
UVM in May — including the 80 students who matched
on March 16, plus 11 students in the military and clinical
specialties who matched in January. Match Day is facilitated by the National Residency Match Program, which uses
a computerized matching system to conduct a residency
match that is designed to optimize the rank ordered
choices of students and residency program directors at the
institutions where students interviewed.
$20,000 worth of medication for the Ugandans through a
group called Medical Assistance Program, which solicits
medication donations from pharmaceutical companies for
distribution to developing countries.
“I expect the bulk of our rotation will involve dealing
with infectious disease, tropical medicine and HIV/AIDS
cases, along with problems regional to Uganda,” said
Cummins. He and Parsons
have had other international experiences, including a
trip to Costa Rica after their
first year of medical school
where they learned medical
Spanish and worked in
rural medical clinics for six
weeks.
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
RAJ CHAWLA , UVM MEDICAL PHOTOGRAPHY
UVM/Fletcher Allen
UC San Francisco
University of Wyoming Cheyenne
Valley Family Medicine, Renton, Wash.
UVM/Fletcher Allen
UVM/Fletcher Allen
GENERAL SURGERY
Adam Cloud
John Lee
Elisha McLam
Sandra Saldana
Myles Webster
University at Buffalo
UC San Francisco East Bay
Brown University/Rhode Island Hospital
Loma Linda University
Brown University/Rhode Island Hospital
INTERNAL MEDICINE
Meghan Brennan
N. Brad Adams
Andrew Cummins
Cindy Dion
Shereen Ghali
Talia Hoffstein
Cindy Huang
Gregory Idos
Sundip Karsan
Erin Kurek
Giovanna Leddy
John Macnowski
Marc Makhani
Sadie Mills
Arezou Minooee
Elaine Parker
Deborah Rabinowitz
Andrew Tinsley
Khai Nguyen
MEDICINE
Eliesa Ing
MEDICINE
University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics
UVM/Fletcher Allen
California Pacific Medical Center
UVM/Fletcher Allen
McGill University
Yale-New Haven Hospital
UMDNJ-RW Johnson Piscataway
University of Southern California
Cedars Sinai Medical Center
University of Utah Medical Center
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
University of Michigan Health System
Cedars Sinai Medical Center
UVM/Fletcher Allen
UC Irvine Medical Center
Cedars Sinai Medical Center
Maine Medical Center
Massachusetts General Hospital
Scripps Clinic/Scripps Green Hospital
– PRELIMINARY
University of Texas Health Science Center
– PRIMARY
Cortney Bosworth
Michael Ashton
Peter Dahl
Philip Chan
Alison Jaquith
Natalie Sinclair
University of Colorado Health Sciences Center
Yale-New Haven Hospital
Stony Brook University Hospital
Rhode Island Hospital
UVM/Fletcher Allen
UVM/Fletcher Allen
MEDICINE / PEDIATRICS
Andrew Rice
Loma Linda University Medical Center
Marli Amin
Rebecca Bagley
Leslie Bradford
Kerrie Adams
Beth Cronin
Erron Kinsler
Michelle Mertz
Dyanne Phillippe
Katherine Wagner
Brown University/Rhode Island Hospital
UC Irvine Medical Center
Case Western Reserve University
University of Wisconsin
Naval Medical Center
Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island
Dartmouth - Hitchcock Medical Center
Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island
Baystate Medical Center
UVM/Fletcher Allen
OPHTHALMOLOGY
Daniel Brooks
University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
(PGY1 - Carilion/Roanoke Memorial)
ORTHOPAEDIC SURGERY
William Eward
Karalyn Church
Duke University Medical Center
University of Western Ontario
PATHOLOGY
Michelle Madden
Laura Schned
Wells Chandler
UVM/Fletcher Allen
UVM/Fletcher Allen
University of Utah Affiliated Hospitals
PEDIATRICS
Amy Blake
University of Wisconsin Hospital & Clinics
Alexa Craig
Maine Medical Center
Sarah Denniston
University of Connecticut
Abigail Donaldson
UMDNJ-RW Johnson Piscataway
Preetha Krishnan
UC San Francisco/Fresno
Webb Long
University of Wisconsin Hospital & Clinics
Lauren Massingham University of Massachusetts Medical School
Laura McCullough
Children’s Hospital Boston
Elizabeth Melendy Maine Medical Center
James Metz
University of Washington Affiliated Hospitals
Logan Murray
Maine Medical Center
Elizabeth Padgett
University of Utah Affiliated Hospitals
Jurat Rajpal
University of Minnesota Medical School
Joann Romano-KeelerUVM/Fletcher Allen
Anupama Vijay
University of Washington Affiliated Hospitals
Ian Zenlea
Yale-New Haven Hospital
PSYCHIATRY
Ashley Clark
Erin Lechner
Cory Nohl
Aron Portnoy
Harbor-UCLA Medical Center
Harvard Longwood Psychiatry
(PGY1 - Mt. Auburn Hospital)
McGaw MC-Northwestern University
Medical School
University of Toronto
RADIATION ONCOLOGY
Allison Quick
Ohio State University (PGY1 - UVM/Fletcher Allen)
RADIOLOGY DIAGNOSTIC
Haroutun Abrahamian Bridgeport Hospital
Jeffrey Brooks
Boston University Medical Center
(PGY1 - St. Vincent’s Hosp. Worcester Medical Ctr.)
Alisa Johnson
UVM/Fletcher Allen
Jessica Panko
UC San Diego Medical Center
(PGY1 - Scripps Mercy Hospital)
SURGERY
– PRELIMINARY
Anne Kieryn
Maine Medical Center
TRANSITIONAL
Nicholas Bremer
Andrea Pereira
Naval Medical Center
National Naval Medical Center
UROLOGY
Peter Holoch
University of Iowa Health Care
NEUROLOGY
Dyveke Pratt
10
Temple University Hospital
Madigan Army Medical Center, Tacoma
University of Chicago Hospitals
University of Massachusetts Medical School
NY Hospital/Med Center of Queens
OB / GYN
Boston University School of Medicine
(PGY1 - St. Vincent’s Hospital)
(Matches as of March 16, 2006)
S P R I N G
2006
11
ALUMNI VIEW
On the other side
jane m. wolf, m.d. ’77
illustration by gerard dubois
by
My life as I knew it changed radically in the
spring of 1994, when I was 44. I used to use words like
“disaster” and “catastrophe” to describe the change,
although I don’t anymore. I know that I am not
the only physician, or the only graduate of the
College of Medicine, to undergo a major life
change. Yet these sorts of events are rarely discussed among physicians, especially in their
alumni bulletins. I thought it was about time
to do so.
My tale begins with the fact that I have
bipolar II disorder — which means that I
have mostly depressions, but occasionally I
will have a mild high. I had had five or six
episodes of depression before I finished my residency, and then I had my first high. I was put on
lithium, and I did very well for 15 years or so. I was
climbing the career ladder: associate professor, fellow,
chief of department, head of hospital. Then I developed
what seemed to be an intractable depression — the
severe kind. I couldn’t work, couldn’t get out of bed
and, after several trials of medications, I ended up in
McLean Hospital for electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).
When I was trained in psychiatry, every patient
receiving ECT had a CAT scan done beforehand, because the one absolute contraindication to ECT is an intracranial mass.
By the time I had ECT, medicine was in the HMO era, and
no one took the time to look
inside my brain. I had my
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V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
ECT, responded very well, but then relapsed, and ended
up on maintenance ECT — a gradually tapering interval of treatments over the course of a year.
But by the third week after my first treatment, the
damage was done. Suddenly, I couldn’t remember
things. Patients commonly have problems with shortterm memory during ECT, and up to six months after,
but my memory impairment has been constant since
that spring. I went back to work, and I would see a new
patient; I would do my usual workup, spending an hour
and a half taking a history. When the patient would
return the next week, I wouldn’t recognize him or her,
wouldn’t remember anything about the story I’d been
told. I got by, mostly thanks to my medical school
training under then-Professor of Medicine Larry
technician said the radiologist wanted to do it again
with contrast. “I wonder why he wants that?” I asked
myself. Afterward, someone (I don’t remember who)
told me that I had an arteriovenous malformation
(AVM) in my frontal lobe. Life came to an abrupt halt.
I scrambled to research these congenital creatures,
scouring the Internet, helped by a friend of my sister
who researched illnesses for an HMO. I awoke panicking every morning at the possibility that my AVM
would decide to go “pop” that day. Mine, fortunately,
was in an accessible place, running in the dura under
the frontal lobe (where white matter transmits information from the hippocampus to the frontal lobe).
Others have these creatures deep within the brainstem,
or tangles of vessels. Nonetheless, to look at the worm
Being a doctor was not a job, not a career, but a defining element
of who I was, and now I would never be able to practice again.
Weed, who drilled into me the need to always take
meticulous notes. The other clinical and administrative
work I did were things that I had already learned, and
many of the patients were familiar. I complained to the
psychiatrist at McLean who followed me about my
memory, and he ultimately prescribed Aricept — but
without doing any imaging studies.
After three years or so I moved to Maine to be closer to my family, and acquired a new psychiatrist in
Boston. In my new job, my brain hit the wall.
Everything was new. Everything had to be learned. I
couldn’t pull things out of my head that had gone in
just minutes or hours before. I forgot staff names,
patient names, patient problems, patient medications,
new medications and their doses, staff meetings — I
struggled to work, yet refused to acknowledge how
impaired I was. My boss saw my impairment, and after
a year or so, I was “let go.” Finally, I had neurosych
testing, which confirmed my memory problems, and
suggested some kind of organic frontal lobe impairment. I brought this up with my psychiatrist, who said,
of course, “Let’s get an MRI.”
The MRI was funny — well, not really. It was claustrophobic, and cold, and after the scan was done, the
that snaked under my brain was stupefying every time
I saw it. It seemed huge, knowing what a confined
space the brain lives in.
I don’t know for sure whether the AVM caused my
memory impairment. Certainly, the ECT was not good
for it. With ECT, the patient doesn’t have a muscular
seizure, but has a physiologic seizure, with an abrupt rise
in systolic blood pressure. Such a spike would act on the
AVM like blowing up a balloon. Damage in its location
could disrupt the delicate chains that tie memory
together. Reading the literature, one is told that ECT
never causes long-term memory impairment, although
most experienced psychiatrists will tell you they have
seen a patient with such an impairment.
I will spare the details of my surgical correction, and
the anxiety over persuading my HMO to let me have it
done at Massachusetts General Hospital, in experienced hands. I guess they decided that the potential
costs of unskilled local hands were outweighed by
experience, so I shaved my head, went to Boston with
my mother, and had four or five tiny little arterioles
tied off, so the “thing” collapsed like a punctured balloon. I still have my burr hole.
continued on page 37
S P R I N G
2006
13
Focusing
in on the Silent
Epidemic
A
After years of public attention
on the stomach — what we put
in it, and the resulting
increase in girth — much more
attention is now drawn to the
stomach’s neighbor, the pancreas. Located at the back of
the stomach, the pancreas has
two main jobs: It helps digest
fats and proteins and manufactures the sugar-regulating
hormone insulin and other
hormones. With current statistics showing that more than
80 percent of people with type
2 diabetes are overweight, it
appears these two organs are
linked in more ways than just
location.
by Jennifer Nachbur
photographs by Rajan Chawla
Diabetes occurs when the body does not produce
or is unable to appropriately use insulin, which is
necessary to convert sugar, starches, and other food
into energy. Skyrocketing rates of type 2 diabetes —
and the life-threatening complications associated
with this disease — have accelerated the need to
learn more about how to stop the disease, as well as
the obesity-diabetes connection. At the College of
Medicine, a wide range of faculty are working hard
to find keys to addressing this epidemic at the
bench, in clinical research trials and through a new
decision-support and outcomes tracking system.
Jack Leahy, M.D., professor of medicine and
director of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism,
and his colleagues Tom Jetton, Ph.D., and Mina
Peshavaria, Ph.D., both research assistant professors of medicine, are investigating the biology of the
pancreas’s islet tissue, which makes up only one percent of the pancreas, but includes the critical beta
cells that are singularly responsible for the body’s
insulin production. Diabetes is an absolute or relative deficiency in insulin. In type 1 diabetes, the beta
cells are destroyed by an autoimmune response.
Type 2 diabetes, which affects about 170 million
people worldwide, is characterized by insulin resistance. In both types, scientists suspect the root of the
problem may lie in the islet beta cells.
To help gain an understanding of the biology of
these cells, the research group examines rodent
models of diabetes and accelerated beta cell growth.
Leahy creates different animal models of type 2 diabetes so that he can focus on the structure and function of the islet beta cells. Jetton and Peshavaria
have taken a complementary approach to studying
beta cell growth. He is a cell biologist and microscopist recognized internationally for his use of
advanced imaging technology such as confocal
microscopy to look at signaling pathways and gene
expression in order to study beta cell growth, differentiation, and death. Peshavaria is the molecular
biologist, specializing in islet cell regeneration, beta
cell-specific gene expression and insulin signaling,
and creating relevant mouse models of accelerated
and reduced beta cell growth. Signaling pathways
are the inter-cellular communications elicited by
proteins called receptors, and gene expression is the
process by which a gene’s DNA sequence is converted into the structures and functions of a cell.
“The synergy among the three of us is outstanding,” says Leahy, who also sees patients at least one
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V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
day per week. All three researchers are well funded.
Peshavaria has a Juvenile Diabetes Research
Foundation Career Development Award, along with
American Diabetes Association funding; Jetton has a
Research Project Grant from the National Institutes
of Health, ADA and pharmaceutical funding; and
Leahy has two NIH Research Project Grants. To
date, the group’s research has provided evidence that
the insulin signaling pathway plays a role in the beta
cell growth and regeneration processes.
“No one has yet identified a pancreatic stem
cell,” says Jetton, who adds that islet cell transplantation — to another avenue being pursued in the
field — is still at the very experimental stage.
“However, by examining enhanced beta cell growth
and regeneration, we can identify ways to circumvent diabetes.”
The future of this area is looking very bright,
according to Jetton, particularly due to a system
Peshavaria has developed that converts a non-beta
cell from the pancreas into beta-like cells. “This
system should help us understand not only how signals from growth factors cause one cell type to
become another cell type, but eventually how stem
cells get converted to different cell lineages,”
explains Peshavaria.
The potential for this process is huge, according
to Jetton. “If you can convert even a small percentage of these non-beta cells into surrogates, you can
get a head start on curing diabetes,” he emphasizes.
OBESITY AND DIABETES
Along the same corridor in Given as the Leahy lab
is the lab of Richard Pratley, M.D., professor of
medicine and leader of the diabetes and metabolism
translational medicine unit, which is directed by
Yong-Ho Lee, Ph.D., research assistant professor of
medicine. Steeped in basic science research, patient
care, and clinical research, Pratley splits his time
between the Given building, the General Clinical
Research Center in Fletcher Allen’s Baird wing, a
clinic at the University Health Center, and a clinic
at Fletcher Allen’s outpatient cardiology office in
South Burlington. Licensed in internal medicine
and gerontology, Pratley is, surprisingly, not an
endocrinologist. Instead, he refers to himself as a
“diabetologist,” a title that aptly covers his training
in metabolism and seven years as an investigator
and head of an NIH diabetes and metabolism unit
in Phoenix, Arizona.
Pratley focuses on fat cell biology and how it
relates to metabolic function, as well as how obesity
relates to the development of risk factors for diabetes and heart disease. “The precise ways in which
obesity causes type 2 diabetes and its complications
are not known, but recent research indicates that fat
cells secrete a large number of hormones and mole-
Jack Leahy, M.D. (right) and Tom Jetton, Ph.D. (left)
in the lab with high-resolution islet beta cell images.
cules that may directly or indirectly cause diabetes
and its complications,” explains Pratley.
In a study currently taking place at the General
Clinical Research Center, Pratley and colleagues
are examining abdominal tissue and blood in men
and women with a wide range of obesity and glucose (sugar) tolerance in an effort to understand
how obesity leads to type 2 diabetes and complications that include high blood pressure and atherosclerosis. They also hope the research will identify
new approaches to diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of type 2 diabetes.
Among Pratley’s many drug treatment trials are a
new class of investigational drugs called DPP-4
inhibitors, which Pratley has been studying for about
four years. DPP-4 inhibitors increase the effectiveness and delay the natural breakdown of a naturally
occurring hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1
(GLP-1). This hormone is normally released from
the intestines into the bloodstream in response to
S P R I N G
2006
17
Senior Research Physiologist Nate Kokinda uses a
DEXA scanner to gather body mass data for a study led
by Richard Pratley, M.D.
food intake and works to lower blood sugar levels
after a meal. As blood sugar levels increase after eating, GLP-1 acts on the beta cells of the pancreas to
promote insulin release and production of new
insulin. It also helps lower blood sugar levels by slowing down the emptying of the stomach and decreasing the amount of glucose made by the liver.
On the horizon are several more studies focused
on weight loss and exercise in type 2 diabetes.
DIABETES INFORMATION
An electronic pathway that can help patients gain
better control of their diabetes is the aim of
Benjamin Littenberg, M.D., Henry and Carleen
Tufo Professor of Medicine, director of General
Internal Medicine and principle investigator of the
Vermont Diabetes Information System (VDIS).
Launched in 2003 and funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Diabetes &
Digestive & Kidney Diseases, the VDIS focuses on
tracking hospital-based lab results for the HbA1c
test — the primary long-term measure of blood
sugar control.
“Our system communicates with both patients
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V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
and their providers, via mail and fax, to help them
interpret laboratory tests, remember to obtain tests
when needed, and keep track of the patients’ health
status,” says Littenberg. “Ultimately, the system is
designed to reduce the long-term complications of
diabetes.”
Several key partners, including the Northeast
Community Laboratory Alliance, the Vermont
Program for Quality in Health Care, the UVM
Area Health Education Centers, and UVM’s teaching hospital Fletcher Allen Health Care, have
played a key role in the set-up of the VDIS and its
success. The system now includes 11 labs, 62 practices, 124 primary care providers across Vermont
and in upstate New York and New Hampshire and
has over 8,000 patients enrolled.
Diana Barnard, M.D.’90, a family medicine specialist in Middlebury, Vt., joined the VDIS in 2004.
“VDIS really helped me see the benefits of computerized medical records — quality of care, reduced
duplication of services, cost-effectiveness,” says
Barnard. She’s also a fan of the VDIS lab report,
which provides previous test results in addition to
new results, which allows her to immediately track
her patients’ improvement. “Overall, it helps get
patients who haven’t shown up for a test onto my
radar screen.”
Barnard says primary care physicians like her
often have more access to diabetes patients than
specialists, due to frequent office visits to treat a
host of other health problems that typically accompany the disease. In the future, Barnard would like
to see the VDIS add a diabetes education component, a service she currently relies on endocrinology consultants to provide due to the limitations of
her busy practice. She also wishes the entire country would adopt a standardized system to track diabetes patients.
Barnard’s wish just might be granted, albeit in
slow, incremental steps. Last fall, New York City’s
health department consulted with Littenberg and
his team about the program and in July 2007, the
department will roll out a pilot intervention program in the South Bronx modeled after the VDIS.
The program’s role in New York has brought
national recognition, too. Articles in the January 11
Washington Post and February 9 New England
Journal of Medicine mentioned the VDIS — New
York City connection. In April, Littenberg and
VDIS co-investigators Charles Maclean, M.D.,
VDIS project director and associate professor of
medicine, and Michael Gagnon, director of business
development and informatics at Fletcher Allen
Health Care published an article in the American
Journal of Public Health. A new business venture is in
the works as well. Littenberg and two faculty colleagues were encouraged by the University’s technology transfer office to form a company called
Vermont Clinical Decision Support to distribute
software and other approaches to improving chronic care that they developed as part of the VDIS.
GROWING PROBLEM , GROWING RESEARCH
In the last decade, diabetes research and care has
developed into a prominent specialty at UVM, with
Leahy’s division playing a critical role in a number
of research trials, including the recently FDAapproved inhaled insulin studies. “There are people
all over the institution looking at diabetes,” Leahy
says. Those experts, in addition to Leahy, Jetton,
Peshavaria, Pratley, and Littenberg, include a group
of cardiologists nationally recognized for their
expertise in diabetes and heart disease. First and
foremost, says Leahy, is Burton Sobel, M.D., professor of medicine, who spearheaded the establishment of The Cardiovascular Center at the College
and Fletcher Allen Health Care in 2002.
“Cardiologists know that heart failure is an enorANDY DUBACK , UVM MEDICAL PHOTOGRAPHY
The Vermont Diabetes Information System helps Diana
Barnard, M.D.’90 in her Middlebury practice.
mous problem in diabetes,” he explains, “and the
Cardiovascular Center is one of the clear collaborative efforts here.” Martin Lewinter, M.D., professor
of medicine and a heart failure specialist, is one of
the country’s leading experts on diabetic cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the heart does not contract effectively that leads to heart failure in diabetes
patients. Pratley, a member of the Center, is working in conjunction with David Schneider, M.D.,
professor of medicine and director of cardiology, on
a number of longer-term, multicenter trials, which
aim to find out if a variety of diabetes treatments
help prevent heart attacks and other cardiovascular
complications in diabetes patients.
“UVM has some great advantages,” says Leahy.
“It’s a small institution where you don’t have
many people doing the same thing in a sort of
competition with each other. It’s a real collegial
VM
environment.”
S P R I N G
2006
19
For more than a quarter-century,
a cooperative relationship in medical
education has brought UVM medical
students to Maine Medical Center.
the
Maine
Ingredient
for any committed medical student,
by
EDWARD NEUERT
photographs by
BRIDGET BESAW GORMAN
20
(Clockwise from far left) UVM medical
students in a discussion group with
Virginia Eddy, M.D.; Dr. Eddy and
Renee Rickard ’07 in surgery; Greg
Connolly ’07 and Allison Collen ’07 at
the Portland waterfront; Ben Huerth
’07 on a “rural rotation” at Stephens
Memorial Hospital in Norway, Maine.
the boundary between home and school can be a bit blurry at
times. For Renee Rickard ’07 and other third- and fourth-year
students receiving part of their clinical education at Portland’s
Maine Medical Center (MMC), there’s almost no boundary—
and as far as the students are concerned, that’s a very good
thing. Every morning, Rickard can get out of bed in the house
she shares with several other students in the west side of
Portland, fix a quick breakfast, and walk out her front door,
which lies almost in the shadow of MMC’s imposing Victorian
Gothic tower. Rickard and her classmates are part of a threedecade tradition that has seen more than a thousand College
of Medicine students receive part of their clinical education
200 miles and two states away from the Burlington campus.
21
Third-year student
Renee Rickard in the
midst of a busy day
during a surgery
rotation at Maine
Medical Center.
“This is a relationship in which both parties give
something and get something,” notes Robert BingYou, M.D., MMC’s associate vice-president for
medical education and an assistant professor of
medicine at UVM. “MMC provides excellent clinical training for the students, and they in turn add
great value to our campus; they help create an even
more stimulating environment for our doctors and
residents.”
Two programs are the main components of this
relationship, says Lewis First, M.D., chair of pediatrics and senior associate dean for medical education at the College. One is the third-year Clinical
Clerkship, which all medical students participate in.
Students can sign up to perform four-month long
blocks of their clerkship in Maine, and are assigned
slots in the program by lottery. As a part of their
clerkship education, students may be placed by the
Maine Practice Network in clinical settings far
beyond Portland, First explains. A smaller number
of fourth-year students from the College also
choose to do acting internships at MMC.
“Interaction between Maine faculty and UVM fac-
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V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
ulty and administration is constant,” says First.
“Maine faculty were active participants in the
design of the Vermont Integrated Curriculum; and
clerkship directors from both MMC and the
College meet twice a year as a group, at MMC in
the fall, and at UVM in the spring.”
For MMC, the educational relationship with the
College of Medicine is vital. “With education one of
our three mission cornerstones, the connection
MMC enjoys with UVM is critically important,”
says MMC President and Chief Executive Officer
Vincent S. Conti. “Students who interact with our
residents and faculty bring with them the latest the
academic world has to offer, complementing the
knowledge, expertise, and guidance our house and
medical staff provide. In turn, the richness of the
MMC clinical and academic environment is equally
important to the preparation of exceptional medical
students.”
MMC traces its beginnings to the 1870s, when
there were only two other hospitals in the state. Its
classic Victorian main wing opened on Portland’s
Bramhall Street in 1874. The Maine Eye and Ear
S P R I N G
2006
23
Infirmary and Portland’s Children’s Hospital
opened their doors in 1890 and 1908, respectively.
The three institutions merged in 1951 to form
Maine Medical Center. Today, MMC, including its
Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital, has 606 licensed
beds and is the premier tertiary care center for its
area of New England.
4
on an afternoon in march, just after
returning to Burlington from nearly a year in
Portland, third-year medical student Greg
Connolly reminisces fondly about his clinical clerk24
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
ship at MMC. “I signed up for one four-month
block of clerkship in Maine, and the lottery gave me
two blocks,” he says. “I was glad to be able to be
there for that amount of time. You get a great feeling from staff at every level at MMC. Every single
doctor I interacted with in my time there seemed
excited to teach. Portland is very similar to
Burlington. It’s a very nice place to live and raise a
family. So, like Burlington, it seems to attract physicians who could just as easily be at institutions in
bigger cities, but who chose to work and teach
here.” At MMC, Connolly’s clinical studies included clerkship rotations in general internal medicine,
surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, family medicine, neurology, and psychiatry.
Throughout his time at MMC, Connolly lived in
one of the houses provided by the program for
UVM students, located just across the street from
MMC on Portland’s Western Promenade, a bluff
overlooking a picturesque view of the highlands of
western Maine. The “Western Prom,” as it’s known
locally, was one of the city’s most exclusive neighborhoods in the late 19th Century, and the area is
still filled with beautiful, stately homes, four of
which now house College of Medicine students.
“I didn’t miss my classmates while I was in Maine
because, basically, I was never apart from them,”
says Connolly. “Since we live together here, I actually felt like I was seeing more of my classmates in
Portland than I had in Burlington. That was a nice,
unforeseen benefit.” Now embarking on his fourth
thing more to them, different ways of looking at
them, that makes the
experience a rich one.
When
we’re
seeing
patients in the Emergency
Department, we structure
it so the students follow
patients through the
whole process—resuscitation of critical cases, scrubbing-in to the operating room. We’re not making
cars here, we’re making physicians, so we want them
to see everything in the process.”
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics Lorraine
McElwain, M.D., is another MMC doctor with a
deep interest in medical education, and a connection to the program that stretches back to her own
days as a medical student. A graduate of the College
of Medicine Class of 1989, McElwain came to
Maine for five months in her third year of medical
school for separate OB/GYN and medicine rotations. “I loved it here,” she says. “And I had no idea
what to expect. I’d grown up near Newport, Vt.,
and had never been to Portland. But the program’s
comfortable housing made it very easy to make the
transition. I was interested in pediatrics, and I’d
heard raves about the department here.”
McElwain came back to do a pediatric acting
internship in her fourth year of school, then did her
residency at MMC. She is now assistant professor of
pediatrics at the College and is director of inpatient
(From far left) Greg
Connolly ’07 recently
finished his clinical
clerkship at MMC. At
center in the photo at
far left, top, is Chisholm
House, one of four
student residences.
year clinical studies at Fletcher Allen Health Care,
Connolly, who ran the administrative side of the
Himalayan Cataract Project before medical school,
hopes to one day practice ophthalmology.
Renee Rickard has, like Connolly, had an extended stay in Portland. The third-year student, originally from Milford, Conn., began her clinical clerkship at MMC, and so enjoyed her experiences at the
medical center and that she managed to finish her
clerkship there. She plans to spend much of her
fourth year on rotation in Portland.
One reason Rickard cites for her good experience
at MMC is Clinical Professor of Surgery Virginia
Eddy, M.D. Eddy has been practicing and teaching
at the hospital for five years, but spent more than two
decades before that at the University of South
Carolina, and at Vanderbilt University, where she ran
the surgery clinical clerkship for many years. “For
me, as for so many other doctors here, the connection with UVM medical students is very important,”
Eddy says. “Every day I see students play important
roles here. They present cases and they bring some-
S P R I N G
2006
25
ized.” By 1980, the program
was in full swing.
The value of the program
continues to be recognized
today. “There’s no question
that medical education is
essential to the vibrant life of a medical center,” says
George Higgins, M.D., chief medical officer and
vice president for medical affairs at MMC and associate dean for Maine affairs at the College. “I recently heard one of our OB residents speak about how
important it was for her to know she would be working with students. It was a very positive factor in her
deciding to do her residency here. Our commitment
is to always explore ways to make this relationship
even better, to meet the medical needs of both our
states. I’m impressed that the College of Medicine is
clearly committed to that, too.”
Ben Huerth ’07
examines a patient
at Stephens
Memorial Hospital
in Norway, Maine.
pediatrics and clerkship director at MMC. She
interacts daily with medical students as they cycle
through their rotations. “I usually have three new
students each month in inpatient pediatrics, and
usually two fourth-years doing acting internships. I
love the connection with students—you’re constantly learning along with them!”
4
the uvm-mmc connection came about in
the late 1970s as a result of a unique personal connection between the two institutions. “Maine’s last
medical school, at Bowdoin College, had closed in
the 1920s,” says David Tormey, M.D., former associate dean at the College of Medicine. Edward
Andrews, M.D., the College’s dean in the late 1960s,
who, during his tenure, had spearheaded the curriculum reform that vastly increased the amount of clinical education medical students received, became
UVM’s president in 1970, and then president and
chief executive officer of MMC in 1975. “It was Ed
Andrews who saw that both institutions could cooperate and benefit from working together,” says
Tormey. “We’d get increased clinical education
opportunities for our students, and Maine would get
a cadre of top-quality students.”
Now retired in Yarmouth, Maine, Andrews
agrees with Tormey. “Students just have a way of
stimulating the place,” he says. “I was in a position
to know everybody, and they all seemed willing to
explore the idea. All our chairs at MMC realized the
value of having those students here, and they really
got behind the idea. Around 1979 it was formal-
26
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
HALL A
P R E S I D E N T
C L A S S
’
S
28
29
C O R N E R
N O T E S
ALUMNI RECOGNITION AWARDS
D E V E L O P M E N T
N E W S
O B I T U A R I E S
30
33
38
In 1905, when the College of Medicine completed its third home at the corner of Prospect and Pearl streets
in Burlington, the main lecture room, where students spent so much of their time, was named Hall A.
The Hall A magazine section seeks to be a meeting place for all former students of the College of Medicine.
4
in the midst of his clinical clerkship, thirdyear med student Ben Huerth took part in a threeweek session through the Maine Practice Network.
The network provides clinical education and training to students and residents at nearly two dozen
sites across the state. Huerth worked with doctors at
Stephens Memorial Hospital in Norway, a town
with a population of about 4,600 located about 50
miles northwest of Portland.
“At Stephens, I’d link up with my “hospitalist-ofthe–day” and follow that person,” say Huerth. “I
received great hands-on training. And being here in
Norway for a chunk of time gave me a good feeling
for the community, and an opportunity to absorb
the social part of being a doctor.”
Huerth, a Native American, looks forward to
that community connection in his future practice.
Married and the father of two children, he hopes to
ultimately practice at Maine’s Penobscot Indian
Island Reservation, where his wife grew up. In
doing so, he’ll become one of the hundreds of new
physicians over the years who have had their practice influenced by their time on the College’s “other
campus.”
“I must admit, I’m awfully proud of it,” says
Edward Andrews, as he thinks of that long line of
past students. “This program is one of those things
that has paid off for both institutions. It’s been good
for the students, good for the faculty and, most
VM
importantly, it’s been good for the patients.”
S P R I N G
2006
27
PRESIDENT ’S CORNER
M.D. CLASS NOTES
H A L L A
UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT
COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
DEVELOPMENT &
ALUMNI RELATIONS OFFICE
ASSISTANT DEAN
rick blount
DEVELOPMENT OPERATIONS MANAGER
“The time has come the Walrus said, to talk of many
things, of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages
and kings.” My friends in the Medical Development and
Alumni Relations office remind me that one of the
things I need to do is pen this, my last Vermont Medicine
President’s Corner. “Last” can be a rather ominous
word, filled with potential foreboding, a term that
exudes finality. At least that’s how it seems at my age when someone refers to
anything as “your last”! In this instance, however, “last” is but a harbinger of
one of the few constants in life: change. And while penning letters is not my
strong suit, it is a bit stronger suit than then my two-handed-fade-away-almostjump-shot in basketball. And there I go again talking about fading. For me,
leaving UVM has been a recurring event. As many reasons as I have at times
had to leave, there are always even more reasons to return.
One of the reasons to return is typified by the ‘Johns’, John Tampas,
M.D.’54, and Dean John Evans, who recently announced the he will step down
as dean this summer. In a cast of so many dedicated individuals at UVM, they
have always stood high. They are a steady and constant reminder to us all of the
backbone and character of the UVM College of Medicine. Their gifted and
dedicated leadership has brought about the visible and palpable progress that
amazes me during every one of my semi-annual visits. They have ridden this
wave of development with unparalleled skill, yet they have always remained
constant. They and their many dedicated colleagues at UVM have shepherded
students through a complex educational process with energy and enthusiasm,
with sure hands, with perspicacity and prescience, guiding the students’ and the
College’s needs synergistically.
Perhaps the most poignant reason that has driven many of my returns to
UVM: I re-realized the almost desperate financial needs of so many medical
students. I felt motivated to help. After being asked to serve on the Alumni
Executive Committee (AEC), the other AEC committee members and I began
seeking ways to lessen medical student’s financial burden in a meaningful way.
Nearly all of us had once shared this same burden — no money when money
was needed most. Students, especially medical students, should not have to
worry about the next rent payment, the next meal, the tuition, … It is perhaps
the most important time in life to have these worries lifted. Students endure
enough hardship during their intense four-year effort to absorb mountains of
material, a hardship exacerbated by the requirement at the most impoverished
time in their lives, to find the means to pay for the privilege of being allowed
the hardship.
As alumni, on the Executive Committee or not, we can and should make a
difference. Even though each of our individual efforts may be small and even
though they may be our “last,” together they will make a difference — a lasting
difference, if you will. That’s the kind of “last” I can live with.
Charles Howard, M.D.’69
28
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
ginger lubkowitz
DIRECTOR , MAJOR GIFTS
manon o ’ connor
DIRECTOR , MEDICAL ANNUAL GIVING
sarah keblin
DIRECTOR , MEDICAL ALUMNI RELATIONS
kelli shonter
DEVELOPMENT OFFICER
travis morrison
ASSISTANTS
jane aspinall
james gilbert
todd stewart
UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT
MEDICAL ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
ALUMNI EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
2005–2006
OFFICERS
( TWO -YEAR TERMS )
PRESIDENT
charles b. howard, m.d. ’ 69
(2004-2006)
PRESIDENT- ELECT
marvin a. nierenberg, m.d. ’60
(2004-2006)
TREASURER
patricia fenn, m.d. ’65
(2004-2006)
SECRETARY
ruth a. seeler, m.d. ’62
(2004-2006)
EXECUTIVE SECRETARY
john tampas, m.d. ’54
( ONGOING )
MEMBERS - AT- LARGE
( SIX-YEAR TERMS )
james c. hebert, m.d. ’77
(2000-2006)
paul b. stanilonis, m.d. ’65
(2000-2006)
carleton r. haines, m.d.’ 43
(2004-2006)
don p. chan, m.d. ’76
(2002-2008)
leslie s. kerzner, m.d. ’95
(2002-2008)
frederick mandell, m.d. ’64
(2002-2008)
mark allegretta, ph.d. ’90
(2003-2009)
mark pasanen, m.d.’92
(2004-2010)
naomi r. leeds, m.d.’00
(2004-2010)
h. james wallace iii, m.d. ’88
(2004-2010)
If you have news to share, please contact your class agent
or the alumni office at [email protected] or
(802) 656-4014. If your email address has changed, please
send it to: [email protected].
1941
John S. Poczabut
62 Doral Farm Road
Stamford, CT 06902
(203) 322-3343
1943
Francis Arnold Caccavo
(M.D. Dec. 1943)
51 Thibault Parkway
Burlington, VT 05401
(802) 862-3841
Carleton R. Haines
(M.D. Dec. 1943)
88 Mountain View Road
Williston, VT 05495
(802) 878-3115
Harry M. Rowe
(M.D. March 1943)
65 Main Street
P.O. Box 755
Wells River, VT 05081
(802) 757-2325
[email protected]
1944
Wilton W. Covey
357 Weybridge Street
Middlebury, VT 05753
(802) 388-1555
1945
Robert E. O’Brien
414 Thayer Beach Road
Colchester, VT 05446
(802) 862-0394
[email protected]
H. Gordon Page
9 East Terrace
South Burlington, VT 05403
(802) 864-7086
R E U N I O N
1946
’ 0 6
J. Bishop McGill
152 Sanborn Road
Stowe, VT 05672
(802) 253-4081
[email protected]
George H. Dickinson sends
out “my best wishes for
the Class of ’46.”
1947
George H. Bray
110 Brookside Road
New Britain, CT 06052
(860) 225-3302
Porter H. Dale
5 McKinley Street
Montpelier, VT 05602
(802) 229-9258
1948
S. James Baum
1790 Fairfield Beach Road
Fairfield, CT 06430
(203) 255-1013
[email protected]
J. John Goodman is “still
practicing dermatology. I
have two boys still in
school. One in college and
one in law school, so I
have to keep working.”
1949
James Arthur Bulen
4198 North Longvalley Rd.
Hernando, FL 34442
(352) 746-4513
[email protected]
Joseph C. Foley
32 Fairmount Street
Burlington, VT 05401
(802) 862-0040
[email protected]
UPCOMING EVENTS
Richard E. Pease
P.O. Box 14
Jericho, VT 05465
(802) 899-2543
May 21, 2006
UVM Commencement
UVM College of Medicine
June 9-11, 2006
College of Medicine Reunion
UVM College of Medicine
Edward S. Sherwood
24 Worthley Road
Topsham, VT 05076
(802) 439-5816
[email protected]
June 22, 2006
Colodny Lecture
James Betts, M.D.’73
UVM College of Medicine
1950
August 2, 2006
5th Annual Peter A. Martin Brain
Aneurysm Golf Tournament
Kwiniaska Golf Club
Simon Dorfman
8256 Nice Way
Sarasota, FL 34238
(941) 926-8126
R E U N I O N
1951
’ 0 6
Edward W. Jenkins M.D.
7460 South Pittsburg Ave.
Tulsa, OK 74136
(918) 492-7960
Bill Sohn says he is still
working in the office
Tuesdays and Thursdays.
When recently asked what
he did the rest of the week
he replied, “Whatever my
wife tells me to do!” Bill
says he has a daughter
who lives in Burlington.
He plans to attend the
55th reunion in June.
Frances Phillips Conklin
says she is not going to St.
Croix this winter (as she
has for the last 15 years)
because her daughter’s
adopted a 3-year-old
Chinese charmer who “is
too dear to leave.” Fran is
still active with Women in
Medicine at Brown
University Med. School.
This year she will complete 25 years on the
board of the R.I. Medical
Women’s Assoc. Her four
children all live in Rhode
October 7-10, 2006
American Academy of Pediatrics
Alumni Reception
Atlanta, Georgia
October 21, 2006
Alumni Executive Committee
Meeting
UVM College of Medicine
November 26-December 1, 2006
Radiological Society of North
America Alumni Reception
Chicago, Illinois
For updates on events see:
www.med.uvm.edu/medalum
Island. Harley Shepard
and his wife, Adelaide,
will be at reunion in June.
Jim Downs and Tony
Alberico are unable to
attend because of illness.
Dick Esser e-mailed from
Sweden where he has pursued a career as a psychiatrist. He has retired but
continues to play violin
with an orchestra in
Stockholm. He intends to
join his classmates for the
2006 reunion. Dick also
writes that he has been
skiing in the French Alps
S P R I N G
2006
29
M.D. CLASS NOTES
2006 ALUMNI RECOGNITION AWARDS
Since the 1960s, the Medical alumni Association has recognized the accomplishments of
its members with a series of awards presented at Medical Reunion. Current and past
recipients appear on the College of Medicine’s awards display in the Given Building.
A. BRADLEY SOULE AWARD
Honoring exceptional loyalty
and dedication to the College
Virginia Donaldson, M.D.’51
Dr. Donaldson is a Professor Emerita of
Pediatrics and Medicine at the University
of Cincinnati College of Medicine. She is a
prolific and accomplished pediatric
hematologist who is particularly known
for her work in identifying a key, inherited
deficiency involved in the cause of hereditary angioneurotic edema — a potentially fatal disease that causes swelling of
the face and airways — and for subsequent investigations that have advanced
our understanding of the disease. In 1981,
she received the Distinguished Academic
Achievement award from the College of
Medicine. Dr. Donaldson is a loyal supporter of her medical alma mater, currently serving on the planned giving committee. She created an endowment to
promote the impact of the biological sciences on clinical medicine.
RECENT ALUMNI AWARD
Marc Passman, M.D.’91
Dr. Passman is Assistant Professor of
Surgery and the Director of the Vanderbilt
University Medical Center Vein Clinic. In
July 2006 he will become Associate
Professor of Surgery at the University of
Alabama. Dr. Passman has published 20
journal articles, co-authored eight book
chapters, and is a peer reviewer for three
journals. He is a member of more than 15
professional societies and is a Councilor to
the American Venous Forum and the
Peripheral Vascular Surgery Society. In
1997, Dr. Passman received the chief resident teaching award from the
Department of Surgery at Oregon Health &
Science University.
Mario Trabulsy, M.D.’91
Dr. Trabulsy is Assistant Professor of
Surgery & Emergency Medicine at the
UVM College of Medicine. While a resi-
dent at Highland General Hospital of
Oakland in 1994 and 1995, she won two
awards for excellence in emergency medicine, one from HGH and another from
Oakland Children’s Hospital. More recently, Dr. Trabulsy was named a 2005-2006
Frymoyer Scholar at UVM for her proposal
to develop an innovative, standardized
curriculum for medical students’ required
emergency medicine course. Dr. Trabulsy
has served on Ultrasound Credentialing
and Emergency Preparedness committees at Fletcher Allen Health Care, and is
currently a member of the Vermont
Integrated Curriculum Design committee
at the UVM College of Medicine.
AWARD FOR DISTINGUISHED
ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT
William G. Cioffi, M.D.’81
Dr. Cioffi is the Surgeon-in-Chief at the
Rhode Island Hospital, the President of
University Surgical Associates, Inc., as well
as the J. Murray Beardsley Professor and
Chairman of the Department of Surgery at
the Brown University School of Medicine.
He is a pre-eminent burn specialist who
has had considerable international attention for his work in emergencies. Dr. Cioffi
was featured in a number of national
media outlets for leading the team that
saved the lives of 64 burn victims from the
deadly fire at The Station Nightclub in
West Warwick, RI. He is a former U.S. Army
surgeon who was chief of the burn study
branch at the Institute of Surgical
Research (The Brooke Army Medical
Center) at Fort Sam Houston, Texas.
During his service in the military, Dr. Cioffi
received the Meritorious Service Medal
(1994) and the Army Commendation
Medal (1992). Dr. Cioffi has served on the
editorial boards of 10 professional journals, and has served on a vast number of
committees at RIH and Brown University.
Ronald M. Lechan, M.D.’76
Dr. Lechan is the Acting Chief of
Endocrinology, Diabetes, Metabolism
and Molecular Medicine at Tufts-New
England Medical Center. Dr. Lechan is a
Diplomate of the American Board of
Internal Medicine and Subspecialty
Board in Endocrinology and Metabolism.
He is also a Fellow of the American
College of Physicians, an elected member
of the American Society for Clinical
Investigation and the Academy of Science
at the University of Bologna, has served
on the Program Committee of The
Endocrine Society, and is a founding
member of The American Pituitary Association. He has served on the editorial
boards of Endocrinology and Endocrine
Pathology, and has participated as a
member and Chairman of the Special
Emphasis Panel for the NIH. His research
has been funded by the National
Institutes of Health since 1981.
George F. Murphy, M.D.’76
Dr. Murphy is Chief of Dermatopathology
at Brigham and Women’s Hospital,
Director of Morphology & Cell Analysis at
the Harvard Skin Disease Research Center,
and a Professor of Pathology at Harvard
Medical School. Dr. Murphy’s investigative focus has involved elucidation of the
cellular and molecular pathways responsible for early phases of skin inflammation, and his research has contributed to a
number of important discoveries in cutaneous biology. He has published more
than 150 journal articles, authored, coauthored or edited six textbooks, and has
authored or co-authored more than 60
book chapters, including contributions to
the seminal textbook Robbin’s Pathologic
Basis of Disease. Dr. Murphy is a founder of
the Center for Dermatopathology at
Thomas Jefferson University and established the Division of Dermatopathology
at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where
he currently serves as Director. He
became President of the American Society
of Dermatopathology in 1997.
William W. Pendlebury, M.D.’76
Dr. Pendlebury is Professor of Pathology,
Neurology and Medicine at the UVM
College of Medicine, and also serves as
Course Director of the College of
Medicine’s Generations Course taught
to second-year medical students. At
Fletcher Allen Health Care, Dr.
Pendlebury is Medical Director of the
Memory Center, Medical Director of
Elder Care Services, and Director of
Neuropathology. His research for the
past 20 years has been focused on
basic science and clinical aspects of
Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Pendlebury
currently serves as a member of the
Governor’s Commission on Alzheimer’s
disease and Related Disorders and previously served on the External Review
Committee for the University of
Rochester Alzheimer’s Disease Center.
He is an ad hoc consultant to the
National Institute on Aging, and is a
permanent member of its Special
Emphasis Panel. He is the author or coauthor on over 148 manuscripts,
abstracts and edited book chapters. In
1994, he was honored with the Ernest
Hiram Buttles Endowed Professorship,
honoring a commitment to and excellence in the teaching of pathology.
AWARD FOR SERVICE TO
MEDICINE AND COMMUNITY
Donald S. Bicknell, M.D.’61
Dr. Bicknell has been a family medicine
physician in Vergennes, Vermont, for
over 40 years. During that time he has
been an active volunteer who has
devoted his energy and enthusiasm to
a wide variety of professional and
community causes, serving as Ferrisburgh’s town moderator, co-founding
the Vergennes Union High School
Booster Club, volunteering his services
as a physician to several area schools,
refereeing for the local Little League,
teaching Sunday school, and contributing to many local community
organizations and projects.
Douglas M. Black, M.D.’56
Dr. Black is founder and senior partner
of Concord Obstetrics & Gynecology in
New Hampshire. A dedicated commu-
nity leader, Dr. Black holds a seat on the
Concord City Council, is chair of the
Concord Area Task Force Against
Racism & Intolerance, and is a member
of the standing committee of the
Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire.
He has served on the board of directors
of many local organizations, including
the YMCA, the American Cancer
Society, and the Capitol Center for the
Arts. In 2001, Dr. Black won the
Community Service Award of the
American College of Obstetricians &
Gynecologists.
James Rines, M.D.’88
Dr. Rines is a physician with the MidCoast Medical Group in Bath, Maine.
He has volunteered his professional
services to underserved populations in
Zimbabwe, Peru, and most notably,
rural Thailand. In Thailand Dr. Rines
and his wife, Michelle, a registered
nurse, spent a year providing a wide
range of medical services to patients of
the Kwai River Christian Hospital. In
the Bath area, Dr. Rines has volunteered with and supported many local
service and arts organizations.
Peter Stern, M.D.’81
Dr. Stern is a former Assistant Professor
of Anesthesiology at the College of
Medicine. An active supporter of local
non-profits, Dr. Stern serves on the
boards of many service, education, and
welfare organizations in the Burlington area. He is a trustee of Champlain
College, a board member of the
Howard Center for Human Services, an
honorary board member of the Stern
Center for Language and Learning, and
a board member of Partners in Adventure, a summer camp that brings
together disabled and non-disabled
youth. At UVM, Dr. Stern helped organize fundraising for the John Abajian, Jr.
— John Mazuzan, Jr. Lectureship in
Anesthesiology, and in 2005, together
with his wife, Marjorie, established a
fund that provides financial aid for
medical students who seek help with
learning skills.
with his daughter, and
recently finished writing a
book which sums up what
he has learned from “my
work in psychiatry and
child psychiatry. Its tentative title is The Bottom Line
in Living: The Best of
Living and How to Get It.”
He plays a good deal of
chamber music, and four
years ago he moved from
Lund to Stockholm where
his daughters also live.
1952
Brewster Davis Martin
Box 128
362 VT Route 110
Chelsea, VT 05038
(802) 685-4541
Arthur S. Kunin writes that
“It was refreshing and fun,
so many years since I took
the course in Freshman
History — ‘Taking a
Physical Examination,’ to
teach it this Fall after 57
years!”
1953
Richard N. Fabricius
17 Fairview Road
Old Bennington, VT 05201
(802) 442-4224
[email protected]
1954
John E. Mazuzan, Jr.
366 South Cove Road
Burlington, VT 05401
(802) 864-5039
[email protected]
Kenneth O. Williams was
honored in June 2005 at
The Children’s Hospital of
Los Angeles when Mr. and
Mrs. William Close and
Family established the Dr.
Kenneth O. Williams Chair
S P R I N G
2006
31
M.D. CLASS NOTES
H A L L A
for Bone and Soft Tissue
Tumor Research, “with
the intention of finding a
cure for childhood cancers, in appreciation for
the compassionate care
Dr. Williams provided to
the Close family for so
many years.”
1955
Marshall G. London
102 Summit Street
Burlington, VT 05401
(802)864-4927
[email protected]
R E U N I O N
1956
’ 0 6
Ira H. Gessner
1306 Northwest 31st Street
Gainesville, FL 32605
(352) 378-1820
[email protected]
1957
Larry Coletti
34 Gulliver Circle
Norwich, CT 06360
(860) 887-1450
[email protected]
Marvin A. Nierenberg
6 West 77th Street
New York, NY 10024
(212) 874-6484
[email protected]
Melvyn H. Wolk
Clinton Street
P.O. Box 772
Waverly, PA 18471
(570) 563-2215
[email protected]
R E U N I O N
1961
’ 0 6
Wilfrid L. Fortin
17 Chapman Street
Nashua, NH 03060
(603) 882-6202
[email protected]
1962
Ruth Andrea Seeler
2431 North Orchard
Chicago, IL 60614
(773) 472-3432
1963
1958
Peter Ames Goodhue
Stamford Gynecology, P.C.
70 Mill River Street
Stamford, CT 06902
(203) 359-3340
H. Alan Walker
229 Champlain Drive
Plattsburgh, NY 12901
(518) 561-8991
[email protected]
Jay E. Selcow
27 Reservoir Road
Bloomfield, CT 06002
(860) 243-1359
[email protected]
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
(the children of his daughter Leslie Kerzner, M.D.’95).
1967
1964
John F. Dick II
P.O. Box 60
Salisbury, VT 05769
(802) 352-6625
Anthony P. Belmont
211 Youngs Point Road
Wiscasset, ME 04578
(207) 882-6228
[email protected]
1965
John J. Murray
P.O. Box 607
Colchester, VT 05446
(802) 865-9390
[email protected]
1959
32
1960
Arnold Kerzner keeps busy
as any UVM alum. He has
taken on two new positions
— as president of The
New England Council of
Child Psychiatry, and clinical instructor, Harvard
Medical School. He also
stays young playing house
with his two granddaughters, Elana and Adriana,
George A. Little
97 Quechee Road
Hartland, VT 05048
(802) 436-2138
george.a.little@
dartmouth.edu
Allan L. Gardner writes
that he is still “practicing
full time, healthy and
happy, family doing well.
Regards to all my classmates.” Andy Packard is
now (semi) retired from
his interventional angiography career of 34 years at
the Maine Medical Center.
1966
David Jay Keller
4 Deer Run
Mendon, VT 05701
(802) 773-2620
[email protected]
Timothy John Terrien
14 Deerfield Road
South Burlington, VT 05403
(802) 862-8395
Joseph H. Vargas III
574 US Route 4 East
Rutland Town, VT 05701
(802) 775-4671
[email protected]
R E U N I O N
1968
’ 0 6
Robert George Sellig
31 Overlook Drive
Queensbury, NY 12804
(518) 793-7914
[email protected]
G. Millard Simmons
3165 Grass Marsh Drive
Mount Pleasant, SC 29466
[email protected]
G. Millard Simmons writes:
“We now live in Mt.
Pleasant, S.C., which
is more central to our
family.”
DEVELOPMENT NEWS
Russell, MA 01071
(413) 568-8659
[email protected]
John F. Beamis, Jr.
24 Lorena Road
Winchester, MA 01890
(781) 729-7568
[email protected]
R E U N I O N
1971
1972
Charles B. Howard
256 Bridgepoint Road
Belle Mead, NJ 08502
(908) 359-6161
[email protected]
F. Farrell Collins, Jr.
205 Page Road
Pinehurst, NC 28374
(910) 295-2429
John Healy took a fourhour test in Tucson in
January to be recertified in
neuroradiology for another 10 years. Next test
2016. “I am an examiner
for the American Board of
Radiology. Oral boards for
a week this coming June.
Still skiing with Steve
Firestone. Barbara and I
are putting on three
Radiology ski meetings at
Alta and Snowbird this
winter, bringing our total
to twenty meetings.”
1970
Raymond Joseph Anton
1521 General Knox Road
’ 0 6
Wayne E. Pasanen
117 Osgood Street
North Andover, MA 01845
(978) 681-9393
wpasanen@lowell
general.org
1969
Susan Pitman Lowenthal
200 Kennedy Drive
Torrington, CT 06790
(860) 597-8996
susan_w_pitmanlowen
[email protected]
VAYDAS ENDOW SCHOLARSHIP
Mary E. Norris left
Connecticut in June 2004
and joined a GI practice
on the Gulf Coast of
Mississippi. “Now I am a
Hurricane Katrina Victim.
I am battling FEMA,
Insurances, and SBA. A
new vision is moving us to
Longview, Washington.”
1973
James M. Betts
715 Harbor Road
Alameda, CA 94502
(510) 523-1920
[email protected]
Philip L. Cohen
483 Lakewood Drive
Winter Park, FL 32789
(407) 628-0221
[email protected]
Gregory J. Melkonian
writes: “After twentyseven-and-a-half years at
my New Hampshire
orthopedic practice I am
A College of Medicine graduate and his family have endowed a $100,000 scholarship
to benefit a UVM medical student. James Vayda, M.D.’87 and his sister Charlotte
Vayda Poston were left a bequest by their late mother Mary Louise who wished that
it be spent philanthropically. The Vaydas have endowed the scholarship at the
College in memory of their mother. Dr. Vayda is a regular contributor to the medical
annual fund and a longtime member of the Ira Allen Society.
HONORING TWO LEGENDS
The members of the Department of Radiology at the College of Medicine have
embarked on a campaign to fund the Soule-Tampas Professorship, an endowed position (at the minimum level of $250,000) that will honor the legacy of two memorable
former chairs of the Deparment, A. Bradley Soule, M.D.’28, and John M. Tampas,
M.D.’54. Pledges have consistently been made by current faculty and former students and residents. Anyone wishing to donate to the fund may contact Manon
O’Connor at 656-4014.
RIDING FOR THE CURE
S.D. Ireland cement mixers on parade.
This St. Patrick’s Day in Burlington saw a new
twist on a 20-year tradition, the parade of S.D
Ireland trucks and cement mixers snaking its
way through the town. This year the company,
in cooperation with S.D. Ireland Cancer
Research Fund, decided to make it a more
meaningful and worthwhile experience by raising funds to support cancer research in
Vermont. The Ireland family has a long history of
support, particularly for the work of David Krag,
M.D., S.D. Ireland Professor of Surgery.
ART FOR OUR SAKE
Two alumni families from the Class of 1956 have recently donated artworks to the
College. Edward Okun, M.D.’56, a retired ophthalmologist from Tesuque, New
Mexico, and his wife, Barbara-rose, gave the school two museum-quality works by
Vermont artist Frank Owen. Owen is a nationally known artist who has been professor of art at UVM since 1993. Janet and J. Ward Stackpole, M.D.’56 donated a set of
four drawings by physician V. Robert Allen, M.D. Each drawing depicts one of the four
years of medical school from the artist’s allegorical view. Both donations will be displayed on the medical campus.
ASSESSMENT ROOMS NAMED
Three more rooms used for medical education have been named to honor supporters of the College. The first donors to name rooms in the Student Assessment Center
in Given are Charles Howard, M.D.’69, Herbert Goldberg, M.D.’56, and by the late
Edward J. Sennett, M.D.’43. Nine rooms remain to be named.
CLASS AGENTS
’07 ANNOUNCED
Current third-year medical students gathered at
the College on March 3 to celebrate the choice of their two class
Scot Millay,
agents. Scot Millay and Allison
Omar Kahn,
Collen are shown with Omar Kahn,
M.D.’03, and
M.D., agent for the class of 2003.
Allison Collen
M.D. CLASS NOTES
CONTINUING MEDICAL EDUCATION
2006 CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
H A L L A
leaving to join the orthopedic department at
Children’s Hospital
Boston and Harvard
Medical School, where I
will continue to specialize
in pediatric orthopedics.”
Ralph S. Albertini reports
that he is “back in
Vermont and happy to be
here! Living in Thetford,
teaching at Dartmouth
Medical School and private practice in Hanover,
N.H. Hi to all.”
Douglas M. Eddy
5 Tanbark Road
Windham, NH 03087
(603) 434-2164
[email protected]
Cajsa Schumacher
78 Euclid Avenue
Albany, NY 12203
[email protected]
1975
Ellen Andrews
195 Midland Road
Pinehurst, NC 28374
(910) 295-6464
[email protected]
1976
’ 0 6
Don P. Chan
Cardiac Associates of
New Hampshire
Suite 103
246 Pleasant Street
Concord, NH 03301
(603) 224-6070
[email protected]
Bonita Ann Palmer writes
that she is “enjoying serving as a consultant for
hospitalized patients at St.
Luke’s Hospital San
Francisco, where I do
34
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
1977
Mark A. Popovsky
22 Nauset Road
Sharon, MA 02067
(781) 784-8824
mpopovsky@
haemonetics.com
1974
R E U N I O N
Reiki Touch Therapy and
Guided Imagery for complementary care. Also
enjoy teaching medical
students at UCSF.
Currently co-facilitating
the Family Medicine
Seminar at SFGH for
third-year students.” Eric
Jay Reines has been a hospitalist in Beverly, Mass.,
since 2001.
1978
Paul McLane Costello
Essex Pediatrics, Ltd.
89 Main Street
Essex Junction, VT 05452
(802) 879-6556
Nicholas James Sears is
working for a healthcare
consulting firm which
helps hospitals improve
margins.
1979
Sarah Ann McCarty
1018 Big Bend Road
Barboursville, WV 25504
(304) 691-1094
[email protected]
Ralph Andrew Manchester
is the editor of the journal
Medical Problems of
Performing Artists. Cynthia
Christy is president-elect
of the medical staff at
Rochester General
Hospital.
1980
1983
Richard Nicholas Hubbell
80 Summit Street
Burlington, VT 05401
(802) 862-5551
rich.hubbell@
vtmednet.org
Diane M. Georgeson
2 Ravine Parkway
Oneonta, NY 13820
(607) 433-1620
[email protected]
R E U N I O N
1981
’ 0 6
Craig Wendell Gage
2415 Victoria Gardens
Tampa, FL 33609
CraigGage@
alumni.uvm.edu
1982
Linda Hood
4 Cobbler Lane
Bedford, NH 03110
(603) 471-2536
[email protected]
George Weightman was
promoted to Major
General in the U.S. Army
in September 2004. He is
currently commanding the
Army Medical
Department Center and
School, the largest medical
education school in the
world. David Roy and his
wife, Ruth, made it to
Montana this summer to
visit Sally and David
Murdock, M.D. ’83 in
Whitefish. “What a great
time we had,” they write.
“Our daughter Rebecca
received her master’s this
spring and is teaching in
Conn. Our son Andrew is
pursuing a master’s in
counseling at UVM and
our youngest, Matthew, is
a junior at WNEC. Time
sure flies!”
[email protected]
Anne Marie Massucco
15 Cedar Ledge Road
West Hartford, CT 06107
(860) 521-6120
[email protected]
1984
Richard C. Shumway
34 Coventry Lane
Avon, CT 06001
(860) 673-6629
rshumway@
stfranciscare.org
Thomas M. Munger
recently traveled with his
two youngest children to
Tibet. He has been
appointed to a four-year
term on Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid
Services APC advisory
panel. He writes: “My dad,
who has recently retired
from dairy farming, and I
went to Europe in
September on a National
Geographic tour of D-Day
vistas.”
1985
Vito D. Imbasciani
1915 North Crescent
Heights Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90069
(323) 656-1316
[email protected]
R E U N I O N
1986
’ 0 6
Darrell Edward White
29123 Lincoln Road
Bay Village, OH 44140
(440) 892-4681
Nicole Noyes is “Still living in New York and
working on Staff at NYU.
Ski as often as possible in
the winter with Gracie
(13), Charlotte (12), and
Thomas (6).”
1988
H. James Wallace III
416 Martel Lane
St. George, VT 05495
(802) 872-8533
james.wallace@
vtmednet.org
Lawrence I. Wolk
5724 South Nome Street
Greenwood Village, CO 80111
(303) 771-1289
lawrence.wolk@
cigna.com
1990
Barbara Angelika Dill
120 Hazel Court
Norwood, NJ 07648
(201) 767-7778
[email protected]
Class gathering at Frank
Nolan’s farm June 23-25
(Friday evening to midSunday). Anyone interested should contact Frank
([email protected]) or
Barbara (barbrichand
[email protected]).
R E U N I O N
1991
’ 0 6
John Dewey
15 Eagle Street
Cooperstown, NY 13326
[email protected]
1989
1992
Peter M. Nalin
13216 Griffin Run
Carmel, IN 46033
(317) 962-6656
[email protected]
Mark Eliot Pasanen
1234 Spear Street
South Burlington, VT 05403
(802) 865-3281
mark.pasanen@
vtmednet.org
Julie and Dean Mastras
write: “Hello friends and
classmates! It was another
great year in the Pacific
Northwest. The Radiation
Oncology Practice continues to expand. We added a
‘gamma knife’ in Tacoma
(the fourth in the state)
and new technologies
abound. Julie, Kassie (7),
Izzy (3) and I are busy skiing down the record snowfall in the Cascades. We
hope to finish our mountain retreat at Lake
Wenatchee on the top of
Stevens Pass by next winter. Come on up, the snow
is coming down!
[email protected]”
1993
Joanne Taplin Romeyn
22 Patterson Lane
Durham, CT 06422
(860) 349-6941
1994
Holliday Kane Rayfield
P.O. Box 819
Waitsfield, VT 05673
(802) 496-5667
[email protected]
Tim Howard is “in year six
at University Medical
Center at Princeton as
attending radiologist.
Married to Sharon
Howard — UVM physical
Annual Family Medicine Review Course
June 13-16, 2006, Sheraton Conference Center,
Burlington, Vt.
Vermont Summer Pediatric Seminar
June 15-18, 2006, The Equinox, Manchester, Vt.
Dermatology Update for the Primary Care Physician
September 7-9, 2006, Samoset Resort, Rockport,
Maine
4th Annual Northern New England Critical Care
Conference
September 14-16, 2006, Stoweflake Resort, Stowe, Vt.
Dementia & Neuropsychiatry —
Dual Track Sessions for Primary Care and Specialists
September 15-17, 2006, The Wyndham, Burlington, Vt.
Current Concepts in the Treatment & Rehabilitation
of Sports Injuries
October 5-6, 2006, Sheraton Conference Center,
Burlington, Vt.
20th Annual Imaging Seminar
October 13-15, 2006, Topnotch Resort, Stowe, Vt.
Fall Foliage Clinical Dermatology Meeting
October 27-29, 2006, Greenbrier Resort, White
Sulphur Springs, W.Va.
5th Annual Vermont Physicians Conference on
Addiction Medicine
November 8, 2006, Lake Morey Inn, Fairlee, Vt.
College of Medicine alumni receive a special 10% discount
on all UVM Continuing Medical Education conferences.
For information contact:
University of Vermont
Continuing Medical Education
Farrell Hall, 210 Colchester Avenue
Burlington, VT 05405
(802) 656-2292
http://cme.uvm.edu
therapy ’94. Children:
Sarah (6); Kyle (4); Erin
(1.5). Lauren Archer
writes: “Hi class of 1994!
I’m happy to say that at
long last I am finishing my
final months of residency
training in plastic surgery
in Cincinnati. I will soon
move to Tampa, Fla. to
start practicing. I am hoping to convince Manisha
S P R I N G
2006
35
M.D. CLASS NOTES
on the other side
H A L L A
Patel and husband Mike
Curran, M.D. to leave the
lovely city of Cincinnati
and move south too!”
1995
Allyson Miller Bolduc
252 Autumn Hill Road
South Burlington, VT 05403
(802) 863-4902
allyson.bolduc@
vtmednet.org
R E U N I O N
1996
’ 0 6
Anne Marie Valente
4616 Dolwick Drive
Durham, NC 27713
(919) 806-8110
[email protected]
Patricia Ann King, M.D., Ph.D.
832 South Prospect Street
Burlington, VT 05401
(802) 862-7705
patricia.king@
vtmednet.org
Reunion is sure to be a
good time with “Table 15”
performing on Sat., June
10th!
1997
Julie Clifford Smail
10 Proctor Street
Manchester-by-the-Sea,
MA 01944
(360) 240-8693
jsmail@
fidalgomedical.com
1998
Halleh Akbarnia
4700 Bromley Lane
Richmond, VA 23226
(804) 204-2595
[email protected]
Halleh Akbarnia and
Stewart Jester had a sec-
36
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
ond addition (a boy) to
the family in September.
1999
Everett Jonathan Lamm
11 Autumn Lane
Stratham, NH 03885
(603) 929-7555
[email protected]
Deanne Dixon Haag
4215 Pond Road
Sheldon, VT 05483
(802) 524-7528
Jeff Kenney writes that he
is “still alive and well in
Savannah, Ga. I just got
back from visiting Thomas
Evans in Vail, Colo. I love
to entertain visitors. Look
me up if you’re planning
any trips to the Savannah/Hilton Head area.”
2000
Jay Edmond Allard
USNH Yokosuka
PSC475 Box 1757
FPO, AP 9L350
[email protected]
Gregory S. Hunt is living
and working in New
Bedford, Mass. “Enjoying
the beach and my sevenminute walk to work at the
hospital. Contact us @
[email protected].”
2001
Students at the College of
Medicine, led by members of the
student council, have initiated a
fundraising project to memorialize and honor
beloved teacher Bruce Fonda, who died last fall.
Students plan to name the game room in the new
student lounge (which is under construction in the
Given Building) for Bruce. One thing Fonda was
known for were the foosball games for students he
would host at his Williston home.
The students invite all alumni, faculty, staff, and
those who knew Bruce to join them in contributing
to the $10,000 goal to name the space. The students
hope to raise the funds by June 30, 2006. All donations will be directed to the 21st Century Fund for
student and alumni support.
Gifts in support of this project can be mailed to:
UVM College of Medicine
Fonda Memorial Project
Development and Alumni Relations Office
210 Colchester Ave., Farrell Hall
Burlington, VT 05405
Please be sure to indicate your gift designation
to the Bruce Fonda Memorial Project.
Questions? Please call (802) 656-4014
A remembrance celebration of Bruce Fonda will take
place Sunday, June 11 at 2 p.m. in Ira Allen Chapel. All
are welcome.
Michael Jim Lee
71 Essex Lane
Irvine, CA 92620
michael_j_lee1681@
yahoo.com
R E U N I O N
STUDENT FUNDRAISING
HONORS FONDA
’ 0 6
Ladan Farhoomand
1481 Regatta Road
Carlsbad, CA 92009
626-201-1998
[email protected]
Joel W. Keenan
Greenwich Hospital
Five Perryridge Road
Greenwich, CT 06830
[email protected]
JoAn Louise Monaco
Suite 6-F, 5E
4618 Warwick Blvd.
Kansas City, MO 64112
(816) 753-2410
[email protected]
JoAn Monaco reports:
“Check the summer issue
of Vermont Medicine for a
great report from our
class!”
2002
Jonathan Vinh Mai
15 Meadow Lane
Danville, PA 17821
(570) 275-4681
[email protected]
2003
Omar Khan
33 Clearwater Circle
Shelburne, VT 05482
(802) 985-1131
[email protected]
Scott Goodrich
13 Mountain View Blvd.
South Burlington, VT 05403
(802) 864-7787
[email protected]
continued from page 13
My AVM shrank, and my sense of self collapsed too.
I couldn’t practice medicine, or do much of anything
else either. I can’t even work at McDonald’s, I thought
to myself; in fact, that would probably be the job for
which I was least qualified, with the pace and distractions involved. In my family, intelligence was everything. My grandfather won the Nobel Prize in physics.
A cousin was a member of the National Academy of
Sciences. Virtually all of my family and cousins had
graduate degrees. For me, the loss of my intellectual
working capacity was devastating. Being a doctor was
not a job, not a career, but a defining element of who I
was, and now I would never be able to practice again.
I remember going to the College of Medicine
shortly after my surgery. I wanted to connect to that
place that shaped me, and gave me the happiest years
of my education. A colleague kindly let me cry on her
shoulder, and showed me around. I went back again,
when my mentor retired as chairman. There was a
wonderful party, and I saw all the friends I worked
with, but it was bittersweet. Each one would tell me of
the contentment of their life, the work going well, the
family, the happiness they had. I quickly found that
saying “I had an AVM and had to stop my practice”
was a pretty wet blanket to throw on the conversation.
I felt that I was damaged goods. I drank too much,
smoked too much dope. I struggled with a depression
that had become worse. I often thought of blowing my
brains out. I wallowed in self pity.
Yet, now, I am on the other side. How did I get
there? Certainly a lot of psychotherapy helped a great
deal. But the first step, I think, was stopping my drug
use. The drugs were an anesthetic, and I could only
feel, and grieve the loss of me, without them. And
grieve I had to, grieve as one grieves the loss of a
spouse or child, a tedious process of remembering and
feeling sad and angry over each nugget of memory of
who I had been, over and over. As the grief grew further out, I would have “burps” where some little unexpected thing would trigger a spasm of sobbing.
Along with stopping the drugs, the diminishment of
my grief was linked with my developing sense of faith.
My family is loaded with theologians and priests, and I
had rebelliously avoided any involvement with church
or God through my adult life. I know it is not for
everyone, but developing a sense of faith, a sense that
there was a God who determined things and cared for
me, was essential for me. I asked my mother, the theologian, the “why do bad things happen to good people” question, and her twofold answer was helpful.
First, she said, it can come from human acts with bad
results, from human choices. But secondly, she
reminded me, God did not make a perfect world. That
was true for me as my brain developed, cells went in
the wrong direction, and this was the result. The doctors who didn’t look at my brain before the ECT were
negligent, but it was also true that God’s world was
imperfect. Somehow, for me, that was comforting.
Finally, I reached a point called “radical acceptance.” What is that? It was a change in my thinking.
Instead of thinking “it is awful that I can’t be a physician” my though became simply “I’m not a physician.”
It involved stopping judging myself, and accepting me
as I am. My life now is very different from what it was.
I live in the now. At night I can recall, with some concentration, what went on during the day. Remembering yesterday is harder, and a week ago is a blur.
The last ten years have essentially evaporated, and that
is how it will be for me from now on. Accepting, and
even enjoying, that my life is “now” has relieved me of
memory, good and bad. (The “enjoying part” is that I
can see a good movie more than once and not remember I’ve seen it before — that kind of thing.) I am still
me. I still have the characteristics of who I am. I just
experience things differently. My Palm Pilot has
become my best friend. I no longer beat myself up for
forgetting something, and it is not a sin or a social failing that I don’t work. Most importantly, I no longer
feel that I “ought” to be a physician. I was one once,
and I still have my diplomas splendidly framed on my
study wall; but I do different things now. I have loving
friends, and even if I can’t remember what we talked
about last time, it is not a source of shame.
It has taken me a long time to get to this place —
this place where I do have a damaged memory, but I
am not damaged goods. When I was in medical school,
I did a little research project about the adjustment of
quadriplegic patients, and found that the literature said
it took five years to come to grips with the loss of your
body. It has taken me about that long to come to grips
with the loss of part of my mind.
Obviously, my story isn’t cheerful; not happy, not
what my colleagues are doing who have progressed
through their careers. I think we don’t often talk about
those of us whose lives changed, like mine, precisely
because of that: Those who’ve done well feel guilty, perhaps even ashamed, a survivor’s guilt, a “there-but-forthe-grace” guilt. But it is important, for those other of
us who have left the brotherhood, to hear that you are
not alone, and that you can cross the stream and come
VM
out on the other side.
S P R I N G
2006
37
OBITUARIES
H A L L A
ROBERT S . JENKS , M . D.’35
Dr. Jenks, a resident at Falmouth
House at Ocean View (Mass.), died
on Dec. 17, 2005, at the age of 94.
Born in Amherst, Mass., Dr. Jenks
received both his undergraduate
and medical degrees from the
University of Vermont. After serving residencies in surgical specialties at Lenox Hill Hospital in New
York City and the Mt. Morris,
N.Y., Tubercular Hospital, Dr.
Jenks began a private practice
which spanned 40 years in Batavia,
N.Y. In 1942 he left his practice to
join the U.S. Army as a Captain in
the Medical Corps, serving in
Africa, France, and Germany. He
moved to Branford, Conn., in 1979
when he joined the staff of
Connecticut Hospice serving as
Deputy Medical Director. Before
taking this responsibility he
received training in hospice and
palliative care at the Royal Victoria
Hospital in Montreal, Quebec. Dr.
Jenks’s commitment to the hospice
concept continued following his
retirement. After taking several
courses at Yale Divinity School, he
was made a Commissioned Minister of the United Church of Christ
to provide pastoral care to hospice
patients. Dr. Jenks received the
Service to Medicine & Community
Award from the Medical Alumni
Association in 1985.
JACK WOOL , M . D.’41
Dr. Wool died Tuesday, Oct. 4,
2005, at his home in Montgomery,
Ala., following a long illness. He
practiced medicine in Montgomery
for over 50 years. He was born in
Burlington, Vt., on Dec. 6, 1916,
son of Frank and Lottie (Goldstein)
Wool. He graduated from
Burlington High School in 1933.
He attended UVM and received his
B.A. in 1937 and his M.D. in 1941.
His entire professional life was
spent in Montgomery. He served as
a medical officer during World
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M E D I C I N E
War II in North Africa and Italy.
MAURICE TRAUNSTEIN , JR .,
M . D.’42
Dr. Traunstein, a resident of Winthrop, Mass., died on Jan. 29, 2006.
He was 88 years old. Dr. Traunstein
was a family practice physician in
the town of Winthrop for 43 years.
He received his baccalaureate
degree from the University of
Vermont in 1938, and his M.D.
from the College of Medicine in
1942. He served his internship at
the Maine General Hospital in
Portland and was a resident at
Boston City Hospital, Mallory
Institute of Pathology.
EDWARD J . SENNETT, M . D.’43
Dr. Sennett died Wednesday,
November 16, 2005, at St. Francis
Hospital and Medical Center in
West Hartford, Conn. Born in
Poultney, Vt., he was a graduate of
Troy Conference Academy in
Poultney, Green Mountain Junior
College, and the University of
Vermont. He received his medical
degree from the College of Medicine in 1943. He interned at St.
Francis Hospital in 1943 and
served in Europe with the U.S.
Army Medical Corps during World
War II. He performed his residency in medicine at Burlington’s
Bishop DeGoesbriand Hospital
and in radiology at Mary Fletcher
Hospital. Beginning in 1951 he
served as an assistant radiologist at
St. Francis Hospital in Hartford,
and served as Director of the
Department of Radiology from
1954 until his retirement in 1988.
He was also a fellow in radiology at
Massachusetts General Hospital.
PAUL E . GRIFFIN , M . D.’48
Dr. Griffin died on March 14,
2006. He was born on Aug. 13,
1922, in Herkimer, N.Y. He overcame a childhood bout of polio and
was a graduate of Herkimer High
School. He earned his bachelor’s
degree from Niagara University
before coming to the College of
Medicine, from which he graduated in 1948. He served his internship and residency in Hartford,
Conn., and at Albany Medical
Center. Dr. Griffin also served in
the U.S. Air Force as a captain during the Korean War; he was stationed at Limestone Airbase in
Maine. He started his career in private practice in Johnstown, N.Y.,
until called to serve in the Korean
War in 1953. In 1955, he began
work at the V.A. hospital in Albany,
where he specialized in infectious
disease and internal medicine. He
retired in 1996.
JAMES E . DOWNS , M . D.’51
Dr. Downs passed away Monday,
January 30, 2006, at St. Mary's
Residential Hospice, Knoxville,
Tenn. He was born December 14,
1927, in Schenectady, NY. After
graduating from Dannemora High
School in 1944, he attended
Midshipman N.Y.S. Maritime
Academy from 1945-46, then
attended St. Michael’s College
where he received his B.A., before
earning his M.D. from the College
of Medicine in 1951. He performed
his internship at the U.S. Naval
Hospital in St. Albans. Dr. Downs
was an active duty U.S. Navy veteran from 1951 to 1953 and an active
reservist from 1953 to 1955. He
performed his residency in anesthesiology at Columbia Presbyterian
Hospital in New York City from
1953 to 1955. He started his practice of anesthesiology in Knoxville
in 1955 and was one of the three
original founding physicians of the
Knoxville Anesthesia Group. His
early years of practice included all
the local area hospitals. Dr. Downs
saw the start of the Departments of
Anesthesia, Recovery Rooms and
Intensive Care Units. In the early
60’s his practice became limited to
St. Mary’s Memorial Hospital and
the Chest Disease Hospital. In
1968, he served on rotation with
Project Hope in Sri Lanka
(Ceylon). He retired from active
practice in 1990.
EDWIN P. BASSETT, M . D.’51
Dr. Bassett died on March 16, 2004
at his home in Port Washington,
N.Y. After receiving his M.D.
degree from the College in 1951,
he performed a residency in pathology at Mary Fletcher Hospital. He
continued his education for two
additional years at Long Island
College Hospital, where he was
chief resident in Pathology. Dr.
Bassett was one of the first attending pathologists at North Shore
Hospital (North Shore University
Hospital) where he specialized in
surgical pathology. Dr. Bassett
served with distinction in the rapidly growing Department of Laboratories (Pathology) for the next 41
years until his retirement in July
1997. He held faculty rank at
Cornell
University
Medical
College (now Weill Medical College at Cornell University) for 26
years, attaining the rank of
Associate Professor of Clinical
Pathology.
JOHN R . FITZGERALD M . D.’55
Dr. Fitzgerald died Feb. 16, 2006,
at Fletcher Allen Health Care after
a period of declining health. He
was born Oct. 7, 1929, in
Winooski, Vt. He graduated from
Cathedral High School Class of
1947, where he met his wife and
best friend, Mary Ellen (Fuller).
They were married on Aug. 4,
1951, in Christ the King Church in
Burlington. He graduated from St.
Michael's College in 1951, and the
College of Medicine in 1955,
where he made many lifelong
friends. He did his medical residency in internal medicine at the Mary
Fletcher Hospital, where he prac-
ticed for the next 30 years. Dr.
Fitzgerald was a clinical instructor
at the College of Medicine and on
the staff of the Mary Fletcher and
Bishop DeGoesbriand hospitals.
He served as Chief of Medicine at
the Fanny Allen Hospital. He
attained the rank of Major in the
Vermont National Guard and
served as Medical Officer from
1959 to 1964. He served on the
school boards of Winooski and
Rice Memorial high school, and
the board of the Winooski Housing
Authority and Winooski Community Development Committee. He
delivered Meals on Wheels for the
Senior Center where he was a
member. His sons John and Joseph
received their medical degrees
from the College in 1975 and 1978,
respectively.
College of Medicine in 1981. She
performed her medical residency
from 1981 to 1984 with the Department of Family Medicine at West
Virginia University. From that time
onward she was a family physician in
Morgantown, W.Va.; first with
Wedgewood Family Practice, and
then later in her own Stearns Family
Health Center and Morgantown
Multicare, where she combined
allopathic and alternative approaches to provide holistic medical care.
Dr. Dickerson was a strong, adventurous woman who always enjoyed
being physically fit. She was an avid
runner, rower, skater, skier and
cyclist and loved sharing these activities with her husband. She loved
reading to all her girls, and was
strongly involved in their education
and extracurricular activities.
PAUL J . DRISCOLL , M . D.’56
Dr. Driscoll, 75, died Monday,
Nov. 28, 2005, at his Hernando, Fl.
home. Born April 11, 1930, in
Portsmouth, N.H., he was a 1952
graduate of the University of New
Hampshire and a 1956 graduate of
the College. He served his surgical
internship and residency while
serving in the U.S. Army. Dr.
Driscoll opened his private practice
in Portsmouth, where he was a
well-known and respected surgeon.
He retired to Florida in 1992.
KIMBERLY STEARNS DICKERSON ,
M . D.’81
Dr. Dickerson died of cancer
Monday, Feb. 27, 2006. She was
born on April 26, 1952, in Seattle,
Wash. Her childhood was spent in
Albuquerque, N.M., Ithaca, N.Y.,
and finally Burlington, Vt., where
she graduated from Champlain
Valley Union High School in 1970.
She received a B.A. from the
University of Pennsylvania in 1974,
a master’s in cell biology and genetics from the University of Connecticut in 1976, and an M.D. from the
FACULTY
F. PATRICK MCKEGNEY, M . D.
Dr. McKegney died February 3,
2006, in the Bronx after a brief illness. He was a professor of psychiatry at the College of Medicine
from 1970 to 1983 and was chair of
the Department of Psychiatry from
1970 to 1974. Dr. McKegney
received his undergraduate degree
from Middlebury College in 1954,
and his M.D. from Yale School of
Medicine in 1958. He performed
post-graduate training at Johns
Hopkins and at Strong Memorial
Hospital in Rochester, N.Y. After
two years in the Public Health
Service in Washington, D.C., he
taught psychiatry at Yale before
coming to UVM. In 1983 he
moved to Albert Einstein College
of Medicine to direct the
Consultation/Liaison Service, and
in 1999 retired after serving three
years as director of psychiatry residency training and two years as
chief of psycho-oncology at St.
Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan.
S P R I N G
2006
39
C O L L E G E
O F
M E D I C I N E
P L A N N E D
G I V I N G
P r o f i l e s i! g i v i n g
from "
friend
When he saw a Boston Globe article in the spring of 2003
about the University of Vermont and its bold vision for the
future, Burton Cleaves was impressed. But he’d recycled the
newspaper before finishing the article, and so wrote a “To
Whom It May Concern” letter to the Office of the
President asking whether any written materials on UVM’s
vision might be available to him.
He was again impressed, he says, with the response he
B U RTO N C L E AV E S
received — a letter from President Daniel Mark Fogel along
march 23, 2006
10:23 a.m.
with a copy of the ten-year vision statement on which the
ed in scholarship funding. His latest gift annuity, estab-
Globe article had been based. It was soon thereafter that the
lished this spring, specifically directs the residual funds to
University received a generous contribution from Cleaves to
be used for student scholarship.
The Campaign for the University of Vermont. And that was
just the beginning.
No stranger to academia, Cleaves, now retired, spent 27
years as professor of music and chairman of the music
Cleaves has since established a number of charitable gift
department at Simmons College. “It’s very interesting what
annuities in support of the university, particularly the
leadership can accomplish,” he says, “leadership, combined
Giselle Sholler, M.D., sees a young patient, Jeffrey Blais, of Newport, Vt.
College of Medicine. Cleaves has great admiration for the
with intellect, and an overall concern for students, faculty,
Jeffrey started his treatment for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in October 2005,
faculty and staff of the College, and is particularly interest-
and academic excellence.”
and will complete treatment in 2008.
photograph by Raj Chawla
medical development and alumni relations office
(802)656-4014 [email protected] www.med.uvm.edu/giving
40
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
BACK to the FUTURE
Almost exactly 50 years ago, the new Medical Alumni Association had exciting news to report: The alumni
of the College of Medicine had posted the highest per capita giving of all medical school alumni in the
United States in 1957.
The energy from this remarkable achievement helped drive the formation in June 1959 of the Century
Club, a mainstay of annual giving at the College for decades thereafter.
With the start of fiscal 2007 this July, the most significant restructuring of the Annual Fund in 50 years
will bring the fund back to its roots, with a streamlined, clearer structure that will make giving easier and
even more impactful. All for the same goals that have been paramount since the beginning: the support and
growth of the College of Medicine and its students.
For more information about the new UVM College of Medicine Fund, contact us at:
medical development and alumni relations office
(802)656-4014 [email protected] www.med.uvm.edu/giving
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