medicine Primary Passion v e r m o n t

vermont
medicine
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
a
Primary
Passion
Mimi Reardon, M.D.’67
S U M M E R
2006
O F
M E D I C I N E
June 8-10
vermont
medicine
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 U M M E R
M A G A Z I N E
2 0 0 6
2007
10
WAR , EARTHQUAKES , AND POLIO
An alumnus travels through Pakistan,
Afghanistan, and Bangladesh on a WHO
polio eradication team.
by omar khan, m.d.’03
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FROM THE DEAN
COLLEGE NEWS
2
3
An interim dean is named, commencement
words from a senator, research news, and more.
HALL A
PRESIDENT ’ S CORNER
Attention Classes of 1947, ’52, ’57, ’62, ’67, ’72, ’77, ’82, ’87, ’92, ’97 & ’02!
he UVM Medical Alumni Association invites you and your family to plan now
to join us for Reunion 2007—June 8-10, 2007. 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
CLASS NOTES
DEVELOPMENT NEWS
OBITUARIES
REUNION
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
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THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF NEW CURES
A group of researchers in the Department
of Medicine has gained wide recognition for
its work with adult stem cells in treating
lung and heart diseases.
by jennifer nachbur
20
A PRIMARY PASSION
Mimi Reardon, M.D.’67 looks back on four
decades of accomplishment in improving
primary care for all Vermonters.
by melissa pasanen
on the cover:
photography by Mario Morgado
ANDY DUBACK , LEFT; JEFF SPEES , RIGHT
vermont
medicine
FROM THE DEAN
S U M M E R
2 0 0 6
EDITOR
edward neuert
I begin my tenure as Interim Dean of the College
of Medicine at an important time in the school’s
history, and a wonderful moment in its daily life,
too. As I write, we are just a few days away from
welcoming the new Class of 2010 to their first
day of medical school. Another new academic
year is beginning, a time of great promise and
expectation for all our students, faculty, and staff.
I’d like to thank my predecessor, John Evans, who has done so
much for the College in his three decades here as a faculty member
and administrator. Thanks to John, and to many other hard-working
people across our campus, the College of Medicine continues to educate first-class physicians and scientists, helps deliver excellent patient
care, provides new therapies and medical knowledge through
research, and is constantly engaged with the community around us.
We do all this, first and foremost, because of the quality of our
people. The author and management researcher Jim Collins has written that the best organizations in the social sector achieve greatness
by keeping one critical question in mind: “How effectively do we
deliver on our mission and make a distinctive impact, relative to our
resources?” He believes that great organizations are built when they
have the right people. Our people at the College of Medicine have
always kept their eyes on the mission, and this will see us in good
stead as we prepare to finalize our accreditation, complete revision of
the Faculty Practice, seek to further expand our infrastructure, and
work toward many other critical goals including, of course, finding a
permanent dean in the next twelve to eighteen months.
This issue of Vermont Medicine highlights the remarkable involvement of our people: involvement with medicine and the community
here in our state, and throughout the world. These stories are a reaffirmation that the mission is always in view here at the College, and
that we are able to achieve that focus through the efforts of our
extraordinary people.
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V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
RAJ CHAWLA
MEDICAL COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR
carole whitaker
ASSISTANT
andrea rathje
WRITER
jennifer nachbur
ART DIRECTOR
elise whittemore-hill
UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT
COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
INTERIM DEAN
john p. fogarty, m.d.
EDITORIAL ADVISORS
rick blount
ASSISTANT DEAN FOR
DEVELOPMENT & ALUMNI RELATIONS
marilyn j. cipolla, ph.d.’ 97
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
OF NEUROLOGY
christopher s. francklyn,
ph.d.
PROFESSOR OF BIOCHEMISTRY
james c. hebert, m.d.’ 77
ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR GRADUATE
MEDICAL EDUCATION
COLLEGE NEWS
Fogarty Named Interim Dean
UVM President Daniel Mark Fogel named John P.
Fogarty, M.D., interim dean of the College of
Medicine effective July 1, 2006. Fogarty, who joined
UVM in 1995, was most recently professor and chair
of the Department of Family Medicine and physician
leader of family medicine at Fletcher Allen Health
Care, and succeeds Dean John Evans, Ph.D., who
stepped down June 30.
“In addition to his distinguished leadership of the
Department over the last eleven years, Dr. Fogarty has
played a key role in strengthening the academic health
center,” said President Fogel. “We are fortunate to
have his experience and talent to lead the College at
this important time, while we conduct a national
search for a permanent dean.”
THE FOGARTY FILE
Interim Dean John P. Fogarty, M.D.
United States Military Academy, B.S., 1971
Albany Medical College, M.D., 1975
• Also named Associate Dean for Primary Care
• Professor of Family Medicine
• Most recently served as Chair of Family Medicine
• Practices at Milton Family Practice
• Helped develop Vermont Integrated Curriculum
• Served as Liaison Committee on Medical Education
(LCME) Self-Study Coordinator
geon and director of health services, retiring with the
rank of colonel in 1995.
Fogarty is a board-certified family physician practicing at Milton Family Practice. From 2001 to 2005, he
chaired the Operations Committee of the Medical
Group that developed the Faculty Practice Standards
and subsequently served on the Design and Planning
Committees for the Faculty Practice Plan. He was elected as an initial board member in 2005, and currently
chairs the Patient Care and Operations Committee.
“The College of Medicine is a strong institution
with an exciting future,” said Fogarty. “I am honored
to lead the College during this time of great opportunity and momentum.”
Fogarty is a member of the American Academy of
Family Physicians and since 1995 has served on the
boards of the Vermont Academy of Family Physicians
and the Vermont Medical Society. He was on the board
of Fletcher Allen Health Care from 1995-98, and is currently a member of the Strategic Management
Committee. He is a recipient of the USUHS William P.
Clements, Jr. Outstanding Military Educator Award for
Excellence in Education, and was selected by the UVM
medical school Class of 2004 to deliver the keynote
address at their White Coat Ceremony. He has also
received numerous military awards, including the
Department of Defense Superior Service Medal in 1995.
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, Given Building, 89 Beaumont Ave., Burlington,
VT 05405. telephone: (802) 656-4014
Letters specifically to the editor may be e-mailed to:
[email protected]
Fogarty, 56, has been a leader in medical education,
publishing on the Vermont Generalist Curriculum and
playing a key role in the development and implementation of the Vermont Integrated Curriculum. He also
served as Liaison Committee on Medical Education
(LCME) Self-Study Coordinator during the two-year
long reaccreditation process, resulting in a full eightyear accreditation for the College.
Recognizing his leadership role as a champion of
primary care in Vermont, Fogarty has also been named
associate dean for primary care, replacing Mildred
“Mimi” Reardon, who is retiring this year.
A West Point graduate, Fogarty earned his medical
degree at Albany (N.Y.) Medical College. After service
in Virginia, Kansas, Texas and Georgia, Fogarty was
appointed to the Uniformed Services University of the
Health Sciences (USUHS) F. Hébert School of
Medicine, in Bethesda, Md. as professor and chair of
the department of family practice and command sur-
RAJ CHAWLA
Interim Dean
John P. Fogarty, M.D.
3
&
AWARDS
COLLEGE NEWS
NEW STUDENT
LOUNGE OPENS
Students returning to the
medical campus this fall
will find a new and welcome addition — the newly
relocated and expanded
student lounge. Five years
ago, due to the extensive
construction activity and
relocation of library offices
on the north side of the
Given building, the student
lounge was moved to
smaller quarters on the
second floor of the building.
Now, with the completion
of major construction, an
entirely new ground-floor
lounge has been built. The
1,500 square foot facility on
the east side of Given features a lounge area with
flat-screen TVs, a “computer bar,” a full-scale kitchen,
the Bruce Fonda Gameroom, and new conferenceroom space.
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M E D I C I N E
Dwight E. Matthews, Ph.D.
MATTHEWS LEADS NIH SECTION
Dwight E. Matthews, Ph.D., professor of medicine and professor and
chair of chemistry at UVM, has been selected by the National Institutes of
Health to serve as chair of the Integrative Nutrition and Metabolic
Processes Study Section, part of the NIH’s Center for Scientific Review.
With a two-year term that began July 1, Matthews has a unique opportunity to contribute to the national biomedical research effort, leading a
15-member group that reviews a significant number of NIH grant applications and helps shape the future of U.S. scientific inquiry into the fundamental workings of human biology and health.
Matthews’ areas of expertise include analytical chemistry and mass
spectrometry, and the application of stable isotope tracers to study human
metabolism. He is director of the Mass Spectrometry Facility in the
College of Medicine.
He was selected on the basis of his “demonstrated competence and
achievement in [his] scientific discipline as evidenced by the quality of
research accomplishments, publications in scientific journals, and other
significant scientific activities,” writes Dr. Toni Scarpa, director of the
NIH’s Center for Scientific Review.
Matthews received a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from Indiana
University in 1977. After teaching and researching at the Washington
University School of Medicine in St. Louis and at Cornell University
Medical College in New York City, he joined the University of Vermont
in 1996. He was appointed chair of the chemistry department in 2002, and
he was named a University Scholar for 2004-05.
TOP : SALLY MCCAY ; LEFT AND RIGHT: RAJ CHAWLA
RECOGNITION
FACULTY POSITION HONORS
LEGACY OF RADIOLOGY LEADERS
A newly endowed faculty position
has been established by the
Department of Radiology that honors the legacy of two medical alumni and past chairs of the department.
Named the A. Bradley Soule,
M.D.’28 and John P. Tampas, M.D.’54
Green & Gold Professor of Radiology,
the position honors A. Bradley Soule,
M.D., who served as Chair of
Radiology for 34 years and passed
away in 1983, and John Tampas,
M.D., who succeeded Dr. Soule as
Chair of Radiology in 1970. Jeffrey
Klein, M.D., who also serves as
Associate Dean for Continuing
Medical Education, has been named
to the new position.
2006-07 FRYMOYER
SCHOLARS ANNOUNCED
The College of Medicine has
announceed its 2006-07 Frymoyer
Scholars — two groups of health science educators recognized for their
innovative project proposals titled
“Global Health Education and
Training for Health Care Professionals at the University of Vermont”
and “Using Computer Assisted
Instruction (CAI) to Improve Medical
Student Patient Care Skills and
Knowledge.” The winning proposals
aim to enhance two areas of strength
at UVM, specifically global health
service and novel methods for
improving medical students’ education and performance. Scholars
responsible for the global health proposal include Christopher Huston,
M.D., infectious disease specialist
and assistant professor of medicine;
Beth Kirkpatrick, M.D., infectious
disease specialist and associate professor of medicine; Hendrika Maltby,
Ph.D., R.N., public health nursing
specialist and associate professor of
nursing; Louis Polish, M.D., infectious
disease specialist and associate professor of medicine; and Burton
Wilcke, Ph.D., public health specialist
and associate professor and chair of
medical laboratory and radiation
sciences. The computer assisted
instruction proposal scholars include
Jill Jemison, instructional technology
manager; Cate Nicholas, Ed.D.,
M.S., P.A., director of the College of
Medicine’s Standardized Patient
Program and clinical instructor of
family medicine and obstetrics and
gynecology; and William Raszka,
M.D., associate professor of pediatrics.
PETERSON NAMED ACTING
FAMILY MEDICINE CHAIR
Thomas Peterson, M.D., has been
named acting chair of Family
Medicine at the College and acting
physician leader at Fletcher Allen
Health Care. Peterson will step in for
Jay Fogarty, M.D., who has been
appointed interim dean of the
College of Medicine.
Peterson joined the UVM/
Fletcher Allen faculty practice in
1986 and is currently professor and
vice chair for Clinical Affairs in the
Department of Family Medicine. He
is also an attending physician at
Fletcher Allen Health Care.
FIRST WARSHAW SCHOLARSHIP
The first annual presentation of the
Dean Joseph B. Warshaw Scholarship Award took place on Friday, July
14. M.D.-Ph.D. student Matt Coates
was presented with the first award.
The endowed award is funded by
contributions to the Joseph B.
Warshaw Endowment Fund, named
in honor of the late dean of the
College of Medicine. The award
capped off M.D-Ph.D. Research Day
2006, which included a series of presentations by students on their
work and a keynote address by
David Curiel, M.D., Ph.D., director of
the Center for Human Gene Therapy
at the University of Alabama.
A time to say ‘thanks’
A June 26 reception in the
Fleming Museum Marble
Court honored the career of
John N. Evans, Ph.D. (left), as
he prepared to step down as
the College’s sixteenth dean.
More than a hundred invited
guests from the campus and
community heard UVM
President Daniel Mark Fogel
praise Evans’ three decades
of service to the College of
Medicine as a faculty member and administrator. Evans
will continue as a member of
the College faculty after a
one-year sabbatical leave.
S U M M E R
2006
5
COLLEGE NEWS
RESEARCH MILESTONES
BRAFF HEADS RADIOLOGY
In June the College of Medicine and Fletcher Allen
Health Care announced the appointment of Steven
Braff, M.D., as chair of the Department of Radiology
at the College and physician leader of Radiology at
Fletcher Allen. Braff has provided leadership for the
Radiology Department over the last three years. He
was appointed vice chair of Radiology in 2003, and
named interim department chair and interim physician
leader in 2004.
Braff attended Wayne State University School of
Medicine in Michigan, where he was elected a member
of the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society in his
third year and graduated with distinction. He completed his residency in diagnostic radiology at Montefiore
Hospital at Albert Einstein University in New York
City, where he was chief resident his final year. As a
physician entrepreneur in upstate New York, Dr. Braff
was responsible for bringing the first diagnostic computed tomography and MRI services to the Finger
Lakes Region. He was also a founding board member
of the Clinical MRI Society, a national society with
more than 1,000 physician members.
ANKLE INJURY RISK FACTORS
DIFFER FOR MEN AND WOMEN
Dr. Braff joined Fletcher Allen Steven Braff, M.D.
as an attending neuroradiologist in
1999, and served as director of
Neuroradiology from 2001 to 2004. In 2002, he was
also named director of Magnetic Resonance Imaging.
He joined the College of Medicine faculty as associate
professor of Radiology and Neurology in 2001 and
received a joint appointment in Surgery in 2002. He
was appointed full professor in 2005. He is also a member of the Fletcher Allen Faculty Practice Group
Board of Directors, and serves as a member of the
Faculty Practice Group Finance Committee.
Study Shows Rehabilitation
Important for Cardiac Patients
Women entering cardiac rehabilitation after a heart attack or
bypass surgery typically have the
aerobic fitness of a person with
life-threatening chronic heart
failure, according to a study
reported in Circulation: Journal of
the American Heart Association.
Lead author of the study was
Philip A. Ades, Philip A. Ades, M.D., professor of medicine and director of
M.D., director Preventive Cardiology and Cardiac Rehabilitation.
of Preventive
Researchers determined the aerobic fitness levels of
Cardiology
cardiac patients when they entered an organized rehaand Cardiac
bilitation program after a recent cardiac event that
Rehabilitation required hospitalization. Aerobic fitness is directly
related both to how well the heart can pump and to
skeletal muscle function. Men in the 2,896-patient
study were more aerobically fit than women participants, but their average fitness level also proved lower
than expected.
“I was surprised by several of our results,” said Ades.
“The biggest surprise was how low the fitness levels
were in women. The average woman in this study fell in
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M E D I C I N E
the fitness range where cardiologists often consider
heart transplantation in heart failure patients. The
take-home message to cardiac surgeons and interventional cardiologists is that the job is only half-done
when bypass surgery or coronary stenting is satisfactorily performed. These patients remain sorely in need of
rehabilitation despite optimal in-hospital care.”
The researchers performed exercise stress testing
with expired gas analysis in 815 women and 2,081 men
who entered cardiac rehabilitation at the University of
Vermont/FAHC and the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit
from January 1996 to December 2004. Dr. Steven
Keteyian, Ph.D., led the Henry Ford research group.
“This study was important because there has been
little data on directly measured fitness levels in these
patients,” Ades said. “It also emphasizes the importance
of cardiac patients doing organized cardiac rehab,
because without it the majority of these patients would
remain quite disabled.”
Other co-authors of the study are Patrick D. Savage,
M.S.; Clinton A. Brawner, B.S.; Caroline E. Lyon, M.D.;
Jonathan K. Ehrman, Ph.D.; Janice Y. Bunn, Ph.D.; and
Steven J. Keteyian, Ph.D.
RAJ CHAWLA
High school- and college-age men and women
have entirely different risk factors for first-time
ankle ligament injuries, according to a Vermontbased study of 901 young athletes conducted by
Bruce Beynnon, Ph.D., professor and director of
research in orthopaedics and rehabilitation, and
colleagues at UVM. The study, which received the
American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine’s National Collegiate Athletic Association
(NCAA) Research Award, was presented by
Beynnon at the Society’s annual meeting in
Hershey, Pa., on July 2. “Prior to conducting our
study, we understood that previous ankle injury
was a strong risk factor for a repeated ankle
injury,” said Beynnon. “Our goal was to study the
risk factors that predispose an athlete to suffering
their first injury with the hope that we could use
this information to develop programs that prevent athletes from ever experiencing an ankle
injury in the first place.” UVM colleagues on the
study included Pamela Vacek, Ph.D., biostatistician in medical biostatistics and research assistant professor of pathology; Joseph Abate, M.D.,
associate professor and head of the division of
sports medicine in orthopaedics and rehabilitation; Darlene Murphy, M.S., A.T.C., former clinical
research coordinator in orthopaedics and rehabilitation; and David Paller, M.S., former graduate
assistant in orthopaedics and rehabilitation.
COLLETTI IS PIBD NETWORK DIRECTOR
Richard Colletti, M.D. professor and vice chair
of pediatrics, is the network director and coprincipal investigator for the Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease Network for Research and
Improvement (PIBDNet). Inflammatory Bowel
Disease (IBD) is primarily a disease of adolescents
and young adults, affecting as many as one million Americans, 10 percent of whom are estimated to be children under the age of 18. Colletti was
primarily responsible for establishing the network and its registry. Currently, over 200 physicians at 66 sites in the United States and Canada,
plus a site in Sydney, Australia, can enter data in
the registry with Institutional Review Board
approval. The mission of PIBDNet is to build the
foundation of a sustainable collaborative network where all pediatric gastroenterologists in
North America can work together in a compelling
process of continuous quality improvement and
acquisition of new knowledge that will over the
next decade dramatically reduce the morbidity
of children with IBD. PIBDNet is supported by a
grant from the North American Society for
Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and
Nutrition with funds from the American Board of
Pediatrics.
PHONE SYSTEM AIMS TO TREAT
ALCOHOL DEPENDENCE
Based on years of research, Professor of
Psychiatry John Helzer, M.D., and colleagues
have evidence that reporting drinking each day
via Interactive Voice Response (IVR) — a computer-based telephone system that enables users to
respond with the telephone keypad to a recorded voice asking scripted questions — results in a
reduction of alcohol consumption among heavy
drinkers. They have also found that feedback
from daily IVR reports improves the positive
effect of brief intervention delivered by primary
care providers to hazardous drinkers. Now
Helzer and his team are launching a new, lowcost intervention for alcohol dependence that
can be accessed remotely. Called “Therapeutic”
IVR (TIVR), the system is designed to be used as a
relapse prevention supplement to traditional
cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). In addition
to making daily reports, patients can use the
TIVR to review and/or rehearse coping skills they
learned in CBT and get personalized feedback
about their progress. “The University of Vermont
is a pioneer in the development of automated
telephone technology for patient self-directed
treatment,” said Helzer. “This is an important
area of research in the alcohol treatment field,
since a majority of recovered drinkers do not participate in medically-based treatment programs,
so their recovery rates are not typically measured
and evaluated.”
S U M M E R
2006
7
COLLEGE NEWS
COMMENCEMENT
2006
Giving Back in a Changing World
Medical and graduate student of the Class of 2006 received their degrees at Ira Allen Chapel on Sunday, May
21, 2006. Students, faculty, and families heard U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy give the keynote address on the
responsibilities of health care professionals in the coming years. His remarks are excerpted here.
Dean Evans, members of the Board of
Trustees, members of the faculty, parents,
family and friends of the Class of 2006, and
most importantly, members of the Class of
2006: thank you for inviting me here to
join you on this wonderful Vermont day.
While we are here today to celebrate
the accomplishments of this class of graduates, I would like to take a moment to
thank Dean Evans for his service to the
College and the University. John, under
your steady leadership the College of
Medicine has continued to flourish. Your dedication to
this school and its mission is admired and appreciated
by all of us who strive to make Vermont a better place.
Any graduation is an emotional and inspiring occasion. As the parents of three graduates of this great
university, Marcelle and I have felt the powerful emotions that parents feel on this day.
—Indescribable pride. There is no adjective that
can do it justice.
—A touch of sadness that one’s child is about to
cross that threshold from student to independent adult.
—And, for the same reason, a sense of relief.
To each of you who are graduating today, your parents and I know of the sleepless nights and years of hard
work that got you to this milestone. And as the husband
of a registered nurse, I have seen first hand what a
career in medicine can mean — for yourselves, and for
those whose lives you will change for the better.
Never forget how you got to this point. You have
inherited extraordinary intellect and wonderful talents,
for a noble purpose. You have acquired knowledge and
skills unheard of only a few
decades ago, from the outstanding
faculty of the College of Medicine.
In the future you will have
choices that few people could
dream of in their lifetimes. I hope
many of you will choose to serve
Vermonters’ growing health
needs, particularly in our rural
communities where the availability and quality of medical care is
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still a far cry from what it should be.
I also hope some of you will be inspired to take on
the growing challenges of global health.
You live in a world that is both unchanged and dramatically different from the world that your parents
inherited.
A generation ago, most people in sub-Saharan
Africa never saw a doctor in their entire lives. That
wasn’t because they were never sick, it was because
there were hardly any doctors. The same is true today.
Like a generation ago, infectious and parasitic diseases remain the major killers of children in the developing world. Many of these diseases — measles,
malaria, river blindness, elephantiasis — we can prevent or cure. But those countries still lack the public
health systems and the trained medical personnel.
Every hour, more than 500 African mothers lose a
child, mostly from diseases caused by contaminated
water.
In some sub-Saharan countries, HIV infection rates
range as high as a third of the adult population, and for
this reason 35 percent of African children are at higher risk of death than they were a decade ago.
Despite these grim statistics, there is a brighter side.
We are far more aware today of how much our own
health depends on what occurs half a world away.
Whether it is AIDS, West Nile Virus, the Avian Flu, or
some as yet unknown infectious disease, we are all at
risk, and only an airplane flight away, from wherever
the outbreak may occur.
Because of this new awareness, global health is
finally recognized as an issue of national security. It
may seem obvious today, but even ten years ago it was
not.
Health threats that once concerned only medical personnel,
now receive the attention of the
highest levels of governments. We
are supporting policies and programs to help the poorest countries
conduct better surveillance and
respond more quickly to protect
their own people, and to prevent
the spread of disease.
MEDICAL PHOTOGRAPHY/ RAJ CHAWLA AND ANDY DUBACK
Governments have begun to act, but
more often it has been private citizens,
including Vermonters, who have led the
way. They have served in medical relief
organizations, in the Armed Forces medical corps, in UNICEF, in the World
Health Organization, conducting pathbreaking research and caring for the sick
in places like Afghanistan, Darfur,
Nicaragua and Nepal.
There is a great deal more we need to
do. Today, 15 percent of the world’s people consume 91 percent of the world’s
pharmaceuticals. The high price of many life-saving
medicines — medicines that we take for granted in this
country — is beyond reach for millions of the world’s
most vulnerable populations.
In his book Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart, Dr. Gordon
Livingston reminds us that work which helps to give
meaning to our lives is essential to happiness. Among
his many pearls of wisdom is this one: “[W]e are entitled to receive only that which we are prepared to give.”
It is a simple statement, perhaps self-evident, but one
that I wish more people today would live their lives by.
As you go on from this campus to your careers in
medicine — whether to an urban hospital, a rural clinic, a research institute, or in public policy — I hope you
will remember that quote.
Despite remarkable technological advances —
unthinkable just a century ago, in agriculture, medicine, education, in every field of human endeavor, the
world is increasingly divided between a tiny minority
of the people of our small planet who have the best
health care money can buy and virtually unlimited
opportunities, and a vast sea of humanity who are
trapped in a struggle for daily survival.
Yet far too often in our society today, those who are
able to give seem interested only in how much more
they can receive.
Medicine, inherently, is about giving. Giving life.
Giving relief from suffering. Each of you, in your own
way, can make that moral difference that Dr.
Livingston wrote about.
I want to close by remembering a young friend who
made such a difference, and whose life holds lessons for
each of us.
Four years ago, Marla Ruzicka was only 25 when
she first walked into my office — actually, she
rollerbladed into my office. She had just returned from
Afghanistan, determined to help the families of innocent Afghan civilians who had been killed or injured as
a result of U.S. military mistakes.
There were instances when bombs had been mistargeted, and whole families and even villages had been
obliterated.
She went from hospital to hospital, from village to
village, documenting cases and bringing them to the
attention of the U.S. Government and the media.
Rather than casting blame, she argued that we not only
had a moral responsibility to help these people get
medical care and rebuild their lives, it was in our own
self-interest.
One day after Saddam Hussein’s statue fell, Marla
arrived in Baghdad to continue her work, where she
located the families of civilian casualties. Among her
closest allies were the Iraqi doctors and nurses who
kept their most severely injured patients alive while
Marla arranged for more sophisticated treatment outside the country.
A year ago this Easter Sunday, Marla was killed by a
car bomb, becoming another innocent victim like
those she was trying to help. But in her short life she
inspired countless people — and Marcelle and I count
ourselves among them — who saw what a difference
this one young woman made for those who had been
forgotten.
You are all examples of the promise that America
offers the world. Your degrees from this great university and its school of medicine will open doors and give
you a chance to serve others and to add your unique
contribution to the American experience and the
American Dream. It will give you a chance to put your
hands to the wheel of history in ways that can literally
change the future.
In your own lives, and especially during the rigorous crucible of these years of intensive study and
training here, you have received the knowledge and
demonstrated the strength of commitment and character to make that kind of a difference.
S U M M E R
2006
9
ARRIVAL
The WHO team’s records and
empty vaccine vials in Pakistan.
War,
Earthquakes,
and Polio
photos and story by
For one month last fall, Omar Khan, M.D.’03 left his
OMAR KHAN, M.D.’03
practice of family medicine in northern Vermont to
travel to Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh as a
part of a World Health Organization (WHO) polio eradication team. The following are excerpts from his travel
reminiscence written shortly after his return.
10
I picked up a stray piece of paper, intending to pop
it in the nearest trash can. I turned it over, and
found it was a picture of a little boy getting polio
vaccine drops. I decided to hold on to it for now.
We were in Abbotabad, Pakistan, at the edge of the
South Asian earthquake zone. The main event hadn’t
yet started; we had come down in the early morning
from the rest house on top of the mountain. Getting
to said rest house was a mini-adventure, as most
everything on this trip was destined to be. I had
arrived a few days earlier in the provincial capital of
Peshawar, to check out polio eradication efforts in this
part of Pakistan. The launching of the main Polio
Vaccination Week was supposed to be held in
Peshawar as well. For reasons unclear, but probably
having to do with the Chief Minister wanting to make
political capital out of an appearance in the earthquake zone, the main launch ceremony was moved to
Abbotabad. Fine, but I was with the
WHO team about three hours away.
Last-minute machinations included
getting road travel permits for the
WHO Land Cruisers and its occupants, and we were warned against
travel in the dark. Bandits? Guntoting terrorists? Who knew? The
WHO head in Peshawar, a cheerful
Ethiopian man named Abraham, was
undaunted: we left exactly half an hour
before darkness fell.
Mumblings and cursings from our expert driver
probably hastened our arrival. He kept muttering to
me in Urdu, with Abraham blissfully unaware,
about how we should not be out this late. The
WHO vehicles in that region are all equipped with
satellite radios and GPS antennas. The former was
a ‘short’ 4-foot high antenna in the rear, and the latter a 6-foot high appendage that jutted out past the
front bumper (we took to calling the massive white
Land Cruiser ‘the rhino’). All WHO vehicles in this
region are supposed to radio the central UN security office prior to departure from a location, and
then upon arrival at the destination. The security
office starts worrying when the estimated time of
travel has been exceeded by some set limit.
I did wonder why the massive GPS contraption
had no TV screen inside the vehicle. Stupidly, I was
still in “Hertz rent-a-car” mode. Out here, the GPS
was not for getting directions to the opera house,
nor did Mapquest have a ‘rural, gun-infested
Pakistani province’ version on DVD. The antenna
was for locating us via satellite or helicopter should
we or our vehicle mysteriously disappear. Apparently, this had happened a few months ago with the
passengers abducted, then released, and their vehicle stolen by ‘the tribals.’
Everyone agreed that the launch of the Polio
Eradication Campaign the next day was a major
success. The health minister had shown up, as had
the town nazim (mayor) and assorted international
agency representatives for Pakistan, UNICEF and
WHO being the most prominent as partners in the
vaccination initiative.
Just five countries remain in the world that matter to this group: Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Niger
and Nigeria. They are the last hideouts for wild
poliovirus. Endemic Poliomyelitis — the crippling
disease caused by said virus — has been eradicated
...we stopped at a busy school
and promptly vaccinated a
whole bunch of grinning kids,
purpling their fingers as a
record of immunization.
from the rest of the world through decades of tireless vaccination efforts by public health people such
as those working with WHO. There still remain
polio outbreaks in places other than these five countries, but they are epidemiologically classified as
imported cases. The idea is, that since poliovirus has
no reservoir except humans, that vaccination coverage over 95% will lead to levels of herd immunity
rendering an entire generation immune, making the
virus unable to be transmitted any further.
Why does this matter to, say, someone like me,
who usually practices family medicine in Milton,
Vermont? One fewer vaccine to give patients, one
less disease to worry about. It is an achievement
nearly as momentuous as the WHO’s eradication of
smallpox via a similar series of campaigns 30 years
ago — since then, an entire generation has never
known what it is to get the permanent skin-marking
of the smallpox shot.
11
There is much debate over the value of disease
‘eradication’ and what constitutes appropriate diseases to target for this type of effort. Obviously,
diseases with vectors and/or reservoirs are not the
best candidates. Those causing limited disease burden simply won’t get the funding commitment. And
then there will always be those who say that the massive funding for the eradication of any one disease
can be better allocated to system-wide improvement. All that is well and good, but ‘eradication’ is
gratifying, immediate — sexy. But you have to deliver results, and while 2005 was supposed to be the
final year for polio, it sure didn’t look like it so far.
After the campaign launch was over, we bid
farewell to the group so we could head back to the
field to continue vaccinating, monitoring, re-checking, vaccinating. I still held on to the poster I had
picked up from the ground earlier. On the spur of
the moment, I opened it up for the assembled group
who thus far had been talking about science, epidemiology and vaccine policy. I handed the guy next
to me a pen. He smiled, and scribbled a message of
hope next to the picture of the boy on the poster.
We all did. “Insha’Allah”, many of them added: God
Willing. I hope he is.
POLITICS AND POLIOTICS
Polio launch over, I took a few tentative bites of a
vegetable-filled samosa at the reception, pressed
the flesh of a few dignitaries, and marveled for the
thousandth time at this legacy of Colonialism. I,
a dark-skinned man, stood in this crowd of
Caucasians: the only reason I got all this respect
was proximity to such fairness, and my Western
style of dress. I could have been equally well- or illspoken; equally swarthy; equally anything, but were
I five yards distant from my colleagues and wearing
a shalwar kameez (even an expensive one) I might
have been asked to fetch someone a cup of tea,
there’s a good lad.
As usual, the first few seconds of this experience
recount all the books I’d read on the British in South
Asia, all the graduate theses on mental slavery of the
subcontinent, and every half-baked dorm room idea
about indigeneity and identity. But then, it’s off
to get in ‘the rhino’ Land Cruiser to head back to
Peshawar. And here, I had to admit being beaten by
the white man at my game: fellow team member
Tim was merrily chowing down on his samosa, not a
gastrointestinal care in the world, while I sorrowful-
12
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
At left: Omar Khan, M.D.’03, carrying a cooler of vaccines near the border. Below: chalk markings indicate the
number of vaccinated children in each household.
ly gulped my last Cipro with a cup of tea.
A few realities became immediately clear on our
return to Peshawar. All those places with dangerous
sounding names — Khyber agency, Mohmand
agency, Bajaur, Waziristan, they really were quite
bloody dangerous. Peshawar, as the main city of the
region, was a relatively safe place to hang out, have
a hookah or two, and play pretend-gunrunnerdrugdealer-pimp with your friends. But try to leave
the city for the “agencies” and all of a sudden people started paying attention to your passport, and
becoming rapidly interested in (a) hijacking you,
yours, and your nice vehicle for a load of cash, or
foreign embassy blackmail; or (b) killing you for fun
because you’re a foreigner. The really reassuring
part was that I now lost my privilege-by-association
in this fair company and became, to any card-carrying Taliban type, a traitorous Pakistani with no
morals. In short, I wouldn’t be invited in for a cup
o’ Joe. Not with limbs intact, at least.
But the car ride through the Khyber Pass proved
mostly uneventful, which gave me time to examine
the fine display of weaponry arrayed on our khusadar
[gunman]. Later, we stopped at a busy school and
promptly vaccinated a whole bunch of grinning kids,
purpling their fingers as a record of immunization in
the process. Almost done, Abraham came up with
the bright idea of educating the principal on the
value of immunization. I was, as usual, skittish about
this plan, but what the hell. You only live once. The
principal seemed a reasonable man of about 50,
wearing a blazer over his shalwar kameez. He asked
us to sit and have a cup of tea — but then, everyone
in this part of the country did that. The first question out of the principal’s mouth was directed
towards Tim (who is white). Not wishing to usurp
Abraham’s authority (Abraham is black), Tim took
the moment to feign intense interest in the mosaic
pattern of the wallpaper. Reluctantly moving up the
color bar, Mr. Headmaster turned to me for a question, which I deferred immediately by introducing
Dr. Debassay, Chief Polio Coordinator. Slightly
nonplussed, Mr. H looked over this motley crew of
would-be vaccinating doctors and then shot a question: ‘what is your name?’ Abraham replied,
“Ibrahim, I am Ibrahim Debassay of WHO, and let’s
talk about helping your kids stay healthy!” The principal was having none of it. Next question: “what is
your religion?” Now this was strange. Abraham
said, “what do you mean? My name is Ibrahim, I am
from North Africa! Brother, let us talk about the
children.”
The principal was now on his side. He apologized, continued to assume he and I were both
Muslim, and bade us Salaam (In his eyes, Tim was
the foreign observer, so he could hardly be held
accountable for his religious choices, poor soul).
Lesson learned. Shut up when possible, lie when
necessary, play nice at all times, and remember:
you’re here to do a job which will help kids remain
healthy, not to make a political or ideological statement.
AFTERSHOCKS
October 6, 2005: 80,000 dead. Pakistanis speak of
10/6 the way Americans now think of 9/11. 10/6:
when an earthquake of magnitude 8.6 started radiating out from its epicenter near Muzaffarabad in
northeast Pakistan, not far from the Indian border.
I was there for polio, but after the earthquake,
everything changed. Resources were diverted to the
quake, but only after an initial period of denial, government fumbling and the usual India/Pakistan
games.
Whither the polio team in all of this? Well, they
proved helpful in some interesting ways. Since polio
immunization depends on getting every child immunized — not most, not almost all, but each and every
one — the WHO team had detailed maps down to
the household level. After the launch and all, I was
fired up about polio. But I wanted to give faces to the
2.5 million. What better place to visit than one of
the hospitals dealing with the quake victims?
We pulled up in the rhino outside a somewhat
ramshackle three-story medical building. It was
beautiful, for a simple reason: it was still standing.
In this part of the country, precious little was.
Earthquakes were rare, and buildings that were ‘up
to code’ were even rarer. It turned out to be somewhat representative of the medical facilities set up
(or taken over) by the quake docs: it used to be a
general medical hospital, now taken over by orthopedic surgeries.
For the first three weeks, docs worked day and
night. They were from all over: brought in by the
Army from hospitals thoughout the country; flown
in by relief agencies; in from the States on their own
dime. Medical students from around Pakistan came
to help out — making up in enthusiasm what they
lacked in expertise. The repairs were nearly as gruesome as the injuries.
continued on page 37
S U M M E R
2006
13
thebuilding
BLOCKS
of new cures
A group of researchers in the
Department of Medicine has gained wide
recognition for their work with adult stem
cells in treating lung and cardiac diseases.
by
JENNIFER NACHBUR
photography by
RAJ CHAWLA
Assistant Professor of Medicine Benjamin Suratt, M.D.,
in front of his office white board, which holds key notes
relating to his research.
14
S
tem cells are chock
full of therapeutic
promise. Armed
with the capacity to almost limitlessly copy
themselves and grow into many types of
cells in the body, they function as the body’s
cellular repair shop. While embryonic stem
cells have been the focus of heated nationwide debate since 1998, many scientists
have been quietly examining the potential
therapeutic possibilities of two controversyfree and very promising alternatives —
adult bone marrow-derived stem cells and
umbilical cord blood stem cells.
According to the National Institutes of
Health, adult stem cells, whose main function is to maintain and repair tissue, have
been studied since the 1960s. Bone marrow-derived adult stem cell transplants
have been used for over 30 years and umbilical cord blood stem cell transplants have
been used for over 20 years to treat patients
with blood cancers. Recent discoveries have
shown that these stem cells also have the
potential to repair damaged tissue cells in
several organs, generating new hope and
excitement for researchers seeking better
treatment options for a host of illnesses.
15
For the past several years, a small group of
researchers in the Pulmonary and Critical Care
Division of the Department of Medicine at the
University of Vermont have been gaining momentum as well as international recognition for their
work in the area of adult stem cells’ potential role in
treating lung diseases. Benjamin Suratt, M.D., assistant professor of medicine, and his colleagues were
the first to find evidence that adult human stem cell
transplantation resulted in spontaneous cell regeneration in damaged lung tissue. News generated
by their August 2003 publication in the American
Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine
continues to prompt queries from lung disease
patients hoping for a cure. Though that cure is still
far off in the future, Suratt and colleague Daniel
Weiss, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of medicine, are working diligently to understand how
adult stem cells might offer a therapeutic approach
for several lung diseases.
“A number of papers show that adult bone marrow-derived stem cells can be induced to turn into
heart, liver or brain or more importantly for us, the
lung,” says Weiss, whose research takes place in the
Vermont Lung Center lab in the Health Science
Research Facility on the medical campus. “We’ve
been able to follow the lead of these papers and do
some pretty amazing things.” In the lab, his team
has successfully isolated adult stem cells from the
bone marrow of adult mice and begun to turn them
into lung cells. “We’ve been able to transplant stem
cells from donor mice into recipient mice and get
the stem cells to go to the recipient mouse’s lungs,”
says Weiss, noting the enormous implications of
these results in developing therapies for emphysema, asthma and cystic fibrosis (CF).
Weiss explains that his current adult stem cell
research is an outgrowth of cystic fibrosis gene
therapy work he’s done in the past. Weiss and his
colleagues have noted promising results from combining the two therapies. In a mouse model of CF,
which has the defective protein (CFTR) responsible
for CF’s symptoms, Weiss’ team has been able to
replace the defective airway epithelial cells with
epithelium derived from marrow cells from a normal adult mouse.
“What we’re hoping is that by using bone marrow transplantation, CF patients could essentially
use their own bone marrow to correct their lungs,”
says Weiss. His theory maintains that stem cells iso-
16
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
Associate
Professor of
medicine Dan
Weiss, M.D., in
his lab in the
Health Science
Research Facility.
lated from the bone marrow could be corrected in a
Petri dish — manipulated to express the normal CF
protein using a gene transfer technique. Then,
explains Weiss, the corrected stem cells could be
administered back into the CF patient and coaxed
to go to the lung and insert themselves into the airway and express the normal CF protein. “What
we’re doing is taking these two, sophisticated, hightech techniques and combining them in a rational
way for a disease that’s the result of a genetic
defect,” says Weiss. Results of this research made
the cover of the American Journal of Respiratory and
Critical Care Medicine in January 2006.
Though they have the capacity to turn into a
variety of cells and tissues, adult stem cells are not as
versatile as embryonic stem cells. A viable and legal
alternative is using stem cells found in umbilical cord
blood. Through a program run in collaboration with
obstetrician Ira Bernstein, M.D., professor of
obstetrics and gynecology and director of maternal
fetal medicine, and the labor and delivery suite at
Fletcher Allen Health Care, Weiss and colleagues
have had the opportunity to investigate the therapeutic capabilities of cord blood stem cells. To date,
the team has been able to induce the cord blood
stem cells to begin to turn into lung cells in Petri
dishes and has started transplanting these cells into
immunotolerant mice. They will also be tracking the
path of the human CFTR gene in these mice.
On the horizon for Weiss is a newly-approved protocol with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation that will
allow him and his colleagues, including Viranuj
Sueblinvong, M.D., a new instructor in the pulmonary and critical care division, to take this research
one step further — to collect cord blood from babies
who have CF. Administered through the CF
Foundation’s Therapeutics Development Network, a
consortium of about 30 medical centers around the
country that collaborate on CF-related clinical trials,
the goal of this cutting-edge research will be to isolate
the cord blood stem cells and use gene transfer/therapy techniques to correct the CF defect.
According to Weiss, who receives funding from
the National Institutes of Health, the CF Foundation,
American Lung Association and the Tulane Primate
Research Center for his stem cell research, his group
is also actively pursuing this approach for emphysema.
Among the few major diseases that are increasing in
prevalence and predominantly seen in older people,
emphysema is a disease that has no cure. For this pop-
ulation, Weiss and his team are
interested in using stem cells to
grow new lung tissue to replace
the destroyed lung. Preliminary
results using several mouse models of emphysema are promising.
4
Focusing less on regeneration and more on repair,
Suratt’s specialty areas include acute lung injury
(ALI) and its most severe form, adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), which may develop in the
setting of such insults as infection, shock and trauma. ALI/ARDS affects over 150,000 Americans each
year and is characterized by injury to the membrane
that separates the lung’s blood vessels from the air
sacs or alveoli. This injury allows fluid to leak into
the air sacs, resulting in fluid build-up and lung failure. For the past two years, his work has centered on
examining the molecular activity involved in the
development and repair of acute lung injury, especially the inflammatory signaling process.
On May 1, Suratt received a $1.9 million, five-year
Research Project Grant (RO1) award from the
National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
to look specifically at several cytokines — proteins
that function as intracellular communicators and are
involved in immune response — and their role in both
the development of acute lung injury and recruitment
of inflammatory cells and reparative cells.
What’s most interesting about this area of
research, explains Suratt, is an apparent “overlap”
period toward the end of the most acute phase of
ARDS, where the tail end of the inflammatory
response is being driven by the same cytokine environment that is also suspected to be recruiting stem
cells to repair the injury. “It makes sense,” says
Suratt, “that if you’re trying to transition from an
inflammatory response to repairing the organ that’s
been affected by inflammation, you are going to
need cytokine networking that will overlap to a certain degree.” One particular cytokine that appears
to carry this responsibility is Stromal Derived
Factor 1 — or SDF1 — which, research shows,
plays a role in both stem cell trafficking as well as
metastasis of cancer cells. Preliminary data also
shows that SDF1 is important in neutrophil trafficking and trafficking of other inflammatory cells.
“In my research, I’ve shown that SDF1 is responsible for the recruitment of neutrophils in the late
S U M M E R
2006
17
phases of acute lung injury,” notes Suratt.
“It’s also widely believed that SDF1 is
responsible for the trafficking of a number
of different cell types to the lung. The new
grant is directed specifically at examining
the role of these cytokines — both SDF1
and another cytokine called Granulocyte
Colony-Stimulating Factor or GCSF — in
the inflammatory cell trafficking that overlaps with the stem cell trafficking.”
According to Suratt, the same cytokine
response seems to play a role in a lot of different events beyond what is currently
obvious. Originally, SDF1 was described
as the co-receptor of HIV; after
include neural stem cells for neuroscience
further research, it was shown Assistant Professor
researchers and umbilical cord blood-derived
that the cytokine really did not of Medicine
stem cells for Weiss’ research. Spees reports
have as much of a role in HIV, Jeffrey Spees, Ph.D.
that the new Stem Cell Core will be running
but it greatly increased white (at right) researches
at full capacity by the end of summer 2006.
blood cell counts in the people the role of cardiac
Since arriving at UVM from Tulane
who received it. The key discov- stem cells (above).
University nearly a year ago, Spees has been
ery was that SDF1 was mobilizclosely collaborating with Weiss, as well as
ing cells from the bone marrow;
now, a drug based on this finding, designed to working with David Schneider, M.D., associate promobilize bone marrow-derived stem cells, is in fessor of medicine and director of cardiology, and
Burton Sobel, M.D., professor of medicine, regardphase 2 trials.
In the future, Suratt hopes to more closely exam- ing the role of adult bone marrow progenitor cells
ine how cytokine signaling influences the reparative in stimulating cardiac repair.
Spees arrived at UVM with an NIH grant to
response. “Understanding cytokines is going to be
critical to understanding what we can do with any study the role of non-blood-forming bone marrow
kind of therapy, because they play a role in inflam- stem cells in the repair and remodeling of the lung
mation, metastasis and the reparative response, so and heart during pulmonary hypertension. While at
Tulane’s Center for Gene Therapy, he and colthe answers are not that simple,” he cautions.
leagues were the first to show that human stem cells
4
could fuse with lung epithelial cells during the
With what Weiss refers to as “a critical mass” of fac- repair process. They also discovered that interulty members devoted to stem cell research, the cellular material called mitochondria could be
group — including newest faculty member Jeffrey transferred from adult stem cells to rescue epithelial
Spees, Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine — is cells with non-functional mitochondria.
working to lay the groundwork to create a fullIn his lab in the Starbuck Family wing of UVM’s
fledged stem cell center at UVM. In addition to Colchester Research Facility, Spees has continued
conducting his own stem cell research, Spees’ role is to work on cell fusion and is also examining the
to direct a new Stem Cell Core facility that provides effects of factors secreted by bone marrow stem
expertise in stem cell biology as well as isolating, cells on the growth and support of native adult carculturing, characterizing and providing the stem diac stem cells with the goal of finding out whether
cells that the group uses in their research. Spees is or not they will initiate repair in the heart. With
already providing isolated cells to a number of Sobel and Schneider, he uses a mouse model of
College of Medicine investigators, as well as nation- heart attack, which partially blocks the blood supply
al and international researchers. To date, these to the left ventricle of the heart. In their experi-
18
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
ments, which focus on injecting adult bone marrow
cells intravenously into immunodeficient mice, they
have observed improved heart function in the treated mice. “We don’t actually know what the most
important effects or mechanisms are,” says Spees,
“but you generally have improved heart function
and reduced fibrosis. Cardiac fibrosis usually occurs
about one week after cardiac muscle fiber cells
called myocytes have died. If there’s less fibrosis, it
typically means there is less injury to myocytes.”
Spees has set up an incubator that creates a hypoxic
environment — an atmosphere containing only one
percent oxygen — in which he observes how the
factors produced by bone marrow stem cells can
protect the adult cardiac stem cells.
UVM’s rising status in the field of adult stem
cells and lung biology research was clearly marked
in July 2005 when the University hosted a meeting
co-chaired by Weiss and sponsored by the National
Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and the
Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Over 100 biomedical
researchers from around the world convened on the
College of Medicine campus to discuss research discoveries, roadblocks, methods and goals. The meeting’s sponsors have already requested to return to
Burlington in 2007.
The group’s collective hope is to recruit additional stem cell researchers and to continue to
broaden the scope of their research in the near
future. Weiss looks forward to interacting with two
additional UVM scientists who currently collaborate with Spees — Dinendar Kumar, Ph.D.,
assistant professor of medicine, who is working on
cardiac development and repair, and Yang-Mao
Draayer, M.D., research assistant in pathology, who
is examining neuronal stem cells in the lab of Felix
Eckenstein, Ph.D., professor of neurology. Of
course, admits Weiss, continued funding is key to
their future success. However, with their current
research efforts, available funding and proven track
record in pushing forward, this new venture is
becoming a reality. Stem cell researchers, like the
cells themselves, are well-situated to grow into new
VM
structures.
S U M M E R
2006
19
More than 40 years ago,
Lahey Clinic lab worker
Mimi Reardon sat
in on resident rounds and
realized immediately:
“This is what I
want to do.” Now she
looks back on four decades
of accomplishment in
improving primary care
for all Vermonters.
a
Primary
Passion
by melissa
pasanen
photography by mario
20
morgado
21
G
i l l i a n b oy d g r e w u p
on her family’s dairy farm in
the small community of
Wilmington, Vermont, where,
she says, “I’m related to half
the town.” She has always
wanted to work in medicine,
although none of her many
local relatives were role models in that arena.
This fall, Boyd becomes the first member of her
immediate family to attend a four-year college when
she starts the University of New England’s physician assistant program in Biddeford, Maine. Boyd
gives significant credit for her interest in a medical
career to her participation in the Southern Vermont
Area Health Education Center (AHEC) MedQuest
program, which provides high school students with
hands-on health care career exposure.
Boyd is excited about going away to school, and
quite certain she’ll return to Vermont to practice
after seeing a little more of the world. “Yes,” she
reflects, “I’ll come back. Absolutely.”
This is the kind of story
that is music to the ears of
Mildred (Mimi) Reardon,
M.D.’67 as she steps down
after thirteen years as associate dean for primary care
at the College of Medicine.
And it is one of many. In
addition to Gillian Boyd,
there’s Sharon Fine, M.D.,
who was able to accept a family practice position in
Danville thanks in no small part to the AHEC loan
repayment program and is now also president of the
Northeastern Vermont AHEC board; there’s Noah
Diminick, a third-year College of Medicine student
from Essex who has taught in the MedQuest program and is also a Freeman Medical Scholar with
a commitment to practice medicine in Vermont
after completing his training; and there’s Gwen
FitzGerald of Monkton, a University of Vermont
undergraduate and past MedQuest participant who
is enrolled in the Pre-medical Enhancement
Program (PEP), a program to expand gifted students’ awareness and knowledge of the medical field
as a career option.
It’s probably impossible to count the number of
Vermonters who have been helped by the many
programs Reardon has championed: from school
nurses, to personal care providers, to physicians at
every stage of their careers and, indirectly, the thousands of patients those providers will ultimately care
for. The National Library of Medicine has named
her a “local legend”; the American College of
Physicians has granted her a “mastership”; and she
has been called a “state treasure.” If Frank Capra
had made a Mimi Reardon version of “It’s a
Wonderful Life,” it would stretch on for days.
“Mimi is a person who has touched people at all levels,” confirms former College of Medicine Dean
John Evans.
4
Like Gillian Boyd, the young Mimi Reardon had no
role models in health care careers as she grew up in
the Boston area, but she always felt the tug of science. The daughter of a teacher and a dairy bacteriologist, she followed her mother’s path and went to
teachers’ college where, she says, “I took all the science courses in the first two years.” One of her professors saw her promise and encouraged her to
“She’s been able to take
her years of primary care and
translate them into policy.”
22
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
transfer to Northeastern University where she
majored in biology and minored in chemistry.
Her eventual career path did not become clear,
however, until she took a job at a laboratory of
Boston’s Lahey Clinic. Carless, and living 20 miles
outside Boston in Tewksbury at the time, Reardon
would hitch a ride with a neighbor into work and
arrive two hours early. “They let me sit in on resident rounds,” she recalls with obvious relish for her
own self-styled job shadowing program. “I was really intrigued by science and I was really committed
to serving people and being actively involved in caring for people. I knew immediately: This is what I
want to do.”
With characteristic determination, Reardon
applied to the UVM College of Medicine. In 1963,
she became one of five women in a class of 50 med-
ical students. “It wasn’t easy,”
she acknowledged, “but I loved
medicine and I really enjoyed
medical school.” Her decision
to practice primary care was
perhaps easier — and also
telling. Never one to shy away
from a large task, Reardon says
simply, “I was impressed by the
vastness of internal medicine.”
She did a year of fellowship
in hematology-oncology, she
explained, because “I thought
maybe I’d pick one area and be
really sharp in that.”
Returning to Vermont after
her residency in New York City
and fellowship in Los Angeles,
Reardon joined some of her
former teachers from the
College of Medicine at Aesculapius Medical Center in South
Program. Mike Scollins, M.D., first met
Burlington, the first combined Mimi Reardon, M.D.’67,
practice in the area. She was talks with high schoolers Reardon in 1971 when he came to Burlington
to complete his residency and then join
drawn back to Vermont, she during a session of
Aesculapius, where he and Reardon worked
recalls, by the place itself; MedQuest, which she
together for 26 years. “Mimi cared. She was
by the people — especially spearheaded to introalways personally interested in what would be
mentors like Stanley Burns, duce young Vermonters
best for the patients, and she always found the
M.D.’55, John Lantman, to health careers.
M.D.’51, John Milne, M.D.,
time to do a little bit more,” Scollins says.
former dean Bill Luginbuhl,
Her clinical work was complemented by
M.D., and Ellsworth Amidon, M.D.’32, among oth- involvement with the Vermont Medical Society
ers; and by the chance to remain involved with the (VMS). “In contrast to our interactions with indimedical school. “Here, perhaps more than in other vidual patients,” Reardon explains, “the medical
places,” she reflects, “people tend to be very direct society helps us as a profession to interface with
and honest and real, and very appreciative of the important groups and organizations in health care
beauty around us, and also have a desire to preserve like state government, insurers, and Congress. I
and steward each other and the environment well.”
think having this voice for the profession is incredibly important.” She first served on the VMS coun4
cil and then became the Medical Society’s president
For twenty-seven years, Reardon enjoyed a in 1986, proud to be the first woman in that role in
rewarding career as an internist, earning the affec- its over two-hundred-year history (and quick to add
tion and respect of both patients and fellow physi- that there have been two other women presidents
cians. In addition to maintaining a busy practice, since). As the VMS delegate to the American
she stayed involved with the College of Medicine Medical Association for six years, she was also able
teaching students and residents, as well as partici- to participate in development of national policy.
pating on many committees involved with admis- Through her work with VMS, Reardon also pursions, alumni, faculty, and house staff while also sued an initiative to help evaluate and measure qualworking with organizations including the American ity in health care on a statewide basis, which led to
Cancer Society and the Champlain Valley Hospice the creation of the non-profit Vermont Program for
S U M M E R
2006
23
Quality in Health Care for
which she served as board
president for close to a
decade.
Reardon earned a reputation as a passionate, articulate
voice for health care issues
with a unique capacity to
enlist support and assistance.
“Mimi has woven a web of
personal connections to people. She gives you the feeling
your contributions can make
a difference,” says Newport
pediatrician Mike Moseley,
M.D.’79. “She’s very much in
tune with local initiatives but
not a person coming down
edge and her style in
combination are her
strength.”
Despite this obvious
gift, Reardon had no
plans for a full-time
career in advocacy until
Dean John Frymoyer,
M.D. and Executive
Dean John Evans,
Ph.D., approached her
in 1993 to ask if she
would consider the
newly created position
of Associate Dean for
Primary Care and lead
a concentrated effort to
improve access to primary care across the
state, especially in underserved areas.
“I think it was a time when there was
very clear recognition that primary
care needed to come to the forefront
at the College, in the state of
Vermont, and in the nation for that
matter,” Evans recalls. “And we needed a person as the focal point. We
were looking for the quintessential
primary care provider in Vermont
and Mimi’s name kept coming up.”
“Mimi was clearly very well respected and,
through her work with the state medical society, she
knew and understood the legislature and had connections with primary care doctors around the
state,” agrees Frymoyer. “We needed someone to
bring together all those working in primary care
and also someone to reach out into the state and try
to understand the state’s needs. She was a slam
dunk.”
Reardon was intrigued, but also torn. “In my
heart of hearts,” she says when pressed, “I’m a practicing physician.” Although she juggled her practice
and the associate dean position for the first five
years, “There was just not enough time to get
everything done in both places,” she laments. She
concluded reluctantly that she could probably help
the field of primary care — and her beloved adopted state of Vermont — better as an advocate than as
a practitioner. “I think of the primary care clinician
as being the most important person for a patient
“I think of the primary care
clinician as being the most
important person for a patient
over most of their time of need...”
from the mount with tablets of stone.” Reardon
became known for her ability to remember the
specifics of everyone’s family or pet — and ask about
them without fail. “When she goes to the statehouse, she’s the only person I’ve seen down there
who everyone hugs,” marvels Liz Cote, current
director of the UVM AHEC program.
Vermont State Senator Jim Leddy, who served
for 20 years as director of Howard Human Services
as well as eight years in the state legislature, has
known Reardon for many years as both a physician
and as a health care advocate. “When you’re talking
to Mimi you’re dealing with someone who not only
knows her subject, but cares deeply. She’s been able
to take her years of primary care and translate them
into policy,” Leddy says. “Her style is so gentle, so
kind, so embracing. Persistence is very much part of
who Mimi is, but she’s never in your face. She is
very clear and very specific on where she sees the
needs and how best to address them. Her knowl-
24
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
highlights
of a Career in Service
Dr. Mimi Reardon has devoted her career in
service to patients, to health care, and to Vermont.
These are just a few of her notable achievements.
VERMONT’S AREA HEALTH EDUCATION CENTERS
The AHEC model was developed at a federal level in
the late 1970s and start-up funding is provided
through the federal Health Resources and Services
Administration (HRSA) grants with a universitybased school of medicine housing a central state
AHEC program office to work with independent,
not-for-profit regional centers. Since the AHEC program was first established in Vermont in 1996, the
three regional centers in St. Johnsbury, St. Albans,
and Springfield have earned more than $10 million
in federal grants and contracts to integrate health
care services across professional disciplines, developed regionally responsive health education programs and resources, and built Vermont’s health
care workforce, especially in underserved areas of
the state. The centers have brought continuing education programs to over 1,500 health professionals
and exposed over 4,000 Vermont students from
grade school through university to health career
opportunities. Every year, AHEC places over 650
health profession students in training opportunities across the state; supports 13 Community Health
Information and Resource Centers and works to
bring public health improvement education programs to Vermonters; and grants over half a million
dollars in educational loan repayment awards to
approximately 150 doctors, dentists, and nurses
who fill critical access gaps in Vermont’s health care
system with an 89 percent retention rate, the highest in the nation.
THE FREEMAN MEDICAL SCHOLARS PROGRAM
The Freeman Medical Scholars Program is the result
of a gift from the Freeman Foundation of New York.
The Freeman family, which has deep roots in
Vermont, found in Reardon someone who shares
their passion for recruiting and retaining the best
physicians for Vermont. This program awards scholarships to UVM College of Medicine students who
make a commitment to practice medicine in
Vermont after completion of medical school and
residency and fellowship training, as well as to
make educational loan repayment awards for
Mimi Reardon and former Dean John Evans look over plans
for the Medical Education Center’s “Reardon Classroom.”
physicians for Vermont regardless of where they
went to medical school. Reardon has been involved
in the development and implementation of the program as its director and has helped to recruit and
retain over 100 physicians (with some in each of
Vermont’s fourteen counties) throughout the state
in the past six years, with specialties ranging from
oncology to orthopedics to primary care.
VERMONT PROGRAM FOR QUALITY
IN HEALTH CARE
Reardon was the founding board president of this
non-profit formed in 1988 that brings together representatives of consumers, hospitals, insurers,
HMOs, employers, physicians and state government
to improve the quality, efficiency, and cost effectiveness of Vermont’s health care system; define health
care quality, working with health care providers and
others to develop legitimate standards of care and
indicators of quality; measure health care quality
through data collection and analysis; and improve
health care quality by providing information and
education to practitioners and consumers.
THE VERMONT MEDICAL SOCIETY’S EDUCATION
AND RESEARCH FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIPS
Currently, Reardon is a VMS councilor-at-large and
serves as president of the Vermont Medical Society’s
Educational and Research Foundation, which offers
annual scholarships to third-year medical students
who make a commitment to practice medicine in
Vermont, especially its less served areas.
S U M M E R
2006
25
over most of their time of need in the medical
system,” she says, “the person the patient goes to
find out how to maintain their good health, how to
do the most efficient thing to get back into good
health, and to direct them to other resources and
people when necessary. This is a critically important
area of medicine and in the particular times in
which we are living, it’s become even more critically important,” she continues, noting the aging population and increase in chronic conditions.
She also fully recognizes the many challenges
facing primary care clinicians today: the need to
keep current with an ever-expanding universe of
broad medical knowledge, the struggle to balance
personal life with continuity of care, and compensation issues. Reardon knows she can’t solve everything, but she will do what she can to put a few
more pluses on the side of primary care. “It is
exceedingly important that we have our best and
our brightest leading primary care to develop new
and better ways to do things,” she concludes firmly. “Patient expectations have changed. For some
the old G.P. model works, for others it doesn’t.
The most important thing is to realize where
they’re at and what makes them comfortable. The
most important thing is not to lose the human
connection.”
the students, residents, and health care professionals
who have been convinced to return or to stay in
Vermont thanks to AHEC and Freeman financial
assistance; to the Doctoring in Vermont program that
ensures every medical student will spend time working hands-on with primary care mentors, “She’s
everywhere,” says Evans, “an influencer of governors,
of senators, of public health…she’s the glue that
brings everything together.”
Another legendary aspect of Reardon’s reputation is her ability to turn “no” into “yes.” As one
colleague says, “She’s a force to be reckoned with.”
She applied for the initial federal AHEC grant three
times before the funding was finally awarded. “Dr.
Reardon had a vision for how the College of
Medicine, in partnership with communities across
the state, could work to improve the health of
Vermonters,” says Theresa Alberghini DiPalma,
who worked with Reardon as senior legislative assistant for health for U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy in the
early 1990s, and is currently senior vice president
for government and external relations at Fletcher
Allen Health Care. “Anyone who knows Dr.
Reardon knows that her vision is matched only by
her stamina.”
Even in retirement, Reardon will stay involved
with some key projects: ensuring that the Freeman
Medical Scholars program connects
graduating residents with needy areas
in Vermont and further developing
the new Premedical Enhancement
Program. She will also, she hopes, have
more time to relax and travel with her
two close friends, Pat Connelly and
Sarah Beers, with whom she has lived
for 33 years,. “The truth of the matter,”
she says, “is that I would never have
been able to do a fraction of what I have
done if it were not for them.”
Although, as her friends know well, Mimi
Reardon’s retirement is likely to be as busy as most
people’s working life. She may have left direct
patient care behind, but she will never leave behind
the responsibility she feels to patients. “She wants
quality patient care for every single Vermonter,”
says Senator Jim Leddy. “There is a commitment in
this state for people to take care of one another and
Mimi is the embodiment of that. She’s a doctor’s
doctor, but ultimately and more importantly, she’s a
VM
patient’s doctor.”
HALL A
P R E S I D E N T
C L A S S
’
S
C O R N E R
28
29
N E W S
33
39
N O T E S
D E V E L O P M E N T
O B I T U A R I E S
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.
“When you’re talking to Mimi,
you’re dealing with someone
who not only knows her subject,
but cares deeply.”
Evans and Frymoyer knew that once engaged,
Reardon would be a formidable ally in their efforts to
raise the profile of primary care and improve health
care access across Vermont. Both look back on
Reardon’s tenure as Associate Dean for Primary Care
with immense satisfaction and gratitude. Her work
securing funding and establishing three regional
AHECs in Vermont with the broad charter of developing community-based partnerships to improve the
health of all Vermonters has been “a singular achievement,” says Frymoyer. From the AHECs wide range
of education, placement, and support programs; to
26
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
S U M M E R
2006
27
PRESIDENT ’S CORNER
M.D. CLASS NOTES
H A L L A
H A L L A
UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT
COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
DEVELOPMENT &
ALUMNI RELATIONS OFFICE
it’s a great pleasure to greet you as the new President of the
Medical Alumni Association, following Charles Howard’s term of fine leadership during the past two years. He deserves all of our thanks for his splendid efforts on our behalf. I especially want to thank Dean John Evans, who
stepped down June 30, for his many years of extraordinary devotion to the
College in the many roles he filled so well. We will sorely miss his smiling
face at our Alumni Executive Committee meetings and his remarkable
leadership. Change is inevitable however, and Dr. John Fogarty’s energetic
assumption of duties as Interim Dean presents opportunities for further
growth and development. I look forward to working with him, as do the
officers and members of the Alumni Executive Committee who represent
you at the College.
UVM’s College of Medicine played an important role in my life, not
only the obvious one of educating me as a physician, but also as the setting
where many of my values were formed. I believe that is true of many of the
alumni who are reading this as well. It’s clear from my personal observation
that the dedication of the faculty and the administration of the College continue to have a similarly profound impact on the College’s current students.
Happily, this wonderful quality hasn’t changed, nor has the need for alumni support for the College. This year, 40 percent of the College’s alumni
have given financial support, which compares very favorably with that of
other U.S. medical schools. This admirable record is largely due to the
“Century Fund” model, which was initiated by alumni the year of my graduation, 1960.
Back then, each graduating senior pledged to give one dollar to the fund
the first year after graduation, two dollars the next, etc. until the tenth year
when we agreed to give one hundred dollars (a “century note”) to the
College and at least as much each year thereafter. The initial dollar amount
may seem negligible by today’s standards, but it was an important start that
has yielded wonderful results. Similarly, in the past two years, today’s students have initiated two highly successful fundraising drives, one to honor
Dean Joe Warshaw, the other to honor recently deceased faculty member
Bruce Fonda. So, the tradition continues.
This year, we’re launching a new fund, The UVM College of Medicine
Fund, which gets back to the simple, effective roots of the Century Fund.
It will provide unrestricted money for the Dean to pursue the priorities of
the College, particularly student support. Through this fund, we alumni
can best show our support for the College of Medicine and its students and
continue the legacy of the “Century Fund.”
So, in a sense, I begin my tenure as President as I began my life as an
alumnus — helping launch a new fund to support those who follow in our
footsteps. Some things truly do not change.
Marv Nierenberg, M.D.’60
28
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
ASSISTANT DEAN
rick blount
DEVELOPMENT OPERATIONS MANAGER
ginger lubkowitz
DIRECTOR , MAJOR GIFTS
manon o ’ connor
DIRECTOR , MEDICAL ANNUAL GIVING
sarah keblin
DIRECTOR , MEDICAL ALUMNI RELATIONS
kelli shonter
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
John C. Robinson and his
wife, Megs, moved out of
their Glastonbury, Conn.,
house and into an apartment in a retirement complex.
DEVELOPMENT OFFICER
travis morrison
ASSISTANTS
jane aspinall
james gilbert
todd stewart
UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT
MEDICAL ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
ALUMNI EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
2006–2007
OFFICERS
( TWO -YEAR TERMS )
PRESIDENT
marvin a. nierenberg, m.d.’60
(2006-2008)
PRESIDENT- ELECT
ruth a. seeler, m.d.’62
(2006-2008)
TREASURER
patricia fenn, m.d.’65
(2006-2008)
SECRETARY
james c. hebert, m.d.’77
(2006-2008)
EXECUTIVE SECRETARY
john tampas, m.d.’54
(ongoing)
MEMBERS - AT- LARGE :
(6-YEAR TERMS )
leslie s. kerzner, m.d.’95
(2002-2008)
frederick mandell, m.d.’64
(2002-2008)
don p. chan, m.d.’76
(2002-2008)
mark allegretta, ph.d.’90
(2003-2010)
mark pasanen, m.d.’92
(2004-2010)
h. james wallace, iii, m.d.’88
(2004-2010)
naomi r. leeds, m.d., ’00 m.p.h.
(2004-2010)
paul b. stanilonis, m.d.’65
(2006-2012)
carleton r. haines, m.d. ’43
(2006-2012)
jacqueline a. noonan, m.d. ’54
(2006-2012)
1943
1946
Francis Arnold Caccavo
(M.D. Dec. 1943)
51 Thibault Parkway
Burlington, VT 05401
(802) 862-3841
J. Bishop McGill
152 Sanborn Road
Stowe, VT 05672
(802) 253-4081
[email protected]
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]
Murray N. Levin sends his
best wishes to all his classmates.
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
Richard E. Pease
P.O. Box 14
Jericho, VT 05465
(802) 899-2543
UPCOMING EVENTS
October 6-8, 2006
UVM Homecoming &
Family Weekend
Edward S. Sherwood
24 Worthley Road
Topsham, VT 05076
(802) 439-5816
[email protected]
October 7-10, 2006
American Academy of
Pediatrics Alumni Reception
Atlanta, Georgia
1950
October 21, 2006
Alumni Executive & Planned
Giving Committee Meetings
UVM College of Medicine
Simon Dorfman
8256 Nice Way
Sarasota, FL 34238
(941) 926-8126
1951
’ 0 7
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]
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]
Edward W. Jenkins M.D.
7460 South Pittsburg Ave.
Tulsa, OK 74136
(918) 492-7960
R E U N I O N
’ 0 7
1952
Brewster Davis Martin
Box 128
362 VT Route 110
Chelsea, VT 05038
(802) 685-4541
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]
October 30, 2006
AAMC Annual Meeting
Reception, Grand Hyatt Hotel
Seattle, Washington
November 26-December 1, 2006
Radiological Society
of North America
Alumni Reception
Chicago, Illinois
January 12, 2007
White Coat Ceremony
UVM College of Medicine
June 8-10, 2007
College of Medicine Reunion
UVM College of Medicine
For updates on events see:
www.med.uvm.edu/medalum
1955
Marshall G. London
102 Summit Street
Burlington, VT 05401
(802) 864-4927
[email protected]
Paul G. Stevens is still
doing office practice one
day a week. “No stress
involved now since I no
longer do OB surgery,
ER, or critical hospitalizations. At age 77, so far the
Alzheimers has not reared
its ugly head.”
S U M M E R
2006
29
M.D. CLASS NOTES
H A L L A
1956
1960
Ira H. Gessner
1306 Northwest 31st Street
Gainesville, FL 32605
(352) 378-1820
[email protected]
Marvin A. Nierenberg
6 West 77th Street
New York, NY 10024
(212) 874-6484
[email protected]
R E U N I O N
’ 0 7
1957
Larry Coletti
34 Gulliver Circle
Norwich, CT 06360
(860) 887-1450
[email protected]
Jack Farnham and his wife,
Anne, are looking forward
to their 50th wedding
anniversary this
September. Archie Golden
writes: “Still working part
time at Johns Hopkins —
seeing patients and teaching students.” Walter F.
Miner writes: “Retirement
turns out to be very busy.
We greatly enjoy time
spent with our new almost
neighbors, Ann and Jack
Farnham. Few other classmates seem to have drifted
this far south.”
1958
Peter Ames Goodhue
Stamford Gynecology, P.C.
70 Mill River Street
Stamford, CT 06902
(203) 359-3340
1959
Jay E. Selcow
27 Reservoir Road
Bloomfield, CT 06002
(860) 243-1359
[email protected]
30
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
Melvyn H. Wolk
Clinton Street
P.O. Box 772
Waverly, PA 18471
(570) 563-2215
[email protected]
1961
Wilfrid L. Fortin
17 Chapman Street
Nashua, NH 03060
(603) 882-6202
[email protected]
Edward Mulcahy writes:
“Life is good here in
Pinehurst, N.C. I’m still
working as an orthopedic
consultant two days a week.
Golfing three or four days
a week and gardening fill
out the week.” Ronald S.
Nadel is “still practicing
dermatology and loving it.
Also skiing in the winter
and traveling a lot.”
1964
Donald S. Bicknell writes:
“Still in full time practice
with three other doctors
including my son
Timothy. Married to Liz
for 47 years and we have
five children who have
given us nine grandchildren. We’re enjoying life,
practice and family
immensely. John Mesch is
“still continuing in the
now part-time practice of
pulmonary medicine
among the other activities
in this later life stage.”
R E U N I O N
H. Alan Walker
229 Champlain Drive
Plattsburgh, NY 12901
(518) 561-8991
[email protected]
’ 0 7
1962
Ruth Andrea Seeler
2431 North Orchard
Chicago, IL 60614
(773) 472-3432
1963
John J. Murray
P.O. Box 607
Colchester, VT 05446
(802) 865-9390
[email protected]
Anthony P. Belmont
211 Youngs Point Road
Wiscasset, ME 04578
(207) 882-6228
[email protected]
1965
George A. Little
97 Quechee Road
Hartland, VT 05048
(802) 436-2138
george.a.little@
dartmouth.edu
Joseph H. Vargas III
574 US Route 4 East
Rutland Town, VT 05701
(802) 775-4671
[email protected]
1966
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]
Roger V. Ohanesian is “still
a managing partner in
California Coastal
Ophthalmology in
Laguna. Still going to
Armenia twice-a-year
and managing an ophthalmology program there.”
R E U N I O N
John F. Beamis, Jr. writes:
“This summer I will step
down after 20 years as
chair of pulmonary/critical
care medicine at the Lahey
Clinic. I will continue as
chief of medicine.”
’ 0 7
1967
1971
John F. Dick II
P.O. Box 60
Salisbury, VT 05769
(802) 352-6625
Wayne E. Pasanen
117 Osgood Street
North Andover, MA 01845
(978) 681-9393
wpasanen@lowell
general.org
1968
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
1969
Charles B. Howard
256 Bridgepoint Road
Belle Mead, NJ 08502
(908) 359-6161
[email protected]
Susan Pitman Lowenthal
200 Kennedy Drive
Torrington, CT 06790
(860) 597-8996
susan_w_pitmanlowen
[email protected]
1970
Raymond Joseph Anton
1521 General Knox Road
Russell, MA 01071
(413) 568-8659
[email protected]
John F. Beamis, Jr.
24 Lorena Road
Winchester, MA 01890
(781) 729-7568
[email protected]
Lorraine A. Kretchman has
retired from clinical practice and is working full
time for a life insurance
company. She does risk
assessment and length of
life predictions on applicants for life insurance.
“It’s nice to be down to a
40-hour work week!”
Leslie W. Levenson writes:
“We are alive and well in
Southeast Louisiana. We
fortunately did not flood
at home or at work (interventional cardiology practice). My wife Gayle and
our three children and
new grandson are all well.”
R E U N I O N
1972
F. Farrell Collins, Jr.
205 Page Road
Pinehurst, NC 28374
(910) 295-2429
1973
James M. Betts
715 Harbor Road
Alameda, CA 94502
(510) 523-1920
[email protected]
Philip L. Cohen
483 Lakewood Drive
’ 0 7
Winter Park, FL 32789
(407) 628-0221
[email protected]
1974
Douglas M. Eddy
5 Tanbark Road
Windham, NH 03087
(603) 434-2164
[email protected]
Cajsa Schumacher
78 Euclid Avenue
Albany, NY 12203
[email protected]
Tim Wargo has returned to
Vermont to work and is
looking forward to “hiking
the hills” with his wife,
Lorraine, and kayaking on
Lake Champlain.
1975
Ellen Andrews
195 Midland Road
Pinehurst, NC 28374
(910) 295-6464
[email protected]
1976
Don P. Chan
Cardiac Associates of
New Hampshire
Suite 103
246 Pleasant Street
Concord, NH 03301
(603) 224-6070
[email protected]
Bob Backus just returned
from a trip to South
Africa/Mozambique. Matt
Zetumer continues in fulltime private practice of
psychiatry in San Diego
and follows his passion of
mountain climbing.
R E U N I O N
’ 0 7
1977
Mark A. Popovsky
22 Nauset Road
Sharon, MA 02067
(781) 784-8824
mpopovsky@
haemonetics.com
1978
Paul McLane Costello
Essex Pediatrics, Ltd.
89 Main Street
Essex Junction, VT 05452
(802) 879-6556
1979
Sarah Ann McCarty
1018 Big Bend Road
Barboursville, WV 25504
(304) 691-1094
[email protected]
1980
Richard Nicholas Hubbell
80 Summit Street
Burlington, VT 05401
(802) 862-5551
rich.hubbell@
vtmednet.org
1981
Craig Wendell Gage
2415 Victoria Gardens
Tampa, FL 33609
CraigGage@
alumni.uvm.edu
David Gacetta and his
wife, Gretchen, just celebrated their 25th wedding
anniversary. Jacques
Larochelle and his wife,
Carolyn, stay busy with
their six boys and a fulltime practice in Bangor,
Maine. Margery McCrum
is working part-time in
her private voice studio
and for the Brattleboro
Music Center. Ginger
Miller (Khoury) writes:
“Dan Silverman and I are
working together at the
Center for Disability
Services in Albany. He is
great to work with….small
world!”
R E U N I O N
’ 0 7
1982
Linda Hood
4 Cobbler Lane
Bedford, NH 03110
(603) 471-2536
[email protected]
1983
Diane M. Georgeson
2 Ravine Parkway
Oneonta, NY 13820
(607) 433-1620
[email protected]
Anne Marie Massucco
15 Cedar Ledge Road
West Hartford, CT 06107
(860) 521-6120
[email protected]
Stephen Payne is still
working at NW Medical
Center in St. Albans
where he lives on a farm
with his family, and writes
both fiction and nonfiction as well as contributing to Vermont Life
magazine. Rosanna
Trabucco Musselman has
started working with the
Brigham & Women’s
group part time. She now
has more time for her
family, two puppies and
her hobby, pottery.
S U M M E R
2006
31
M.D. CLASS NOTES
H A L L A
1984
Richard C. Shumway
34 Coventry Lane
Avon, CT 06001
(860) 673-6629
rshumway@
stfranciscare.org
1985
Vito D. Imbasciani
1915 North Crescent
Heights Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90069
(323) 656-1316
[email protected]
1986
Darrell Edward White
29123 Lincoln Road
Bay Village, OH 44140
(440) 892-4681
[email protected]
Darrell White lives with
his wife, Beth, and their
three children near
Cleveland, and opened a
new vision care facility
one-and-a-half years ago.
R E U N I O N
’ 0 7
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
Eric Shapiro is living in
Boca Raton, Fla. with his
wife, Lynn, and his children, Adam, 16, Lauren,
15, and Allison, 12. Judy
Fried Siegel writes:
32
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
“Practice [in Hastings-onHudson, N.Y.] is community-based female pediatric
urology. Focus on neuromodulation for voiding
dysfunction, using integrative approach including
nutrition, P.T., biofeedback and nerve stimulation
— central & peripheral.
Jeffrey Michael Slaiby
writes: “Living in Rhode
Island — vascular
Surgeon. Married (Marisa)
with two children —
Hannah age 5, and Samuel
age 3. Other than taking
sutures out for Jeff
Epstein’s patients, I
haven’t heard from too
many classmates.”
1989
Peter M. Nalin
13216 Griffin Run
Carmel, IN 46033
(317) 962-6656
[email protected]
1990
Barbara Angelika Dill
120 Hazel Court
Norwood, NJ 07648
(201) 767-7778
[email protected]
1991
John Dewey
15 Eagle Street
Cooperstown, NY 13326
[email protected]
Curtis Libby lives in
Cumberland, Maine with
his wife Karen, son Brett,
and daughters Kate and
Erin. Steven Vogt and his
wife Christine are living a
happy life together in
Hood River, Oregon.
R E U N I O N
’ 0 7
1992
Mark Eliot Pasanen
1234 Spear Street
South Burlington, VT 05403
(802) 865-3281
mark.pasanen@
vtmednet.org
Shirlene Jay writes: We are
living here in Redondo
Beach, Calif. I’ve been in a
private practice dermatology group, and we are
having the most joy raising
our two girls, Megan, 5,
and Kayla, 2.
1993
Joanne Taplin Romeyn
22 Patterson Lane
Durham, CT 06422
(860) 349-6941
Peter and Joanne Romeyn
are doing well in central
Connecticut with their
three children. They are
practicing anesthesia and
general surgery in their
local community hospital.
1994
Holliday Kane Rayfield
P.O. Box 819
Waitsfield, VT 05673
(802) 496-5667
[email protected]
Brian Clark has been
appointed director of the
division of reproductive
endocrinology and infertility in the department of
obstetrics and gynecology
at UMass Memorial
Medical Center. He has
also been appointed an
associate professor of
obstetrics and gynecology
at the University of
Massachusetts Medical
School. Craig Nielsen is
currently the Internal
Medicine Residency
Director at the Cleveland
Clinic. Seth Rafal lives in
Newton, Mass., with his
wife Mimi and daughter
Lily. He is the Medical
Director of the Program
for Assertive Community
Treatment and also continues a half-time private
practice in psychiatry.
1995
Allyson Miller Bolduc
252 Autumn Hill Road
South Burlington, VT 05403
(802) 863-4902
allyson.bolduc@
vtmednet.org
Leslie Kerzner took a new
position as Associate
Director of the special
care nursery at Mass.
General Hospital in
January.
1996
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
Amy Roberts McGaraghan
writes: “I joined the group
practice at Mt. Auburn
Hospital in Cambridge,
Mass., one year ago.
Enjoying working parttime and spending time
with Jack (3½ yr-old) and
Leo (2 yrs). Neil is busy
with his law practice in
Boston; we are looking
forward to reunion.”
DEVELOPMENT NEWS
ANNUAL FUND SUCCESS AND RENEWAL
Participation by UVM College of Medicine alumni in
annual giving to the College continues to be among
the highest in the nation. An estimated 40% of all
alumni gave during the 2006 fiscal year. In addition to
alumni giving, over 2,500 faculty, staff, friends, and
community members have supported the College of
Medicine’s annual fund this year. This combined support will provide over $2 million in current-use funding
for the College in the 2006-2007 year — a truly
remarkable achievement.
A related development that builds on the strength
of the annual giving program is the kick-off of a new
priority annual fund — The UVM College of Medicine
Fund. This new fund builds upon the goals and history
of the former 21st Century Fund, and the need for an
unrestricted priority source of funding for the College.
It will provide an opportunity for all annual fund
donors to contribute to the greatest-need fund, which
will increase available dollars to be used where they
are needed most — for scholarship, educational technology, alumni support, and support for faculty teaching and research opportunities.
THE CRANE
CHALLENGE
The College is also happy
to announce the Crane
Challenge — a matching
grant made possible by a
generous $30,000 gift
from alumnus Edward B.
Crane, M.D.’47 (left). Dr.
Crane’s grant will match
increased donations as will be
announced upon the formal launch of the UVM
College of Medicine Fund this September. Dr. Crane
has made this gift to underscore his belief in the power
of annual giving and its importance to the College; it
will serve to leverage the already strong participation
in annual giving as the Fund kicks off.
and Edna Backup, M.D.’46. Dr. Goldberg is an emeritus
professor of radiology at the University of
Pennsylvania. Phillip Backup made the donation to
celebrate his and his ex-wife’s 40th Reunion. (Edna
Backup died suddenly on July 31.) Plaques for the newly
named rooms were put in place during Reunion 2006.
REUNION GIVING
SUCCESS
Alumni celebrating
reunion years in 2006
were very generous in
their reunion-focused
giving. During the
Friday night “Legends
and Leaders” event in
Carpenter Auditorium
on June 10, Ira
Gessner, M.D.’56 (at right in photo) was able to present
Dean John Evans with a Reunion Check representing
all classes reunion gifts as of that day. More donations
have come in since, pushing reunion giving for 2006
well over the $400,000 mark.
ARTWORK IN PLACE
Works of art recently donated to the College by alumni
went on display during this
summer’s reunion. Two
paintings by UVM faculty
member Frank Owen were
donated by Edward Okun,
M.D.’56 and his wife
Barbara-rose (below). They
now hang in the corridor outside the Dana Medical
Library and in the HSRF gallery. Additionally, a sculpture created by Saul Spiro, M.D.’56 now graces the
reading area at the center of the Dana Library (above).
The glass-and-copper work is titled “In the Balance.”
And four sketches donated by the Stackpole family
now hang in the Given Courtyard.
ASSESSMENT ROOMS NAMED
Rooms in the College’s Student Assessment Center —
a key educational space under the Vermont Integrated
Curriculum — have been named in honor of donors
Herbert Goldberg, M.D.’56 and Phillip Backup, M.D.’46
MEDICAL PHOTOGRAPHY
33
M.D. CLASS NOTES
H A L L A
R E U N I O N
’ 0 7
1997
Julie Clifford Smail
10 Proctor Street
Manchester-by-the-Sea,
MA 01944
(360) 240-8693
jsmail@
fidalgomedical.com
Carol Blackwood writes: “I
am very happy to have
returned from Iraq,
although I still mourn for
the young people we cared
for. I am now enjoying a
geriatrics fellowship at
East Carolina University
in North Carolina, funded
by the US Navy.”
Christine Lamoureux
enjoys life in Colorado
with her husband, Ken,
and their two daughters,
Kay (age 4) and Mina (age
2). Christine is in private
practice specializing in
musculoskeletal imaging.
“We look forward to seeing old friends at the 2007
reunion.” Jonathan and
Amy Martin write: “Hawaii
living is wonderful. We
welcomed our new little
daughter, Kate, in September. We look forward to
seeing everyone at our
ten-year reunion next
year!”
1998
Halleh Akbarnia
4700 Bromley Lane
Richmond, VA 23226
(804) 204-2595
[email protected]
Erika Fellinger (Tapman)
writes: “My husband Eric
and I are now living in
Somerville, Mass, and we
welcomed Zachary
Fellinger into the world
34
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
on 11/15/05. I am working
as a general and minimally
invasive surgeon with the
Harvard-affiliated
Cambridge Health
Alliance, and loving life in
Beantown.” Shardul
Nanavati married Dr.
Prathima Moorthy on
April 15, 2006 and is practicing gastroenterology.
gong to do fellowship
training in Pediatric
Emergency Medicine at
Yale, after being a ped’s
ER attending for three
years.”
2001
1999
Ladan Farhoomand
1481 Regatta Road
Carlsbad, CA 92009
(626) 201-1998
[email protected]
Everett Jonathan Lamm
11 Autumn Lane
Stratham, NH 03885
(603) 929-7555
[email protected]
Joel W. Keenan
Greenwich Hospital
Five Perryridge Road
Greenwich, CT 06830
[email protected]
Deanne Dixon Haag
4215 Pond Road
Sheldon, VT 05483
(802) 524-7528
JoAn Louise Monaco
Suite 6-F, 5E
4618 Warwick Blvd.
Kansas City, MO 64112
(816) 753-2410
[email protected]
2000
Jay Edmond Allard
USNH Yokosuka
PSC 475 Box 1757
FPO, AP 96350
[email protected]
Michael Jim Lee
71 Essex Lane
Irvine, CA 92620
michael_j_lee1681@
yahoo.com
Jay Allard writes: my wife,
son, and I will be moving
back to the Washington
D.C. area after two years
in Japan. I will be beginning fellowship training in
gynecologic oncology.
Please feel free to look me
up if you’re in the area.
Amy Doolan Roy writes:
“Marc (’99) and I are moving back to Connecticut
with our new 14-monthold son Benjamin. Marc is
going to be an ED attending at New Britain
General Hospital and I am
Jennifer Carlson writes:
“Brad and I welcomed
Taylor Ben into our family
on May 8 — a great way
to finish pediatric residency training.” Jeanne Lister
MacDonald writes: I am
enjoying a part-time job at
Mass General as a hospitalist in the NICU.
Nathan and I have two
terrific boys: Graham, age
3, and Nicholas, age 5
months.
Class agent JoAn
Monaco has collected an
extensive amount of news
from her classmates which
follows: Greetings to the
Class of 2001. It’s hard to
believe that we’re already
five years out from our
med school graduation.
How quickly time flies!!
This is the first installment of updates from our
classmates. Please keep
your emails, phone calls
and visits coming to keep
the info interesting!! Our
reunion was a huge success
thanks to the efforts of the
alumni office. It was held
on a beautiful June weekend in Burlington with
plenty of fun events and
gatherings. As expected,
the turnout for the recent
graduates is typically low
and we’re waiting on a
report from Lydia Grondin
and Gretchen Gaida, who
were our class representatives. Gretchen completed
her internal medicine residency and is loving life in
Boston. Her work packs
her schedule and she’s
adjusting to Medicare
reform but the social scene
in Boston keeps her
jammed with everything
from happy hours to soccer leagues. Life continues
to be a lot of fun for
Gretchen in Boston…congrats Dr. Gaida! Adam
Kanter just returned from
a year in New Zealand
where he completed a fellowship at Auckland
Hospital before returning
to the University of
Virginia for his Chief year
in neurosurgery. He, Jodi
and their three (yes, three)
children had an absolute
blast in New Zealand with
many trips throughout the
North Island, the South
Island and Australia. They
had a cliffside house overlooking the Pacific with an
incredible view. The
Kanter posse is doing very
well. Jared is now six and
Kamryn is five. Their
newest addition, Jeremy, is
18 months. While Adam
was supposedly working at
Auckland Hospital, there
was plenty of time for car
trips, boating, skydiving
and parasailing. Jodi is still
the daredevil with a
12,000 foot skydive and
stories from glacier hiking
up Mount Cook and
Mount Fox off the South
Island….fortunately no
broken bones to report
lately. Welcome back
Kanter family and good
luck with your Chief year,
Adam. Steve Simensky is
busy setting up shop in
Columbus, Ohio through
a large hospital system. He
completed a neurophysiology fellowship at Ohio
State University with a
concentration in epilepsy
and neuromuscular diseases. He remains very
happily married in his
eighth year of marriage
and has a beautiful fouryear-old daughter named
Elyse. He’s not sure if it’s
the parenting or the new
job that has turned the
rest of his silky mane grey,
of course, a distinguished,
charming grey. Ted Daly
completed his radiology
residency at George
Washington University in
Washington, DC and is
heading to UCSF for a
one year fellowship. He
sat for his boards in
Louisville and passed with
flying colors and is now
ready for the next chapter.
He is currently engaged to
a lovely woman named
Maria Barlett. Ted and
Maria will marry on
December 29th in San
Francisco and they’ve
already started their family
with a very friendly 45pound mutt named
Mackenzie. Ted was able
to share some joy at Tim
Dominick’s and Jin Pyun’s
weddings this past
year….no, not to each
other. According to Ted,
Tim is back in Vermont at
Fletcher Allen as a staff
anesthesiologist after completing a six-month pain
fellowship in Seattle. Jin is
currently on active duty in
the Army doing
Emergency Medicine in
Afghanistan. We’re praying for your safe return,
Jin. Ted also reports that
Steve Hatch is happily living the attending life as an
anesthesiologist in a seaside town in Connecticut
and that Greg McCormick
has returned to UVM as
an ophthalmology staff.
Congrats to all on such
fantastic achievements!
Deborah Hughes is currently doing a cardiology
fellowship at the Mayo
Clinic after completing
two years of research. She
is having a great time in
the Midwest and is really
enjoying being a cards fellow. Kinjal Nanavati
Sethuraman emailed that
life is good in NYC. She
had a busy year in 2005
with getting married and
completing an Emergency
Medicine residency at
Boston Medical Center.
She is currently living in
the city and making the
reverse commute to Long
Island where she works as
an attending at North
Shore Long Island Jewish
Medical Center. She is
also working with people
in the State of Gujarat to
help develop their
Emergency Medicine system. Arun Basu also
CONTINUING MEDICAL EDUCATION
2006-2007 CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
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
19th 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, WV
Current Concepts and Controversies in Surgery
February 1-3, 2007, Topnotch Resort, Stowe, 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
128 Lakeside Avenue Suite 100
Burlington, VT 05405
(802) 656-2292
http://cme.uvm.edu
recently married two years
ago to Vandana Purohit, a
very intelligent and lovely
postdoc at the University
of Rochester. Vandana
completed a PhD in
chemistry while Arun
completed his radiology
residency. Arun is planning on a two-year muscu-
loskeletal fellowship. He
also has had some very fun
summer vacations at Lake
George and Cape Cod
with his old posse, Todd,
Nate and Greg. Arun
reports that Todd, Julie,
Sam and Sadie Holmes are
doing well as are Greg,
Cindy, Max and Ben
S U M M E R
2006
35
M.D. CLASS NOTES
H A L L A
Danielson and Nathan,
Laura, Aidan and Kellan
Holmes. Alan Cook is having a great time as he
enters his Chief year at the
University of Vermont in
general surgery. He had
been considering a fellowship at the time of his last
email but no final plans to
report from this author.
He spent a year in the lab
a couple of summers ago
and actually found the
time to enjoy Vermont
again. His wife was quite
pleased with Alan’s extra
time as well. But, it was
also a very productive year
with great publications
and meetings for Alan.
Good luck with your final
year of residency, Alan.
Emily (June) Ryan completed a Family Medicine
residency in 2004 and
relocated with Tim and
their beautiful daughter
June to sunny Venice,
Florida. She’s been quite
busy with work and is
enjoying private practice.
The Ryan family is truly
enjoying life in Florida
and hurricane season has
yet to faze them. As long
as the hurricane shutters
are up, Emily reports that
all newscasts so far have
been big exaggerations in
her area…let’s hope for
continued good luck for
the Ryan family! Karine
(Ekmekji) Mouradian is
back to her California
Valley Girl lifestyle in
sunny LA. Karine married
her lifelong love, Ara, in
September of 2001 and
successfully completed a
pediatrics residency at
Kaiser in Los Angeles.
Karine and Ara have given
36
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
life to two very beautiful
little boys, Alek and Ayk,
who are keeping them
very busy. Karine is enjoying her work in private
practice pediatrics and
somehow manages to find
the time to be a great wife
and mommy. We knew she
could juggle it all with
style and grace. Jennifer
Juhl Majersik completed a
neurology residency at the
University of Utah in
2005. She and Loren completely fell in love with all
that beautiful Utah has to
offer, from skiing to hiking
to the Sundance Film
Festival. They passed
through Kansas City en
route to the University of
Michigan (Ann Arbor) in
2005 and it was such a
pleasure to see a very
happy pregnant doctor
and her ecstatic husband.
They have given birth to a
handsome little boy named
Max on October 1, 2005
and are loving every
minute of parenthood,
even the 3 a.m. feedings!
And, Max was blessed with
two lovely Godparents, Liz
McGowan and Andy Tolley.
Jenny completed the first
of a two-year stroke fellowship and Loren has an
incredible job with GM,
test driving cars to better
engineer their stability
control systems. They are
hoping to move west next
year. Liz and Andy are
enjoying a seaside lifestyle
in beautiful Rhode Island
where Liz is in her final
year of a neonatal intensivist fellowship at Brown.
They are in the process of
adopting a little girl from
China and anticipate her
safe arrival in the US in
early 2007. To keep busy
when not in the hospital
and to kill time waiting for
the adoption to be finalized, Liz and Andy have
been taking lots of exciting
trips to Utah, Australia,
and Italy to name a
few…congratulations on
your adoption and we
can’t wait to hear if your
daughter will speak
American or Australian!
Ladan Farhoomand completed an anesthesia residency in Los Angeles and
has moved south to beautiful San Diego. She is
happily enjoying private
practice in San Diego, is a
voluntary faculty member
at the University of
Southern California/Keck
School of Medicine, and
has been rumored to be a
local boogie boarding
champion…no surprise on
that one, Valley Girl. Tae
Song will complete his
general surgery residency
in 2007 at UCLA-Harbor
and will stay for a vascular
fellowship. He, Eileen
and their five children are
really enjoying being
home in beautiful
California. They have
been quite busy with
sports, dance recitals and
remodeling their new
home but all in all, life is
great in Long Beach.
Congrats Song Family!
JoEllen Speca married her
lifelong love, Luke, and
after completing their residencies at the University
of Maryland, the two
moved to Chapel Hill to
begin their fellowships.
JoEllen recently completed her second year of a
heme-onc fellowship at
Duke and Luke has completed his second year of
cardiology. Adjusting to
southern life was not difficult but their biggest
adjustment comes from
their new status as proud
parents. JoEllen gave birth
a few months ago to a
beautiful baby girl, Mikala
Kate. Honorary classmember Teresa Fama completed her internal medicine
residency at Fletcher Allen
and went on with a
rheumatology fellowship
which she will complete
next year. In her free time,
Teresa is still a dedicated
runner and motorcyclist
and, as always, an outstanding mom. Wendy
Boucher is loving life in
sunny Seattle where she is
completing her orthopedic
surgery residency. Ed has
adjusted to life on the west
coast and their daughter
Maddie seems to think
daily rain is completely
normal! As for this author,
JoAn Monaco, I am pleased
to report that I am in my
final year of plastics residency in Kansas City.
Despite the long hours, I
found a fantastic man in
my intern class, Michael
Karellas, and we recently
celebrated our one year
wedding anniversary in
Switzerland and France.
Mike just completed a
urology residency in
Kansas City and is now a
surg-onc fellow at
Memorial SloanKettering. I haven’t quite
decided yet if I will do a
fellowship in reconstructive surgery or find a job
as my search has recently
begun. In the meantime,
I’m still finding the time
for cooking classes and
marathon running. Over
the past few years, we’ve
had the pleasure of seeing
Emily (June) Ryan, Ladan
Farhoomand and Teresa
Fama in Vermont, Wendy
Boucher in Seattle, Karine
(Ekmekji) Mouradian in
Los Angeles and Jenny
Majersik in Kansas
City…let’s keep the visits
going! The invitation
stands for BBQ in Kansas
City for anyone passing
through on their way east
or west. Please keep your
notes and emails coming
as it’s truly a pleasure to
hear what’s new in the
class of 2001 and I look
forward to the next installment of our updates.
Cheers, JoAn
2003
R E U N I O N
Scott Goodrich
13 Mountain View Blvd.
South Burlington, VT 05403
(802) 864-7787
[email protected]
’ 0 7
2002
Jonathan Vinh Mai
15 Meadow Lane
Danville, PA 17821
(570) 275-4681
[email protected]
Omar Khan
33 Clearwater Circle
Shelburne, VT 05482
(802) 985-1131
[email protected]
Steven D. Lefebvre
fabulous5lefebvre@
hotmail.com
2005
Julie A. Alosi
[email protected]
Richard J. Parent
[email protected]
2004
Jillian S. Geider
jillian.geider@
vtmednet.org
Emily A. Hannon
emily.hannon@
hsc.utah.edu
War, Earthquakes, and Polio
continued from page 37
BANGLADESH : A MEASURE OF SUCCESS
The road was bumpy, to say the least. Large craters
in the tarmac were interrupted only by small puddles hiding either another section of broken road or
— this possibility prompting a slowing from 10
mph to 5 — an open manhole. And we weren’t even
en route yet to our final destination, the Centre for
Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP), which lay a
short distance outside Dhaka, the capital of
Bangladesh.
Bangladesh was certified as polio-free by 1993.
No new cases of acute flaccid paralysis, or AFP, had
appeared in a set amount of time, and the WHO
was thus satisfied that polio had been eradicated
from this corner of South Asia. This was important
in the global and the regional context, the latter
more so: Pakistan and India had yet to do so, and
eliminating a communicable disease from a country
of 125 million people with two infected neighbors,
so to speak, was a significant achievement.
One of the few downsides of the geopolitical
neutrality Bangladesh enjoys is that its borders are
subsequently quite porous. The fear must have
existed that unvaccinated migrants from the Indian
side could start another round of polio. Due perhaps to high immunization rates on the Indian border, this proved to not be a concern: ten years on,
the area remains polio-free.
What does it take to deal with polio as a chronic
disease rather than an acute one, as most infectious
diseases are? How do adaptations develop for varying levels of paralysis? We planned to address some
of these questions at the CRP, the best regarded
facility of its kind in Bangladesh, and among the
finest in the entire South Asian region. Polio likely
represented a far greater proportion of its work at
one time, when acute paralysis was occasionally
seen. Nowadays, the most they would encounter
would be Post-Polio Syndrome (PPS), and adult
polio sufferers who had been affected by the disease
years or decades ago who now were referred for
rehabilitation. The legacy of polio and other paralyzing conditions has been that, in some settings,
they have had a major role in the development of
continued on page 38
S U M M E R
2006
37
OBITUARIES
War, Earthquakes, and Polio
H A L L A
continued from page 37
the practice of physical therapy (“physiotherapy”
outside the US) and associated fields such as speech
and language therapy, and occupational therapy.
The disease has since disappeared from those countries — at least, in its acute form — but the legacy
lives on in terms of the facilities set up for their
needs. Not to mention continued service for the
now-adult sufferers of polio paralysis.
The CRP is located some distance from Dhaka, a
city of perhaps 10 million — the crowds and noise
threatening to overwhelm the peace and quiet of its
old alleyways and secluded upscale developments. If
one wanted to build a place to restore people to
health, being a bit removed from the city seems an
excellent idea. The fact that public health facilities
requiring some measure of space — whether for
orthopedic rehabilitation or infection-related isolation — have traditionally been located away from the
main city was not lost on the current administration.
Dr. Fazlul Haque, Medical Director of CRP, commented, “Our founder, Dr. Valerie Taylor, bought a
lot of land out here in Savar 25 years ago — far more
than could be bought in Dhaka!”, referring to the 14
acres now serving as the CRP compound.
The most immediately noticeable aspect of the
centre is the sheer space, more than the size. It soon
becomes natural to assume open space between
buildings; here a court for wheelchair basketball,
there a simply massive hydrotherapy pool. A curious
pony noses around, and Subrata informs us the
equine lives here, and gives rides to the resident
children of the Centre. The CRP houses an inpatient facility as well as seeing outpatients. Its main
concerns are with ailments of the spinal cord and
paralysis, whether due to infectious diseases or trauma (the majority of cases).
A shaded brick walkway led us to an adjoining
high-roofed structure from where the sounds of hammering and sawing emanated. A tall, beaming man
came out to meet us. Mr. Salahuddin was the engineer in charge of this facility. And what a facility it
was: deceptively simple, but fabricating limb braces
indistinguishable from those seen in the States. “It
takes a long time to get it just right,” said Salahuddin.
“We take measurements which have to be accurate,
yet allow for some growth tolerance as well.”
Salahuddin proudly introduces us to two work-
38
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
men who are working with painstaking care on the
fine-tuning of what might once have started off life
as a schoolchair. Now festooned with an adjustable
head-retaining device, thoracic and lumbar supports, a curiously curved seat with strange bumps in
it, and a leg brace with clamps, screws and bolts
“This is being fitted for one of our CP children who
has many spine and limb deformities.” How much
does something like this cost? “About 10,00015,000 taka,” he says. But wait — this works out to
between $150 and $240. Salahuddin senses our
wonderment at the dissonance between this price
and the socioeconomic status of many of his clients.
“Our patients pay as much as they can. Some pay
1000 taka, some 25 taka. We provide them the
equipment they need. That is what we are here for.”
BACK HOME
I saw five sore throats today. Obviously, I knew this
to be different from the experiences I had just been
through — but wouldn’t it also have been natural to
have felt it less important and less significant? The
problems of my patients were likely more “indulgent” than where I had been. But here’s the odd
thing: those around me expected more of my reactions than I actually felt. I was actually quite happy
to see my patients — and maybe I delude myself all
the time that I do something for them — but I felt
useful, and I felt their issues to be genuine. It is a
fool’s game to compare authenticity of experiences
and declare one superior to the other. You put a
Bouchard from Milton in the worst earthquake ever,
and he’ll cry as readily as the Razzaq of Pakistan.
And you put the latter in Milton and he’ll just as
quickly show up for a runny nose.
I am very glad to be back. Driving to pick up my
son from school this afternoon, I saw what to me is
the ultimate expression of civilization: a school bus
in the far lane of a two-way road, with all four lanes
of drivers obediently and patiently waiting for ten
pre-schoolers to disembark.
I saw the last child hop off — he was perhaps 4 or
5. I’m not quite sure why this ordinary, even idyllic,
scene sticks in my memory, but it was the most
heartbreaking thing I’ve seen since I returned. This
is not the same country I was just in, and certainly
VM
not the same world.
ELIZABETH D. PROCTER , M . D.’43
Dr. Procter died on April 11, 2006 at
her home in New Hampshire. She
was born Nov. 14, 1918, in Woodstock, and had a life-long love of
Cloudland Farm, the South Pomfret
dairy farm she grew up on. After
graduating as valedictorian from
Woodstock High School she attended Green Mountain College and
graduated from the College of
Medicine in 1943. She married
Clifford Russell Procter in January of
1943. Dr. Procter had a family medical practice in Pittsford, then worked
on the staff of the Veterans Administration Hospital in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, and later for the State of
Iowa Department of Health in Des
Moines, Iowa.
She and her husband retired to
Middlebury in 1979, until moving to
Lebanon, N.H., in 1996.
PAUL E . GRIFFIN , M . D.’48
Dr. Griffin died on March 14, 2006,
in Albany, N.Y. He was born on Aug.
13, 1922, in Herkimer, N.Y. He was a
graduate of Herkimer High School,
followed by pre-med school at
Niagara University, medical school at
the University of Vermont, 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 began his career in
private practice in Johnstown, N.Y.,
until called away to serve in Korea. In
1955, he continued his employment
with the federal government, working at the V.A. hospital in Albany.
During his service he specialized in
infectious disease and internal medicine. He retired in 1996.
CHARLES R . BOYCE , M . D.’53
Dr. Boyce, of Naples, Fla., died May
22, 2006. He was born in Proctor, Vt.
in 1928. Dr. Boyce completed his
undergraduate degree at Marietta
College in Ohio before receiving his
medical degree from the College of
Medicine in 1953. He served in the
Navy during the Korean War. He
achieved the rank of Lieutenant
Commander. He continued his medical career in Detroit, Mich., serving
on the staff of Henry Ford Hospital,
and joining the faculty of Wayne
State University Medical School. He
established a large private practice at
the Detroit Medical Center. He finished his medical career in Portland,
Maine, first serving on the staff of
Mercy Hospital in 1977, and retired
in 1989 as OB-GYN department
head at Maine Medical Center.
STUART J . SMITH , M . D.’55
Dr. Smith died March 29, 2006, in
Virginia. A native of Burlington, Vt.,
Dr. Smith was a longtime Virginia
resident. After earning his M.D.
degree at the University of Vermont,
he opened a private practice in
Rutland, Vt., and later joined and
retired from the U.S. Air Force,
achieving the rank of Colonel. He
continued to practice medicine,
opening a family practice in Hampton, Va., and later helping to establish
a local dietary practice. Dr. Smith was
also the Medical Director of the
Southampton Health Services.
HARRY S . SPAULDING JR ., M . D.’59
Dr. Spaulding Jr., M.D., 75, of
Aurora, Colo., and formerly of
Waterbury, Vt., died June 18, 2006, in
a hiking accident in Texas. He was
born Dec. 12, 1930, in Waterbury. He
graduated from Waterbury High
School in 1948. He earned a bachelor
of science degree from Albany
College of Pharmacy in 1953, a master's degree in Pharmaceutical
Chemistry from Duquesne University
College of Pharmacy in 1955, and a
medical degree from the University of
Vermont College of Medicine in
1959. Dr. Spaulding served in the
U.S. Army from 1960 to 1967 and
from 1971 to 1993, where he worked
as a pediatrician and an allergist. He
retired with the rank of Colonel.
FACULTY
LESTER J . WALLMAN ,
M . D.
Dr. Wallman passed
away on July 23, 2006
in Burlington, Vt. He
left many friends and
colleagues in a community he served as both
doctor and citizen since
arriving in Burlington
in 1947. Dr. Wallman
was born in New York City, son of
Samuel and Hannah (Sarner)
Wallman, in 1914. He received B.A.
and M.D. degrees from Yale
University, trained in pathology in
Sweden, in general surgery in
Delaware and in neurology and neurosurgery in Connecticut.
After his discharge from the U.S.
Army in 1946 at the rank of Captain,
Dr. Wallman was invited to complete
his neurosurgery training in
Vermont, where Dr. Donaghy, his
former chief in the Army, had accepted a position as head of the division.
Dr. Wallman quickly met the
requirements for certification in neurosurgery and joined the faculty in
1948. Upon Dr. Donaghy's retirement in the mid-1970’s, Dr. Wallman
became chief of the division at UVM
and Mary Fletcher Hospital. Active
on campus even after he retired from
his clinical duties in 1979, Dr.
Wallman was named Emeritus
Professor at the University in 1992.
As Emeritus, his many contributions
to the University included writing a
chapter in the University’s bicentennial history and establishing the popular Beaumont Medical History Lecture Series. Dr. Wallman also served
as Chair of the Vermont State Board
of Health and on many civic boards
including the American Red Cross.
His passion for the history of medicine earned him an award by UVM’s
International Honor Society in
History in 1988.
S U M M E R
2006
39
REU N ION 2 0 0 6
the
medical reunion 2006 saw
FACES
of
R EU N
IO N
40
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
photography by
MEDICAL
PHOTOGRAPHY/
RAJ CHAWLA
& DARIA BISHOP
one of the largest groups of returning College of Medicine graduates
in years. There were familiar faces
from every anniversary class, young
and old.
The past few reunions have
taken place under the brilliant blue
skies of late spring in Vermont. This
year, alas, there was more rain than
sun in the sky. But the wet weather
did not dampen the spirits of
returning alumni, nor get in the way
of their fun. Hundreds still gathered
on Friday night, June 9, for the
“Legends and Leaders” celebration,
where attendees heard an update
on progress at the College of
Medicine and joined in honoring
the members of the 50th Reunion
class and the eleven recipients of
the Medical Alumni Association
recognition awards.
The remainder of the wet but fun
weekend was given over to class
dinners and lunches, the reunion
picnic, Nostalgia Hour, and much
informal reconnecting with old
friends.
REUNION ’06 FACT:
The 50th Reunion class had over 40
attendees at their dinners and special
recognition went to M.D.’56 class
member Douglas M. Black, who
received the Award for Service
to Medicine & Community at the
Celebration of Achievements.
The collective Reunion gift from the
MD’56 class was nearly $150,000.
41
REU N ION 2 0 0 6
REUNION ’06 FACT:
The medical class of 1996 made an
impressive showing at Reunion
with over 45 attendees, and 45
percent participation by their
class in giving. Table 15, the class’
famed band, named for their
anatomy table, made an appearance
at the public boathouse with over
100 reunion attendees showing up
to dance the night away!
REUNION ’06 FACT:
The Class of 1981 had a special
gathering (in the rain) to
rededicate a tree that was given
by their class to the College in
1979 in memory of classmate
Larry Vorbach.
REUNION ’06 FACT:
Three days of torrential downpour in the Northeast did not
slow down picnic-goers from
all class years who brought
the face-painting, frisbees,
hamburgers and music inside
before proceeding to
Nostalgia Hour.
REUNION ’06 FACT:
President Daniel M. Fogel and
Rachel Kahn Fogel, and Dean John
N. Evans, hosted Ira Allen and
Wilbur Society members at the
annual reception honoring donors
recognized by the two societies.
42
43
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 in g i v i n g
from the heart
june 26, 2006
10:47 a.m.
Native Vermonters Hugh S. Levin, M.D.’56 and Corinne
In 2005, Dr. Levin received the hospital’s prestigious
Levin have spent much of their lives half a continent away,
Candlelight Ball Award, and in 2006 he was made a
but the College of Medicine and its students have never
Clinical Professor Emeritus of Medicine at Creighton,
been far from their thoughts.
where he had won three Golden Apple Awards from stu-
After graduating from the College, Dr. Levin did his res-
dents during his teaching career. All through the years, the
idency and a fellowship in cardiovascular research at Ohio
Levins remained active members of the Omaha communi-
State University Hospital before beginning his long, suc-
ty while raising their two children, Deborah and Michael.
cessful career in Omaha, at Creighton University School of
Medicine and Archbishop Bergan Mercy Hospital.
Third-year medical student Brett Schneider leads a role-play training
teaching high school students how to properly shadow a medical professional
during the UVM Area Health Education Center’s MedQuest camp.
Retiring Associate Dean for Primary Care Mimi Reardon, M.D.’67,
observes from the background.
“I credit my College of Medicine education for opening the door to my career,” says Dr. Levin. The Levins are
Dr. Levin established the hospital’s Department of
committed to seeing that the doors remain open for
Cardiology in 1968. A coronary care unit, a post-coronary
College of Medicine graduates in the future. That
unit, and a dedicated cardiac catheterization lab soon fol-
commitment led to their establishment of a generous
lowed. Until his retirement in 1995, he served as medical
estate provision that will establish a scholarship fund in
director of the department and cardiac units.
their name.
photograph by Mario Morgado
medical development and alumni relations office
(802)656-4014 [email protected] www.med.uvm.edu/giving
44
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
A view of the future
Though his days as a medical student are now more than six decades past, Carleton R. Haines, M.D.’43 and his
wife, Josephine, have never stopped seeing the value of the work done at the University of Vermont College of
Medicine. That’s why the couple has made an impressive and inspiring 32 years of unbroken financial support
for his medical alma mater.
The Haines’ story is just one of the many examples of dedication and generosity by annual fund donors
whose yearly gifts at all levels support the College’s mission.
With the College of Medicine’s over 4,000 donors, the new UVM College of Medicine Fund, which officially
launches this fall, is well-poised to continue to do what the 21st Century Fund, and Century Fund before that
have always done: be a resource and a helping hand for the next generation of physicians and scientists.
The leadership of the College and the Alumni Executive Committee have worked hard to make sure that a
tradition of excellence continues at the UVM College of Medicine, and they’ve worked equally as hard to ensure
that the resources will be there to support this tradition. The launch of the UVM College of Medicine Fund will
be a major resource for the immediate needs of the College.
The UVM College of Medicine Fund will continue the great history of giving back that has been a hallmark
at the College of Medicine — which is a leader in the nation for alumni participation in annual giving. It will
provide stable funding for the College to make investments in the things that matter most — the students, faculty, alumni, research, community service and clinical care that are the College of Medicine.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENT AND ALUMNI RELATIONS OFFICE
(802) 656-4014 [email protected] WWW.MED.UVM.EDU/GIVING
VERMONT MEDICINE
89 Beaumont Ave.
Burlington, Vermont 05405
Non-Profit Org.
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