2 0 0 5 Keiji Fukuda, MD ’83 Leading the Fight

G E
U N I V E R S I T Y
O F
M E D I C I N E
Keiji Fukuda, MD ’83
Leading the Fight
Against Influenza at the CDC
S P R I N G
2005
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
M A G A Z I N E
2 0 0 5
S P R I N G
FEATURES
FROM THE DEAN
2
COLLEGE NEWS
3
9
A new chair, a transatlantic research
network, winter driving for medical
students, and more.
HALL A
PRESIDENT ’ S CORNER
CLASS NOTES
DEVELOPMENT NEWS
OBITUARIES
12
12
A TEACHING ROLE
31
32
33
35
38
Standardized Patients help mold
the performance of future physicians.
by jeffery lindholm
22
EASING
THE STRAIN
Bruce Beynnon, Ph.D.,
and his colleagues receive national
recognition for their orthopaedic research.
by jon reidel
26
WALKING THE TIGHTROPE
Keiji Fukuda, M.D.’83 treads the fine line
between public health and publicity.
Attention Classes of 1940, ’45, ’50, ’55, ’60, ’65, ’70, ’75, ’80, ’85, ’90, ’95, ’00!
by melissa pasanen
he UVM Medical Alumni Association invites you and your family to join
us for Reunion 2005—June 10-12, 2005. 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 •
Lake Champlain Cruise
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
on the cover:
photo by George Duncan, courtesy Peter Hay Fine Art
vermont
medicine
FROM THE DEAN
S P R I N G
COLLEGE NEWS
2 0 0 5
EDITOR
MEDICAL
EDUCATION CENTER
edward neuert
MICHAEL SIPE
Spring is a busy season here at the College of
Medicine, and no season in recent years has
seen as much activity and promise as this one.
Work on our new Medical Education Center,
which is being built in cooperation with
Fletcher Allen Health Care, is nearing completion. (You can see an aerial view of the project on the opposite page.) In the next few
months, workers will put the finishing touches on the center, and
our students, faculty and staff will begin making it a new home for
much of our educational activity. In the ensuing months, Fletcher
Allen’s new Ambulatory Care Center, including a new Emergency
Department, will open to the public and will provide our students
with state-of-the-art facilities in which to gain important clinical
experience.
As one article in this issue shows you, those students entering
the clinics will have been prepared by the Vermont Integrated
Curriculum’s extensive use of standardized patients — highly
trained individuals who simulate illness in order to teach and assess
medical students. Use of standardized patients is now becoming a
major component in national board certification, and the College
is on the forefront of using this new method of educating future
physicians.
The Medical Education Center, and the many educational facilities in Given that have been constructed or revamped in recent
years, will bring the promise of our integrative method for physician education into full fruition. Look to these pages in the coming
months for more news as our facilities come on-line.
Also ahead will be reports on efforts now underway by several
task forces charged to examine important areas of change and
improvement for the College. Task forces have been formed to
focus on Strategic Planning, Governance, Faculty and Staff
Development, and Science of Quality Initiatives, respectively. In
the near future, these groups will be reporting on their work, and
making suggestions for concrete changes for our school. Future
issues of Vermont Medicine will contain more news on these important outcomes.
2
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
GIVEN BUILDING
MEDICAL COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR
carole whitaker
ASSISTANT
andrea rathje
WRITER
jennifer nachbur
ART DIRECTOR
elise whittemore-hill
FLETCHER ALLEN
AMBULATORY CARE CENTER
UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT
COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
DEAN
john n. evans, ph.d.
EDITORIAL ADVISORS
rick blount
ASSISTANT DEAN FOR
DEVELOPMENT & ALUMNI RELATIONS
marilyn j. cipolla, ph.d.’ 97
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
OF NEUROLOGY
christopher s. francklyn,
ph.d.
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
OF BIOCHEMISTRY
CONSTRUCTION UPDATE
Construction of the new University of Vermont Medical Education Center, along with the
Ambulatory Care Center at Fletcher Allen Health Care, is now within months of completion. Soon,
the two institutions, who share joint missions in education, research and patient care, will also be
physically linked. New classrooms for large and small group learning will enhance the education of
both medical and graduate students, and a new medical library will serve students, faculty and staff,
as well as community members. For updates on the Medical Education Center on the web, visit
www.med.uvm.edu/mec.
james c. hebert, m.d.’ 77
ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR GRADUATE
MEDICAL EDUCATION
russell tracy, ph.d.
SENIOR ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR RESEARCH
& ACADEMIC AFFAIRS
vermont medicine is published three times a
year by the University of Vermont College of Medicine.
Articles may be reprinted with permission of the editor.
Please send address changes, alumni class notes, letters
to the editor, and other correspondence to
University of Vermont College of Medicine Alumni
Office, Farrell Hall, 210 Colchester Ave, Burlington,
VT 05405. telephone: (802) 656-4014
Letters to the editor specifically may be e-mailed to:
[email protected]
Pierattini Named Psychiatry Chair & Clinical Leader
Robert Pierattini, M.D. has been named chair of the
Department of Psychiatry at the College of Medicine
and clinical leader of psychiatry at Fletcher Allen. The
announcement was made in January by John N. Evans,
Ph.D., dean of the University of Vermont College of
Medicine, and Melinda Estes, M.D., president and
CEO of Fletcher Allen Health Care.
Since 2001 Pierattini has served as interim department chair and as interim physician leader. He has
played a key role in educating medical students and
residents, and has directed the outpatient care portion
of the psychiatry residency program since 2000. In
1994, he won the Psychiatry Residents Teaching
Award, and in 2002 received the Psychiatry Residents
Appreciation Award. He has performed clinical trials in
psychopharmacology, and his research interests
include the pharmacotherapy of mood and anxiety disorders, the utilization of mental health services, and
issues in managed behavioral health care.
GORDON MILLER / MEDICAL PHOTOGRAPHY
“Dr. Pierattini has provided outstanding leadership for this important academic and clinical department, as well as in creating and
strengthening critical partnerships
with the mental health community,”
said Dean Evans. “Dr. Estes and I
are thrilled that he has agreed to take
on this vital role.”
After earning his medical degree
from Yale, Pierattini completed his Robert Pierattini, M.D.
residency in psychiatry in Burlington
at the former Medical Center Hospital of Vermont,
where he was chief resident in his final year. He joined
the UVM physician faculty in 1986 as a clinical
instructor, became a clinical assistant professor in
1989, and a clinical associate professor in 1994. In
1995, Pierattini was appointed to an associate professorship, and in 2002 was named full professor.
S P R I N G
2005
3
COLLEGE NEWS
UVM Heads Transatlantic Cardiovascular
Research Network
A new $6 million grant will help
researchers at the University of Vermont
College of Medicine direct an innovative
transatlantic network linking scientists
who study blood-clotting disorders at
three U.S. and three European universities.
The five-year grant is among the first
four Transatlantic Networks of Excellence
in Cardiovascular Research to be funded
by Fondation Leducq, a French institution
that supports European-American collaborations in cardiovascular research. Edwin
Bovill, M.D., professor and chair of
pathology at the College of Medicine and
an international expert in the field of
blood-clotting disorders (thrombosis) is
leader of the project.
The project, titled the Leducq
International Network Against Thrombosis (LINAT), has in its member institutions the University of Vermont, the University of
Washington, and the Oklahoma Medical Research
Institute at the University of Oklahoma; and, in
Europe, the University of Leiden in the Netherlands,
the University of Leuven in Belgium, and the
University of Paris. Each institution specializes in a
different, yet related aspect of research on the role of
thrombosis in arterial and venous vascular disease. According to Bovill, the
RECOGNITION
FROM OUR PEERS
Vermont Medicine magazine was
recognized with an Award of
Distinction at the 2004 Association
of American Medical Colleges/
Group on Institutional Advancement Awards for Excellence ceremony and reception on November
6 at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum in Boston. The
AAMC/GIA awards acknowledge “the most creative and effective approaches used to promote academic medicine in the
United States through alumni, development, public relations
and marketing vehicles.”
4
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
LINAT participants from institutions in Europe and the U.S.
viewed each others work in an informal poster session.
focus of the grant is to encourage the exchange of ideas
between institutions engaged in similar research and to
facilitate faculty and students spending research time at
the different institutions.
“Like all research studies, this program is a bit of an
experiment,” said Bovill, who also serves as U.S. coordinator for the project. “The grant will allow us to
more effectively support what we have already been
doing, which we hope will lead to the establishment of
a sustainable model that amplifies the amount of scientific training and discovery taking place.”
Over three days this past December, 54 representatives from the institutions in the network gathered in
Burlington to present data from their current studies
and discuss which research, technology and facilities
will be used for LINAT.
In addition to Bovill, site leaders in the project
include European coordinator Frits Rosendaal, M.D.,
Ph.D., Leiden University; Bruce Psaty, M.D., Ph.D.,
University of Washington; Chuck Esmon, Ph.D.,
Oklahoma Medical Research Institute; Roger Lignen,
Ph.D., University of Leuven; and Martine Aiach,
Ph.D., University of Paris.
TOP : EDWARD NEUERT; BOTTOM , SABIN GRATZ
RESEARCH MILESTONES
HORMONE THERAPY LINKED TO BLOOD
CLOTS IN JAMA REPORT
Postmenopausal women who take the hormone
therapy estrogen plus progestin have double the risk
for a potentially fatal condition that causes blood
clots to develop in their veins, according to an article
in the October 6, 2004 issue of JAMA: Journal of the
American Medical Association.
Lead author of the study Mary Cushman, M.D.,
an associate professor of medicine at the College of
Medicine, and colleagues examined the effects of
postmenopausal hormone therapy on venous
thrombosis in the presence of age and obesity — two
major risk factors for thrombosis. The researchers
analyzed final data from the Women’s Health
Initiative Estrogen Plus Progestin clinical trial, a double-blind randomized controlled trial of 16,608 postmenopausal women between the ages of 50 and 79
years, who were enrolled in 1993 through 1998 at 40
U.S. clinical centers, with 5.6 years of follow up.
“The risk for venous thrombosis with oral contraceptive use has been well quantified but we have not
had this information with respect to the use of hormone therapy,” said Barbara Alving, M.D., director of
the Women’s Health Initiative and acting director of
the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. “This
study now clearly defines the risk of venous thrombosis in women who are taking hormone therapy for a
prolonged period of time according to age, obesity,
and inherited conditions that can lead to thrombosis.”
ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON FOUNDATION
FUNDS QUALITY EDUCATION GRANT
The University of Vermont and Fletcher Allen Health
Care have been chosen as one of 12 academic health
centers in the country to receive a $25,000 Partnership for Quality Education grant from the Robert
Wood Johnson Foundation to promote health care
quality and safety.
Through this program, residents and graduate
nursing students at Fletcher Allen and the University of
Vermont will go through a Web-based education
course, culminating in their proposing plans to
improve the quality and safety of patient care. They
will use the experiences of their own patients to understand the strengths and shortcomings of the health
care system.
SABIN GRATZ
The project is a joint effort between Fletcher Allen’s
Institute for Quality and Operational Effectiveness, the
Graduate Medical Education Office at Fletcher Allen
and the University of Vermont College of Medicine, and
the Department of Nursing at the University of Vermont College of Nursing and Health Sciences. Residents from Family Medicine, Surgery, Medicine and
Psychiatry will be participating in the program.
STUDY FINDS VITAMINS MIGHT HELP SOME
CHEMOTHERAPY PATIENTS
As the popularity of nutritional supplements soars,
health-conscious consumers are using them to
address an increasing number of complaints.
Richard Branda, M.D., professor of medicine, and his
research team looked at a segment of this market —
patients undergoing chemotherapy for the treatment of breast cancer — to find out if nutritional supplements had any positive
or negative effects.
In a study published in the
September 2004 issue of the
journal Cancer, Branda and
colleagues examined the
results of a questionnaire
that asked how 49 women
with breast cancer used
supplements. More than
70 percent of the
women were taking at
least one of 165 varieties of supplements during
chemotherapy, which typically causes a decrease in
neutrophils — white blood cells that help the body
fight infection. The women who took multivitamins
or vitamin E alone experienced a less-than-average
decrease in neutrophils, whereas those who took the
B vitamin folate had a larger-than-average reduction in neutrophils.
According to Branda, consumers with and without cancer need to be cautious. The chemicals in
nutritional supplements have an impact on how a
person’s body processes drugs, including chemotherapy, as well as on how the cells in the body work.
To better clarify which supplements are beneficial,
Branda recommends further research.
S P R I N G
2005
5
COLLEGE NEWS
Tranmer Named Gross Professor of Neurosurgery
Neurosurgeon Bruce Tranmer,
M.D., professor of surgery at
the College of Medicine, has
been named the first Cordell E.
Gross, M.D., Green and Gold
Professor of Neurosurgery.
Established in memory of former professor and chief of neurosurgery Cordell Gross,
M.D., this endowed faculty
position will provide annual
support to Tranmer for educational or research purposes.
Gross, who passed away in
Bruce Tranmer, M.D.
April 2000 and had been a mentor to
Tranmer, was known as a superb surgeon,
physician, and cerebral vascular researcher. He was
appointed professor and chair of the division of neurosurgery in 1987 and three years later became director
of surgical research and vice chairman of the department of surgery.
Tranmer, who also serves as Fletcher Allen chief of
neurosurgery, joined the College of Medicine faculty
in 1999. He received his medical degree from Queen’s
University School of Medicine in Kingston, Ontario,
Canada, and served his surgical and neurosurgery residencies at Kingston General Hospital and the
University of Toronto, respectively. After his residency, Tranmer joined the Department of Neurosurgery
at the University of Colorado, later moving to the
University of Calgary and then to the Albany Medical
College. In 1999 he was chosen to succeed Gross as
chair of the division of neurosurgery. Tranmer, who
also directs the neurosurgery residency program, specializes in cerebrovascular surgery, peripheral nerve
surgery and spinal surgery. His research involves the
study of cerebral vasospasm and smooth muscle cells in
the brain.
Ice Scraper? What’s That?
The College of Medicine attracts students from
all over the country. While all of them know
they are coming to a place that gets an average
annual snowfall in excess of 90 inches, quite a
few who hail from places where palm trees and
cactus grow have never actually performed the
ongoing experiment with frozen water and
friction known to all Vermonters as winter
driving.
This is where Nate Orgain steps in. Or, more
accurately, slides in. Since 2004, the secondyear medical student from South Strafford, Vt., Nate Orgain ’07 (right) schools
What they get into with
has taught “Winter Driving: The Basics,” a Californian Matt Schreiber ’07
Orgain runs from the basics —
course for people from Florida and California in the art of skid recovery.
some have never actually held an
who have heard all the horror stories of interice scraper before — to hands-on,
states turned into frictionless planes, and now need to
white-knuckle practice in how to pull out of skids. (The
develop their behind-the-wheel skills quickly.
latter are held on parking lots and other spaces approved
“It all started last year,” Orgain says, “when one of
by the UVM Police.) Orgain also covers basic winter auto
the Floridians in my class said they were worried about
maintenance for students who may never before have
getting around once winter set in. I’d been training
had to buy snow tires or add anti-freeze to their radiators,
ambulance and EMS drivers since 1996, so I felt I could
and advises on important new items for the trunk like
pretty easily present a class. I got help from my classjumper cables and shovels.
mates Keith Robinson and Eric Rosenthal, and I put out
“I get a lot of thank-you’s,” says Orgain. “People are
an announcement and got an immediately positive
eager to learn, and they’re easy to teach: by the time
response. Some people really wondered what they were
they get to me it’s a given that they’ve already done
about to get into.”
really well in physics.”
6
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
TOP : GORDON MILLER / MEDICAL PHOTOGRAPHY ; BOTTOM : SALLY MCCAY
Public Health Projects Benefit Community Agencies
Medical students and Dean Evans discuss their public health projects at the Jan. 19 gathering.
medical students, the Chittenden Emergency
Food Shelf is working to improve the health
and well being of low-income homebound seniors and disabled adults,” says Sarah Barnett,
administrative coordinator for the food shelf.
Students who worked on the project included Wendy Neveu, Sara Pope, Whittney
Dotzler, Allison Collen, Phuong Le, Brad
Mackinnon, Adam Polifka, and S.E. Specter.
A key component of students’ public health training
at the UVM College of Medicine, Carney’s secondyear students work with local community agencies and
apply the principles and science of public health to the
needs in the community. Projects were conducted from
September through December 2004. On Jan. 19, students displayed summaries of their projects at a poster
session and community celebration in the College’s
HSRF Gallery.
—Jennifer Nachbur
We all do it. When food drives are on, we gather the
usual canned goods, boxes of pasta and macaroni and
cheese — items often high in fat, sodium, and sugar —
and put them in the donation boxes without a thought
about the downside of our good deeds.
In early 2004, a number of homebound clients contacted the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf in Burlington to complain that they could not eat the food
that the food shelf had delivered to them, due to specific nutritional requirements linked to their health
conditions. After learning of the issue from the
United Way of Chittenden County, Jan
FOUNDATIONS IN PROGRESS
Carney, M.D., research professor of medicine
Both the classes of 2007 and 2008 passed curricular milestones this
and associate dean for public health, seized the
winter. On January 24, first-year students celebrate completion of the
opportunity to link medical students and non“Human Structure & Function” component of the Foundations level of
profit representatives to address this communithe Vermont Integrated Curriculum. On February 4, second-year stuty need.
dents marked the end of their pioneering run of the Foundations level,
Funded in part by Carney’s 2004 Comand announced the following awards to honor the faculty and staff
munity-University and Service-Learning
who helped them along the way:
Planning and Implementation Grant for
AMWA Gender Equity Award –
The Silver Stethoscope (for the facService-Learning, this medical student public
Paula Tracy, Ph.D.
ulty member who had few lecture
health project, one of 13 projects from Carney’s
AMSA
Golden
Apple
Award
–
hours, but made a substantial contrisecond year students, focused on the needs of
Bruce Fonda
bution) – John Lunde, M.D.’80
homebound clients of the food shelf's grocery
Outstanding Foundations Course
Above and Beyond (for the faculty
delivery program. Each month, the program
Award – Neural Science
member, not necessarily a lecturer,
delivers a five-day emergency supply of food to
Foundations Course Director Award
who went above and beyond the call
low-income, homebound seniors and disabled
– Cynthia Forehand, Ph.D.
adults. Currently, the program delivers to 120
of duty to help the students in their
Foundations Teaching Award –
households in Chittenden County. Secondlearning objectives) – Masatoshi
William Hopkins, M.D.
Kida, M.D.
year medical students analyzed the nutritional
Foundations
Integration
Award
(for
Best Support Staff non-teaching (for
needs of clients living with diabetes, heart disthe faculty member whose teaching
the person who supported the class
ease, and other illnesses, then checked labels
best captured the spirit of the VIC) –
and grocery store inventories to identify lowthe most in ways beside teaching) –
Gerry Silverstein, Ph.D.
Mike Cross.
cost, healthy, non-perishable foods that suit
these seniors’ needs.
“With the help of Dr. Carney and the UVM
GORDON MILLER / MEDICAL PHOTOGRAPHY
S P R I N G
2005
7
COLLEGE NEWS
Albertini Named
University Scholar
Vermont Medical Society Honors
College of Medicine Faculty
Four members of the College of Medicine faculty were honored with awards at the 191st
Annual Meeting of the Vermont Medical
Society on October 23, 2004, at the Wyndham
Hotel and Conference Center in Burlington.
Award recipients included Mildred Reardon,
M.D.’67, associate dean for primary care and clinical professor of medicine, who received the
NEW PEDIATRICS
TEXTBOOK UNVEILED
A new major textbook coedited by Lewis First, M.D.,
professor and chair of
pediatrics and senior associate dean for educational
and curricular affairs, was
unveiled at the American
Academy of Pediatrics
annual meeting in October.
Published by Elsevier, the
2,080-page textbook titled
Pediatrics provides a logical, “hands-on” approach
to the care of the pediatric
patient.
Leading educators from
around the country and
hundreds of international
pediatric subspecialists contributed to the book, which
took almost seven years to
complete. The book features
700 full-color illustrations, a
“mini-index” at the end of
each chapter, and an
accompanying CD-ROM
that has video sequences,
images, and extra text information and references.
A senior consulting editor of the journal Pediatrics,
First is also co-editor-inchief of the American
Academy of Pediatrics
monthly newsletter AAP
Grand Rounds.
8
V E R M O N T
Mildred Reardon, M.D.’67,
Founders’ Award
M E D I C I N E
Jerold Lucey, M.D.,
Distinguished Service Award
Founders’ Award; Jerold Lucey, M.D., professor
of pediatrics, who received the Distinguished
Service Award; Joseph Haddock, M.D., clinical
associate professor of family medicine, who
received the Physician of the Year Award; and
Frederick Bagley, M.D., clinical associate professor of surgery, who received the Physician Award
for Community Service.
Joseph Haddock, M.D.,
Physician of the Year Award
Frederick Bagley, M.D.,
Physician Award for
Community Service
Richard Albertini, M.D., Ph.D.,
calls it “the interface.” It’s the
sometimes uncomfortable place
where medicine and theoretical science meet, and laboratory-bench
techniques extend to patients’
bedsides. It’s also the mindset
and approach that has defined
Albertini’s career.
Albertini, who retired in 2000
but continues at the College of
Medicine as an emeritus professor
of medicine and microbiology and
molecular genetics and a research
professor of pathology, is a University Scholar this academic year, one
of UVM’s highest honors for
sustained excellence in research
or scholarship. His University
Scholar Lecture, which he delivered in November, was titled
“Genetic Toxicology: Protecting
the Genome.”
The talk’s title is representative
of Albertini’s outlook. The professor, who holds both medical and
doctoral degrees, is driven by the
idea of intervention. He and his
team developed the world’s mostused field test for monitoring environmental gene damage. He
remains active in collecting a store
of data on environmental mutations, but what excites him most
now, and was near the center of his
lecture, is the newer work he and
many others are doing in exploring
ways to fix genetic damage.
Medical genetics, he says, has
evolved from a specialty primarily
giving advice to parents of children
with genetic disorders, to a field
developing ways to actually intervene and repair problems.
As an emeritus, Albertini is still
active in writing and research and
advising graduate students. Beyond
his passion for the work, he says he
is motivated by a desire “to replicate people who will work on the
interface,” who can transform the
endless questions raised by research
into answers that work for doctors
and patients.
— Kevin Foley
DANA MEDICAL LIBRARY OFFERS FREE
ONLINE HEALTH EVALUATION TOOL
Members of the University of Vermont, Fletcher Allen Health Care, and greater
Burlington communities now have free access to a new online tool designed to help
improve health. Called the Wellness Coupler, the web-based health care software
program helps people evaluate health, lifestyle, and nutrition by asking a series of
questions, then “coupling” the answers with an extensive database of medical information to provide specific, personalized advice on how to achieve a healthier future.
Developed and licensed by Burlington-based PKC Corporation and available
through the Vermont Cooperative Consumer Health Information Project, the program allows the user to work independently with guidance, then choose to either
save the session for future use, print out a report, or send the results electronically to
a health care provider.
In addition to UVM’s Dana Medical Library, local libraries with access to the
Wellness Coupler include the Fletcher Free Library in Burlington, the South
Burlington Community Library, and the libraries offered through the College of
Medicine’s Area Health Education Centers Program at the Community Health Center
of Burlington and the Champlain Valley Area Health Education Center in St. Albans.
To access the Wellness Coupler online, go to http://library.uvm.edu/dana/vthealth.
TOP : GORDON MILLER / MEDICAL PHOTOGRAPHY ; BOTTOM
(4): STEVE LAROSE
UVM AND FLETCHER ALLEN SPONSOR ECHO EXHIBIT ON AGING
The College of Medicine, Elder Care Services at Fletcher Allen Health Care and the University of Vermont
College of Medicine Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) Program jointly sponsored this fall 2004 exhibit at ECHO at the Leahy Center for Lake Champlain. Titled “The Amazing Feats of Aging,” the hands-on
health science exhibit focused on the biology of aging, aging across the animal kingdom, healthy aging,
and aging of the brain. The exhibit ran from September, 2004 to early January, 2005 and was visited by
more than 24,000 people. Among the exhibit’s features were a computer program that aged a person’s face
up to 25 years, a giant tortoise that never seemed to age, a puppet show that taught young visitors how animals take care of their elders, and a display on how normal brain aging differs from changes caused by
Alzheimer’s disease.
TOP : GORDON MILLER / MEDICAL PHOTOGRAPHY ; BOTTOM
(2): SALLY MCCAY
S P R I N G
2005
9
White Coat 2005
(clockwise from left) Robert Hamill, M.D., speaks to students; the Class of 2008 recites the Declaration of Geneva;
(above) Dean John N. Evans and Fletcher Allen CEO Melinda Estes, M.D., help students don their new coats.
The classic white doctor’s coat is a symbol of the completion of the first step in a long, challenging
journey that includes four years of medical school, clinical residencies, and often subspecialty training. Among the many milestone events in a medical student’s career, receiving a white doctor’s coat
is the first tangible affirmation of a goal that each student sets when they begin medical school. On
Friday, January 14, the University of Vermont College of Medicine Class of 2008 participated in
the White Coat Ceremony in Carpenter Auditorium at the Given Building on the UVM campus.
Professor and Chair of Neurology Robert Hamill, M.D., spoke to the students, family, and friends
of the College about the responsibilities that come with the beginning of clinical experience, and that
continue on throughout a physician's career. Dr. Hamill’s remarks are excerpted here.
i truly am honored to join you, the Class of
2008, your families and friends and the faculty of the
UVM academic medical center at the 2005 White
Coat Ceremony. This ceremony is allegorical and
emblematic. Allegorical because it sketches and portrays the values that personify “A Physician — A
Doctor of Medicine.” Our profession is steeped in the
fundamental sciences of human biology and function,
and disease, and yet it requires the greatest of human
skills: understanding and insight, and compassion and
empathy. The white coat is emblematic because it signals the trust and respect of a profession that is truly a
privilege. We welcome you, the Class of 2008, across
10
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
the threshold to the roles, responsibilities, and rewards
of clinical science and medicine.
Medicine by definition is a patient-centered profession. The sophisticated technology and absolutely
remarkable interventions that are now at the bedside
are staggering and exciting. But at the nexus is the
patient — the patient’s life and family: they are our mission, our raison d’être, a mission that cannot be lost. In
this transition in medical education, biomedical science
fuses with biobehavioral science, for by definition
human disease occurs in human beings; and all disease
and dysfunction affect the person within the patient.
The response to illness may be more difficult than the
GORDON MILLER / MEDICAL PHOTOGRAPHY
(4)
illness itself. It is incumbent upon physicians as healers
to surely appreciate, if not fully understand, the spirit
and mind, as well as the body of the patient.
In approaching the challenges of treating patients,
four guideposts have served me well:
1. Time with your patient. If you have 30 minutes
available, spend 20 minutes speaking with your
patients, seven minutes in physical examination; and
three minutes on all the laboratory and imaging tests.
Doctors who are good listeners, and who thoughtfully
seek information and probe for answers will bring correct answers to the bedside. In a time when technology may inappropriately drive the evaluation, almost
overwhelming doctors and patients alike, calm, careful, and clear thinking will rectify the situation and
clarify the diagnosis. Take the extra time.
2. Believe your patients. Patients know when they
are sick. Patients know themselves better than we as
physicians will ever know them. Believe the patient;
believe the mother; believe the spouse. There are
times when the altered mind will misperceive dysfunctions and patients will manifest symptoms that may
obscure the diseased organ: i.e., somatization, anxiety
and depression. Listen to your patients; if you listen
carefully and long enough, they will tell you what is
wrong. As doctors we have an uncanny knack for an
odd transference of our own shortcomings to patients
whose symptoms we cannot understand; i.e., their
symptoms are too odd, they cannot be real. It is the
uninformed and insensitive physician whose diagnosis
is “not a real illness.” Do not fall into that trap — you
and your patients will be the lesser.
3. Primum Non Nocere — First Do No Harm.
This well-echoed aphorism is mentioned twice in the
Hippocratic Oath and identified in Epidemics [Book I,
Section II Hippocrates]. Although we seek to help, our
diagnostic approaches and interventions — be they
medical or surgical — may have significant adverse
consequences. This is especially true in the compromised host — a child, an older person, a chronically ill
individual. Think carefully before you intercede.
Sometimes the best treatment is no treatment, a decision cautiously arrived at knowing the natural history
of disease, and knowing that time and supportive care
will permit full recovery.
4. Communication. Just as normal nervous system
functions hinge on neuronal communication within
and among complicated neuronal networks, all of life is
based on clear, concise, and meaningful communication. Doctors must be superb communicators. Your
demeanor, your body language and affect — the many
components of the so-called bedside manner — are the
determinants of successful communication with
patients. Yet I suspect that we may well fail in this
domain of medicine more than in any other. The white
coat is viewed, sometimes, as an obstacle to communication, because its presence may be intimidating or
present a sense of detachment and authority; one not
open to easy dialogue. Physicians tend to be very
bright people, but may be remarkably insensitive to
how they come across, how uncomfortable they may
make others feel, including their patients, and may be
unaware that they can appear aloof and uncaring. We
can become overly impressed with ourselves and
become somewhat of an arrogant lot. Such characteristics have no value. It is the doctor who wears the coat
who may be the obstacle to communication, not the
VM
coat itself.
S P R I N G
2005
11
A
TEACHING
ROLE
When standardized patients
portray illness, they help mold
the performance of future physicians.
by
jeffery lindholm
°
photography by andy duback
12
13
J
im Court’s bare legs dangle off
the side of the exam table. He
adjusts the hospital gown, trying
to cover his backside. Still,
unlike most people in such a setting, he’s at ease. Though it is
impossible to tell from his
immediate surroundings, Court is not
actually sitting in a hospital exam room.
He’s in the UVM College of Medicine’s
Professional Learning and Assessment
Center in the Given Building. That’s
because he’s not a regular patient; he’s a
standardized patient (SP). The College
has about 70 other people like him,
young and old, male and female, who
have been trained as part of the implementation of the Vermont Integrated Curriculum to
teach medical students what can’t be learned from a
textbook — physical exam and communication skills
— or to portray a variety of patient roles targeted to
curricular objectives in learning or testing situations.
In a few short minutes, Court is surrounded by
four first-year medical students and Associate
Professor of Family Medicine John Saia, M.D.’66.
The students are practicing for an upcoming evaluation of their newly-learned physical exam skills.
When it comes time for Sara Delaporta to take his
blood pressure, Court shows how to locate his
brachial artery, helps her get the cuff adjusted and
winces when she pumps the cuff too tight. When
she’s looking into his ear, he shows her how to pull
his ear back to get a straight-on view to the eardrum.
“I like to see lights go on for the students,” says
Cate Nicholas, M.S., P.A., director of the College’s
Standardized Patient Program. “It’s great when they
see the ear canal and the eardrum through an otoscope for the first time, and the SP’s feedback lets
them know that they know how to do it.”
“SPs have been pretty much part of my curriculum at UVM from day one,” says fourth-year medical student Sarah Hallen. “The first part of orientation, we saw a presentation of how to do a physical on an SP.”
IN THE BEGINNING
In the mid-1990s, the SP program evolved from the
example of gynecology teaching associates, women
14
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
at several institutions in the
U.S. who volunteered to
help teach pelvic exam
skills to second- and thirdyear medical students.
“These women were part
of a national trend. They
volunteered to teach about
issues using their own bodies,” says Nicholas.
“They provided comfort and safety for the students.”
To assist in more general learning, standardized
patients were added to the Introduction to Physical
Examination course for first-year students in the
mid-90s. Later in the decade, the Department of
Family Practice added a practical assessment using
SPs to the end of the third-year clerkship period.
This was UVM’s first OSCE, or Observed Standardized Clinical Encounter. Today, SP OSCEs are
used throughout the four years of medical curriculum as practical assessment tools.
In addition to working with medical students,
standardized patients provide similar services for
medical residents as well as nurse practitioner and
physical therapy students. They also assist in continuing medical education programs for clinicians and
faculty.
In 2002, with funding secured by Sen. Patrick
Leahy, the College created the Assessment Center
— the stage, if you will, for the SP performance —
in the Given Building. The Center has a dozen
Above, SP Cliff Don
discusses reflexes
with Lari Young’06;
at left, Associate
Professor David Little,
M.D.’75, works with
SP Jim Court.
S P R I N G
2005
15
A Patient Family
Clockwise from left: David Little, M.D.’75,
chats with SP’s Vivan Jordan and Priscilla
Baker during a break; SP program director
Cate Nicholas observes several student–SP
interactions in the Assessment Center;
SP Bob Boyland is examined.
exam rooms, a life-size patient simulation robot, a
bank of video monitors, four computer stations, and
a patient waiting area.
FIRST YEARS , FIRST SKILLS
“Doctoring skills is the term we use for the skills of
learning to talk with patients, perform exams and
organize data in a medical way that other professionals can understand,” says Alan Rubin, M.D.,
codirector of the Doctoring Skills class. “That
involves translating a patient’s story and knowing
how to document and communicate with others in
the field.”
The Doctoring Skills classes are imbedded within a course called Human Structure and Function, a
12-week course that combines gross anatomy, histology, embryology, and physiology with an intro-
16
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
duction to medical imaging and doctoring skills to
present an integrated overview of the human body.
Each week, students working in small groups
with SPs and faculty are introduced to a body system. The students learn how to inquire about issues
that may arise for patients, perform the physical
exam required to evaluate that system, and how to
turn a patient story into a medical note.
both diagnoses and treatment plans. That’s where
the SPs’ acting skills come in. For example, if a class
includes a small group discussion on how to do
motivational interviewing to convince someone to
stop smoking or lose weight, the students will move
from the rhetorical discussion to the practical
hands-on with an SP. The SP will react as a real
patient and realistically give the student a hard time.
“One of the big things we work with through
standardized patients is communication,” says
Nicholas. “As a doctor you can know anatomy backward and forward, but you have to be able to communicate with the patient to put that knowledge
into action.”
WHYS AND WHEREFORES OF SPS
ROLE PLAYING AND CLINICAL SKILLS
In the first year, students learn how to do all the
parts of a head-to-toe physical exam and how to act
like a professional when working with patients. The
standardized patient is both a body to practice on
and a teacher of physical and interpersonal skills.
Starting in the second year, emphasis is on disease presentation and the students’ skills in forming
“The people who work as standardized patients are
interested in both health care and self care,” says
Nicholas. “Also, they want to make sure that when
they need docs in their older years, the docs will be
well trained.”
SPs have to study, too. Nicholas and other faculty members work with them to help them learn
both the exam skills in which they will train students
Angele Court got the bug first.
She picked it up from her
friend, Sally. Then it spread to
Angele’s husband, Jim. Before
long, she’d passed it on to the
couple’s daughter, Hannah,
too. And that’s how the Courts
became UVM’s first family of
standardized patients
“Sally was doing it about
three years ago,” Angele says.
“She told me, it’s kind of fun,
you get to act. We both like films so I said, cool.” The Court
Jim started in February 1994. Then Angele and family —
Hannah worked together when program direc- Hannah,
tor Cate Nicholas needed a mother/daughter Angele,
team for a continuing education session in psy- and Jim.
chiatric medicine for doctors. Angele portrayed
a pushy mother who was stressing out her
daughter in a quest for excellence.
Angele has also portrayed an alcoholic patient as well
as an abused woman. In the latter case, her character
comes in with a headache, which she has because “my
husband winds me around the house a lot,” Angele
explains. “I’ve had broken bones and there are clues
there, but if the students don’t ask the right questions,
they’re not going to get it.”
“I can’t watch her do that for more than two minutes,” says Hannah. “It’s so intense. It scares me.”
The Courts all have to find time for their standardized
patient work. Both of the parents work full time. Jim is a
certified dental technician, and Angele works full time in
a law office. Both have flexibility as far as making up
time spent at UVM, but they do sometimes have to take
vacation days to do this work. Hannah is a junior at
Burlington High School, and her mother says she “has to
maintain a good grade average or she wouldn’t be eligible.”
The family invests a lot of time in SP work, but they’ve
also found a good use for the modest amount of money
they make as standardized patients: vacations. In 1993,
Angele and Jim took a cruise; last Thanksgiving, the
three Courts went to visit Hannah’s grown sister, who
lives in Ireland.
“It’s great to know the students and have a chance to
work with them,” says Jim. “And I learn, too. I am invested not only in their education but also my own.”
S P R I N G
2005
17
and the background that will let them convincingly portray various patients and their
illnesses.
“I’m an adult learner,” says SP Angele
Court, Jim’s wife (see sidebar on p. 17).
“Having to study the textbook and know
certain systems is really energizing.
Sometimes I think the last thing I need after
a long day is to read 100 pages of text, but
you know, it is great to learn new things. It
keeps your mind going and sharp.”
For portrayals, SPs get a written
“script” that includes background on their
roles and what symptoms they’ll be presenting with. They also get readings about
the conditions. Before they see students,
they rehearse their roles with Nicholas and
faculty members in that area of medicine. Once
they’ve got it down, they meet students in the
Assessment Center for a dry run before
their debut. All along the way, their
acting is honed.
“The SPs do an incredible job of
acting out the situations,” says second-year student
Justin Sanders. “They’ll get to the end and everyone’s thinking, ‘Wow, that was really an excellent
performance.’ It’s an important part of our learning
for them to get it right.”
From left: Cliff Dow, Angele and Jim Court do paperwork and chat during downtime; SP Deb Brown;
SP Jae Vick and medical students in a teen sexuality
interview.
STANDARDIZING THE SPS
profile of a good SP
It takes a special person to be a standardized
patient.
• Flexible schedule — SPs are part-time temporary employees of UVM. Some SPs work regularly in classroom situations; others only during testing periods.
• Ease with people — Not only do SPs teach,
Cate Nicholas with they also have to give feedback and make
her “casting” book assessments.
• Comfort with one’s body — SPs not only have
of SPs.
to let students poke at them, they have to let
them see them in an exam gown.
• Able to be on stage — SPs have to have a little bit of ham, the
ability to step out into a role convincingly and sometimes to
play that role over and over again all in one day.
• Good memory — SPs need to remember the script they’ve
been given and also keep track of the student’s performance
to critique.
If you think you’ve got something to offer as a standardized
patient, contact program director Cate Nicholas at
[email protected].
18
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
Standardization of both presentation
and assessment is, of course, a very
important aspect of this teaching
method. For evaluation purposes, each
student needs to see the same patient
problem presented in the same format.
This guarantees fair assessment and
also allows students and faculty to
compare and contrast student competence. Nicholas and faculty members
develop checklists for communication
skills, professional skills and physical
exam skills. SPs fill out checklists after
they meet with a student, and then
provide immediate feedback.
Nicholas works on the checklists the
SPs use to evaluate student performance with Director of Assessment
Karen Richardson-Nassif, Ph.D. All
standardized patients for all students
use the same checklist. And the checklists undergo regular evaluation.
“We do a statistical analysis on
every item on the checklist to just
make sure that we are teaching it well,”
says Richardson-Nassif. “We look for
red flags if a group of students are missing an item:
is it because we aren’t teaching it well; is it because
the standardized patient is not really following
through on their end; or is it because the students
just didn’t get it?” That information is then fed back
to the course directors and to Nicholas, who can
fine tune presentations to be more effective teaching tools, often within a few days.
STANDARDIZED PATIENTS GO NATIONWIDE
The National Board of Medical Examiners now
requires students to undergo a national exam which
uses standardized patients as part of the process of
receiving state licensure. This is being done at the
request of state licensing boards, who along with
the national Board of Medical Examiners and all
medical schools have the obligation to protect the
public as they train physicians and SPs.
Lewis First, M.D., professor and chair of pediatrics, and senior associate dean for educational and
curricular affairs, currently serves as committee
chair for Step 2 of the United States Medical
Licensing Exam. In this capacity, he and his committee have been responsible for helping the nation-
al board design, implement and evaluate the national SP licensing exam, which was first offered in June
2004 and now complements the traditional exam. All
U.S. medical students now must pass this exam to
receive a state license to practice medicine.
“I have had the opportunity to recognize not just
on our campus but nationally the important role SPs
play in the training and subsequent licensure of
physicians,” First says. “Our standardized patients
turn the theory into practice. You can read about
baseball, but you need to pick up a bat and ball to
really understand how the game is played. This is a
good analogy as to why we are using SPs so frequently in our new curriculum. The SPs allow the
students themselves to actively step up to bat and
practice the clinical skills and knowledge they’ve
learned in the classroom and then be given direct
feedback through observation by SPs and faculty
that they’ve successfully mastered these learning
objectives.”
“I’m extremely proud of the work our SPs have
done under Cate’s leadership,” First says. “I think
the program is one of the unique attributes that
makes our integrated curriculum such an innovative
and yet effective way to train physicians for the
VM
future.”
S P R I N G
2005
19
For orthopaedic researcher Bruce Beynnon, Ph.D.,
it’s a search for all the gain, without the pain.
Easing
the
t
Strain
he image of three uvm hockey players
by jon
reidel
of the 1970s wearing casts from ankle to hip
remains with Bruce Beynnon, Ph.D. As captain of
the 1978-79 UVM men’s basketball team, he remembers wondering how such strong, fit athletes could so
suddenly have their careers ended by a knee injury.
Now an associate professor of orthopaedics and
rehabilitation, Beynnon says the anterior cruciate
ligament injuries of Garry Hebert, Chris Coutu and
Serge Leblanc, as well as fellow basketball player
Charlie Trapani, played a role in his early interest
with knee injuries, and with his subsequent decision
to pursue a career that has made him a leading
researcher of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL)
injuries and the surgical and rehabilitation techniques used to treat them.
photography by
sabin gratz
21
“It wasn’t like I saw these injuries and decided to
“Our finding of different intrinsic risk factors for
dedicate my life to studying the ACL gods, but it ankle ligament injury between males and females
really stuck in my mind,” Beynnon says. “These indicates that intervention studies designed to
guys were super athletes — one of them was Mr. reduce the incidence of ankle injuries need to develMontreal, but an injury ended his hockey career op different strategies for males and females,”
that day. It’s been interesting to see how an injury Beynnon wrote.
that was career-ending at any level back in the 70s is
now treatable to where an athlete can return within THINKING ABOUT REHAB
the same year. Back then, from the knee’s perspec- Much of Beynnon’s research has focused on clinical
tive, the surgery was worse than the injury. The studies designed to evaluate different ACL surgical
knee probably didn’t know the difference between techniques and rehabilitation with an emphasis on
an axe attack and the surgery.”
the long-term stability of the knee and return to full
Since then, Beynnon, director of research in the activity; examination of how changes in the design
Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation, of total joint components can influence their behavand a team of College of Medicine researchers have ior; and the influence of abnormal joint loads on the
built an international reputation and published initiation and progression of osteoarthritis.
When Beynnon first started working at UVM,
extensively on sports injuries and rehabilitation. A
pair of new studies — one on the effectiveness of the institution where he earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering in 1982, followed by
ACL rehab programs and another
an M.S. and Ph.D in biomechanical
study focusing on the effect of extrin- Beynnon at the controls of
sic and intrinsic risk factors on first- the Biodex which measures and mechanical engineering, he
focused his attention on the biometime inversion ankle ligament injuries torque, muscle strength
(continued on page 24)
in high school and college athletes — and speed.
are expected to be published later this
year.
The latter study evaluated ankle
injuries among 901 local prep and collegiate athletes who logged a total of
50,680 “person-days” of exposure to
soccer, basketball, lacrosse or field
hockey over four years. Only 43 athletes had sprained ankles during the
study period, even though sprains are
typically considered one of the most
common injuries among athletes.
Beynnon’s team also looked at the how
injury rates are affected by factors such
as gender, level of competition and
sport.
What they found was that the incident rate of inversion injury is less
than 1 percent per 1,000 days of exposure to sport, a value lower than previously reported. Interestingly, risk
among female athletes can be linked to
specific sports. The study shows that
risk is highest among females playing
basketball, who are at significantly
greater risk than male basketball players and female lacrosse players.
22
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
getting hard data
on knee rehabilitation
When word reached Bruce
Beynnon, Ph.D., in December
that he and his team of fellow researchers had won
the prestigious O’Donoghue
Sports Injury Research
Award for 2005 from the
American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, it was a familiar feeling for the
orthopaedic researcher. Papers authored or coauthored by Beynnon had won the O’Donoghue Award
twice before, in 1996 and 1999.
The most recent paper, “Rehabilitation of the Knee
Following Anterior Cruciate Ligament [ACL] Reconstruction with a Bone-Patellar Tendon-Bone Graft,” was
written by Beynnon and his UVM colleagues Robert
Johnson, M.D., Bjarne Brattbakk, Joseph Abate, M.D.,
Braden Fleming, Ph.D., and Claude Nichols, M.D., the
chair of the Department of Orthopaedics and
Rehabilitation. It focuses on a major question in
orthopaedics today — should patients who have undergone ACL reconstruction have their knee immobilized
for a period of time after surgery, or begin immediate
rehabilitation? It is a subject of increasing concern, with
ACL injuries on the rise. “Improvements in ski boots, for
example, have had an unforeseen part in the increase in
ACL problems,” says Beynnon. “What used to be the
dominant ski injury, the tibial fracture, has been mostly
eliminated. But the force is now transmitted further up
the leg — we’ve moved the problem up to the knees.”
Two decades ago, rehabilitation after an ACL reconstruction almost always included immobilization of the
patient’s leg for six weeks or longer immediately after
surgery. Research on animal models showed that immobilization itself caused adverse effects on knee joints,
and some studies showed early mobilization, including
walking, might be possible for ACL patients without
endangering the healing of their newly-grafted ligaments. It appeared that the most beneficial course for
many patients with ACL repairs could be immediate,
vigorous rehab. “What was missing,” explains Beynnon,
“was hard, factual information. A lot of orthopaedic
research has been retrospective. This was one of the first
studies on this topic derived from a randomized, controlled, double-blinded study.”
The award-winning study started with 390 candidates who had had an ACL tear between December 1998
and May 2001. Ultimately, 208 subjects were accepted
into the study (those excluded were done so on the basis
of age restrictions, pregnancy, or earlier or simultaneous
additional injuries). Forty-two of the subject group consented to participate, and were randomly placed into
either accelerated or non-accelerated rehabilitation
treatments immediately after their ACL repair surgery.
All the participants in the process — the patient, the
surgeon, and the individual making follow-up measurements, were “blinded” in the randomization procedure.
Patients who were placed in the non-accelerated group
underwent a slower, 32-week program of rehab. Those
in the accelerated group immediately began a 19-week
program. Follow-up exams were done on the subjects
immediately after the reconstruction, and at intervals of
three, six, twelve, and 24 months thereafter. Throughout
the study, patients were examined for knee laxity, knee
function and activity, thigh muscle strength, knee proprioception (the patient’s awareness of joint movement
and other factors), and patient satisfaction.
Much of the data in the study was gathered using
tools and techniques developed by Beynnon and his
team. One of these was the use of “marker beads” made
of tantalum, which were implanted into bone and used
as landmarks to accurately gauge knee laxity on x-ray
radiographs. “One of the problems with measuring this
is that it had been inherently imprecise in the past,” says
Beynnon. The beads give solid, immovable reference
points for gathering precise data on movement.
The UVM team also developed a device for measuring
proprioception, in which a subject sits in a padded chair
and is deprived of many of the usual visual and other
sense clues that can cloud their innate ability to gauge
the movement of their joints .
Interesting as these techniques may be, they are not,
ultimately, the most gratifying elements of the study to
Beynnon. “The most important thing is changing the
way patients are treated,” he says. “Our past research
has helped change many things — the way braces are
used, for example. To me, research becomes most meaningful when you can translate it to the bedside.”
— Edward Neuert
S P R I N G
2005
23
chanics of the ACL with the intention of finding
better ways of reconstructing it.
Beynnon and his colleagues eventually developed
techniques to measure the biomechanics of the
ACL. This lead to the study of the strain biomechanics of ligaments in people doing all types of
rehab exercises like weight lifting, biking and stair
climbing.
“That served as a database for us to develop criteria by which to reconstruct and then later rehabilitate people. To make the link we were able to characterize normal strain biomechanics — we could
rank order the exercises from highest strain to lowest strain. So now we can
take a group of exercises
Bjarne Brattbakk,
that we know produces
Clinical Coordinator,
and the RSA Knee
low strain (non-accelerLaxity System built by
ated rehab exercises) and
Beynnon and his team.
another group that pro-
24
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
duces high strain, and develop programs that would
compare the two and their effect (on ACL rehab).”
This research is the basis for a paper that will
appear in the American Journal of Sports Medicine
authored by Beynnon, Robert Johnson, M.D.,
Bjarne Brattbakk, Joseph Abate, M.D., Braden
Fleming, Ph.D., and Claude Nichols, M.D., all colleagues in Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation (except
for Fleming, who has left the department). Despite
the Beynnon file
Bruce Beynnon, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Orthopaedics & Rehabilitaion
Director of Research, Department of Orthopaedics & Rehabilitation
EDUCATION
PhD: Biomechanical and Mechanical Engineering,
University of Vermont, 1991
MS: Biomechanical and Mechanical Engineering,
University of Vermont, 1986
BS: Mechanical Engineering, University of Vermont,
1982
• Joined College of Medicine faculty in 1986.
• Member of the editorial boards of The Journal of
Orthopaedic Research, The American Journal of Sport
Medicine, and The Journal of Knee Surgery. Contributor to a number of journals focused on the spine,
shoulder, hip, knee, and ankle disorders.
• Research has focused on adult reconstruction,
sports trauma, fracture fixation, and has included
the development of a spine implant (Vermont
Spinal Fixator), a cervical thoracic orthosis for the
management of cervical spine lesions, and more
recently, the development of a new internal fixation
plate for the treatment of joint deformities.
• Developed instrumentation to investigate the
biomechanical behavior of total knee arthroplasty,
which led to an improved understanding of how
changes in the design of total joint components can
influence their biomechanical behavior.
• Currently working on several sports biomechanics
projects at the University of Vermont’s Sports
Medicine Center, including the development and
validation of new arthrometers to quantify knee
and shoulder biomechanics in-vivo, the measurement of anterior cruciate ligament strain in-vivo.
• Leading clinical studies designed to evaluate different anterior cruciate ligament surgical techniques and rehabilitation programs with particular
concern on the long-term stability of the knee and
return to full activity.
• Recently focused on identifying the risk factors
that predispose athletes to lower extremity injuries
such as knee and ankle ligament sprains. An additional research interest is the influence of abnormal
joint loads on the initiation and progression of
osteoarthritis.
• Recipient of the 1988 Young Scientist Award from
the American Society of Biomechanics; North American Arthroscopy Association’s O’Connor Arthroscopic Research Award 1989; SICOT M.E. Muller
Research Award 1990; Albert Trillat Award of the
International Society of Arthroscopy, Knee Surgery
and Orthopaedic Sports Medicine in 1993 and 1997;
American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Kappa
Delta Award in 1994; O’Donoghue Sports Injury
Research Award of the American Orthopaedic
Society for Sports Medicine in 1996, 1999 and 2005;
GOTS-Beiersdorf Research Award 2000; and the
2002 American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
Frank Stinchfield Award.
the findings not being exactly what he expected,
Beynnon says the results are significant in that they
go against some commonly held beliefs about
aggressive rehab versus non-aggressive.
“What we found is that there was no difference
between the programs, which is quite interesting
because we thought there would be,” Beynnon says.
“There’s no difference from a clinical outcome,
from the patients’ perspective, from a functional
perspective, or from a strength perspective.”
With this study complete, Beynnon and his colleagues have already begun to advance their
research by conducting laboratory studies on syn-
ovial fluids drawn from the knees of subjects, which
will provide information about protein biomarkers
that may be responsible for cartilage breakdown.
“This is very interesting because we’re looking
at arthritis before it even happens,” Beynnon says.
“If we can understand what’s going on before,
maybe we can intervene before it starts. We can target certain things earlier. Do we need to block the
degradation process that’s cleaving the cartilage,
and if so how do we do that? What we’ve identified
is that cartilage breaking itself down much, much
faster than it should be, so we’re starting to look at
VM
ways to bring that back into balance.”
S P R I N G
2005
25
WALKING
the
Tightrope
For Keiji Fukuda, MD ’83, being one of the leaders of the fight against influenza
means balancing the quiet work of science and the occasional loud warning call.
A
by melissa
pasanen
fter keiji fukuda, m.d.’83 was featured last winter in
a New York Times Magazine cover story about the
increase of avian flu in humans and the likelihood that
it heralds the next flu pandemic, he wrote the reporter a short note.
Press attention is not new to Fukuda, who has been team leader of the
influenza branch of the epidemiology unit at the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention for almost nine years, but the unusually personal and flattering portrait painted by reporter Gretchen Reynolds
made him a little uncomfortable.
photograph by george duncan,
courtesy of Peter Hay Fine Art
26
“I sent Gretchen an email, and said, ‘You made us
look much better than we really are — but thank
you,’” says Fukuda. He accepts that this sort of
exposure is part of his job, that he has a role to play
in helping communicate the fact that a pandemic
caused by a new, deadly flu strain is “inevitable,” as
he was quoted saying in USA Today last March. He
is, however, concerned that people may not understand that managing the threat of influenza is a
group effort, not the work of a few intrepid
gumshoe epidemiologists. “There’s a team of 70 to
“ No matter how you play the
politics, no matter how
glossy the images, it’s really
biology, the science.
It’s what those viruses
about the
”
are doing that counts.
80 people who work on influenza at the CDC,”
Fukuda says, “and even beyond that, across the
world, a vast number of people who will remain
faceless and nameless and who truly are absolutely
critical.”
Fukuda knows he also needs to tread a fine line
when he warns of impending flu outbreaks. “You
have to be a little careful about crying wolf, or crying Y2K,” he says, “and not trumpeting too much
that’s still theoretical while trumpeting enough so
that what needs to be done gets done. It’s a bit of a
tightrope walk.”
He credits a variety of recent events with elevating flu’s profile: the avian flu outbreaks in Asia; the
outbreaks of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
(SARS); heightened awareness of bioterrorism,
which focuses “popular attention on Andromeda
28
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
Strain-types of nightmare scenarios into which pandemic flu fits very nicely;” and several recent books
that re-examine the 1918 flu pandemic.
While others might bask in the spotlight, it is no
surprise to those who know Fukuda that he is somewhat reluctant about being the center of attention.
“He’s an extremely modest person,” says his
younger brother, Christopher Fukuda, M.D.’85,
who practices urology in Colchester, Vt., and is a
clinical assistant professor at the College of
Medicine. “When he was in Time magazine a few
years ago my wife had the article framed and gave it
to him, but it never made it onto the wall.” Even
during their childhood growing up in Barre, Vt., his
brother reports that Keiji always downplayed his
accomplishments, which included numerous athletic awards. “He came home with a winning jacket
one time and he gave it to me,” recalls Christopher.
“I wore it for a long time.”
The brothers, who also have an older sister who
now lives in Los Angeles, are sixth-generation
physicians whose father came from Japan to
Vermont to do an anesthesia fellowship with John
Abajian, Jr., M.D., in Burlington, and then spent his
career working at the Barre hospital. Their mother
trained as a general physician. “I loved growing up
in Vermont,” Fukuda says, although he acknowledges, “When you grow up in a place where you are
in the minority, it really does push you to think a lot
about race and who you are.”
At the urging of a favorite high school teacher,
Fukuda went to Oberlin College in Ohio, where he
fell in love with the cello and hoped to become a
filmmaker. After his sophomore year, he spent nine
months backpacking across Asia, the Middle East,
and Western Europe. “It made me realize that I
loved traveling, I loved being overseas, and I did not
want to be a tourist or a voyeur. I wanted to actually do something.” He admits that he resisted following in the family footsteps, but he finally decided that medicine was his best option.
Once Fukuda made that decision, the choice of
the College of Medicine was clear. In addition to
financial considerations and the fact that he wanted
to return to Vermont, “The school itself just seemed
right for me,” he says. “It has a really humanistic
approach to medicine and also in its approach to
medical education. It’s not gigantic and not too
small. There’s just something human-sized and
human-voiced about the education there.”
Associate Research Professor Alan
Rubin, M.D., was the group leader for
Fukuda’s section of the “Physician in
Society” class, and Fukuda remains
good friends with the Rubin family.
“He was curious, humorful, and wry,”
Rubin recalls, “and he was an amazing
self-starter. He just knew what he
wanted to do.” He also loved music
and food, Rubin adds. “He cooked a
dish my kids still remember. We called
it ‘hairy chicken,’ which had something to do with the feathers he left in
the chicken.” Rubin is not surprised to
see his former student perform a critical and highly visible professional role
with such aplomb. “He always hesitates before he speaks,” Rubin says,
“but when he does, it’s perfect.”
Between his second and third year
of medical school, Fukuda spent six Keiji Fukuda, M.D.’83
groups. Fukuda did not match with the
months overseas working for a small at the Centers for
malaria group as he had hoped. “Instead I
health and welfare organization that Disease Control
matched with the retrovirus diseases
provided services to indigenous tribes and Prevention in
group — in retrospect, one of the more
in the Tamilnadu region of South Atlanta.
fortuitous things that ever happened to
India. “That was one of the greatest
me,” he adds, citing enduring relationthings I ever did,” he says. “It’s an
ships with his supervisors. Although he
unbelievably beautiful area up in the mountains — was officially working on HTLV1 and 2 viruses, one
one of the major tea-growing areas with both jungle of the highlights of his training was an unrelated
and desert and wild monkeys and elephants.” His assignment in which he was sent alone to
time in India confirmed Fukuda’s interest in inter- Rarotonga, one of the Cook Islands in the South
national medicine: “Travel really made me think Pacific, for five weeks to investigate a Dengue fever
that there are some problems that are almost outbreak. After learning as much as he could about
intractable and almost impossible to figure out. I Dengue and mosquitoes, Fukuda piled himself and
wanted to work on problems like malaria.” After his equipment onto a plane. When he arrived at
Fukuda completed his internal medicine residency “the most beautiful tropical island I’ve ever been
and a chief year at Mount Zion Hospital in San to,” it turned out that communication was so costly
Francisco, he earned a Masters in Public Health in he could only make a couple of calls. “It really
epidemiology at University of California, Berkeley pushed me to think about what I was doing there
and then spent a year working in leprosy and tuber- and what I was trying to figure out,” he says.
culosis clinics in the San Francisco Bay area. “Then “Although it sounds funny to say, it was just a wonI began asking people, ‘If one wanted to work on derful experience — the kind of thing you dream
malaria, what should one do?’” Fukuda recalls. about as an EIS trainee.”
“And everyone said, ‘You really need to go to the
After finishing the training program, Fukuda
EIS [Epidemiology Intelligence Service] training became a full CDC officer with the Viral
program.’”
Exanthems and Herpesviruses Branch. This group
The two-year EIS officer training program at the is also responsible for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention starts (CFS) because of early thinking that it could be
with a month-long introductory session and then a related to chronic viral infections such as Epsteinmatch between the new trainees and the different Barr. He credits his work in this group with allowCOURTESY CDC
S P R I N G
2005
29
ing him to develop deeper insights into the broader context of disease. “Culturally, CFS occupies
this unusual niche,” Fukuda observes. “On the one
hand you have this very passionate group of people
who believe strongly that it’s a syndrome that exists
as a discreet disease. On the other hand, you have
a great deal of skepticism by much of the medical
establishment…It’s a very polarizing field and it’s a
very polarizing illness.” Working with CFS,
“taught me both about the political aspects of these
sorts of issues as public health problems,” Fukuda
says, “but also it really pushed me and taught me a
lot about epidemiology since it is a syndrome in
which there aren’t clear biological markers. How
do you actually study something like that? How do
you define it? How do you approach it in a way
that most people will find acceptable? How do you
conduct studies in an area like that which are scientifically defensible? It also made me think a lot
about the cultural, medical, and social biases about
being ill.”
In 1996, Fukuda was approached by the influenza group to become their epidemiology section
chief, an opportunity to “shape a fairly small team
and establish a direction,” he says. It also bore some
similarities to the infectious disease that had first
intrigued him. Like malaria, Fukuda says, “It was
really not apparent to me how one could ever
address something like influenza in terms of how to
control it and prevent it.” Plus, he adds, the
response to flu at the time was similar to CFS:
“Back then it really was under the radar screen.
Most people thought of it as just another severe
cold…and that really galled me.”
Flu no longer flies under the radar but, at times,
that might be helpful for Fukuda and his colleagues.
From vaccine shortages to avian flu, the subject now
grabs frequent headlines. Fukuda traveled to Hong
Kong, China, and Vietnam in 1997, 1999, and 2004
to try to understand the behavior of various strains
of avian flu and he was also called in to help with the
SARS investigations in Hong Kong and China in
2003. He travels widely to attend public health conferences, and is in great demand as a lecturer. While
Fukuda is pleased that people now recognize the
serious nature of a potential flu pandemic, he is
troubled about the intensity focused on every piece
of news about the flu and how that attention can
compromise global health security. “There has
always been this triangle where politics and media
30
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
communications and science mix together,” Fukuda
says, “but a lot of the tools which have helped us do
science much better, like computers, have also made
media communications a minute-by-minute activity
around the clock.”
Greater media scrutiny has led to increased pressure on countries as they struggle to balance public
health concerns with potential economic and political damage. Fukuda raises the recent H5N1 avian
flu outbreaks across Asia as an example. “We got
message after message saying this is not an epizootic problem [a disease that attacks many animals in
the same general area],” Fukuda says with just a hint
of frustration in his voice. By the time governments
publicly acknowledged the health risk and killed
millions of chickens, over 20 people had died and a
potential pandemic spark had smoldered for longer
than Fukuda felt necessary. “The balance between
politics and media and science in many of our estimations is really beginning to become upset, so that
many of the scientific considerations are getting less
and less time at the table,” Fukuda says. “That, for
me, is worrying. No matter how you play the politics, no matter how glossy the images, it’s really
about the biology, the science. It’s what those viruses are doing that counts.”
“In the end though,” Fukuda says, “what was and
still remains the most interesting to me in being at
a place like CDC is that if the question is how do
you address public health problems, then the
answer is a combination of science, politics, communications, and common sense.”
He tries to maintain balance in his own perspective as well, by making time to play music with his
two daughters, walk the family dog, and cook up big
sushi dinners with his wife in their Atlanta home.
Fukuda also spends two weeks every fall on the
wards in San Francisco. Public health can easily
become just “numbers and concepts and video
images on computers,” Fukuda cautions, “but when
you go back to the wards — particularly when you
go back to the wards at some place like San
Francisco General where such a high percentage of
the patient population is either homeless, or HIVinfected, or has a substance abuse problem, or some
combination — it just drives home to you that this
is what disease means, this is what poverty means,
this is what having no hope means. It makes what
we deal with in a somewhat abstract fashion in pubVM
lic health, it makes it very concrete.”
HALL A
P R E S I D E N T
C L A S S
’
S
C O R N E R
N O T E S
D E V E L O P M E N T
N E W S
O B I T U A R I E S
3
3
3
4
2
3
5
2
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.
S P R I N G
2005
31
M.D. CLASS NOTES
PRESIDENT ’S CORNER
H A L L A
UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT
COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
DEVELOPMENT &
ALUMNI RELATIONS OFFICE
ASSISTANT DEAN
rick blount
In 1965, my wife Edie and I moved into a one-bedroom
apartment in a home owned by the Wiedman family at 69
North Prospect Street, just a few hundred yards from the
College of Medicine, which was then located at the corner of Prospect Street and Colchester Avenue. After commuting 35 miles each way every day to Boston as an
undergraduate, being able to walk to school was a welcome change. For the
next year, the College’s famous fourth floor, and Hall A, became a home away
from home.
Today, the memory of Hall A seems to have become nostalgically aggrandized in my mind. I have always been amazed at how the passage of time
transforms our memories, automatically filtering away difficult, less happy and
forgettable experiences, while simultaneously enhancing those portions of
remembrance which brought forth satisfaction, fellowship, understanding and
direction in life. So it is with the amazingly steep steps of old Hall A, which
were the cause of countless backaches where we sat for 1,000 hours of lectures
in Anatomy class, comforted only by the constant reminders of how unfortunate we were to be deprived of the 10,000 hours taught to Dr. Stultz when he
was young. (When he was young, surely, dinosaurs had still roamed the earth.)
Now Hall A is only steep(ed) in tradition and fond memories.
Today, the classrooms of the College are no longer Vermont’s leading cause
of acrophobia. The medical campus today comprises wonderfully designed
modern buildings brought to fruition by visionary leaders such as our own
Dean Evans. The newest facility, the Medical Education Center, is scheduled
to open this fall, and will offer the latest computerized educational tools in an
environment designed to promote and enhance the integrated learning of
basic science and clinical skills. Some may see the opening of the new Medical
Education Center as a completion. It is not. Rather, it is another milestone
which, when complemented by the College’s stellar faculty, will keep our
College of Medicine in the vanguard of all medical schools. I am grateful to
say that these new spaces will bear the names of some of our fellow alumni —
as well as other supporters of the College — in recognition of generous gifts
to support the programs going on inside these walls. Many naming opportunities still remain for rooms within the center.
The Medical Alumni Association (MAA) is proud to promote this process
of improvement, whether by change or growth or both. To help ensure open
communication and a constant flow of information about the many exciting
developments occurring frequently at the College of Medicine, the MAA has
begun a series of communications to parents and families of medical students
and graduate alumni. Improvements have been made to the MAA webpage
(http://alumni.uvm.edu/com) and a new Graduate Alumni Webpage has
launched (http://alumni.uvm.edu/com/phd.asp). And for the first time, the
MAA has created a new award designed to recognize outstanding Graduate
Alumni contributions. Stay tuned, and stay in touch!
Charles Howard, M.D.’69
32
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
DEVELOPMENT OPERATIONS MANAGER
ginger lubkowitz
DIRECTOR , MAJOR GIFTS
manon o ’ connor
DIRECTOR , MEDICAL ANNUAL GIVING
sarah keblin
DIRECTOR , MEDICAL ALUMNI RELATIONS
Class agents are listed at the beginning of each
year’s notes. If you have news to share, please
contact your class agent or the alumni office at
[email protected] or (802) 656-4014.
1941
1946
John S. Poczabut
62 Doral Farm Road
Stamford, CT 06902
(203) 322-3343
Frederick C. Barrett
Crossroads Place, Apt. 238
1 Beechwood Drive
Waterford, CT 06385
(860) 326-2156
1943
J. Bishop McGill
152 Sanborn Road
Stowe, VT 05672
(802) 253-4081
[email protected]
kelli shonter
DEVELOPMENT OFFICER
erin douglas
ASSISTANTS
jane aspinall
lisa denton
elyzabeth massucci
UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT
MEDICAL ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
ALUMNI EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
2004–2005
OFFICERS
( TWO -YEAR TERMS )
PRESIDENT
charles b. howard, m.d. ’ 69
(2004-2006)
PRESIDENT- ELECT
marvin a. nierenberg, m.d. ’60
(2004-2006)
TREASURER
patricia fenn, m.d. ’65
(2004-2006)
SECRETARY
ruth a. seeler, m.d. ’62
Francis Arnold Caccavo
(M.D. Dec. 1943)
51 Thibault Parkway
Burlington, VT 05401
(802) 862-3841
Carleton R. Haines
(M.D. Dec. 1943)
88 Mountain View Road
Williston, VT 05495
(802) 878-3115
Harry M. Rowe
(M.D. March 1943)
65 Main Street
P.O. Box 755
Wells River, VT 05081
(802) 757-2325
[email protected]
(2004-2006)
EXECUTIVE SECRETARY
john tampas, m.d. ’54
( ONGOING )
MEMBERS - AT- LARGE
( SIX-YEAR TERMS )
james c. hebert, m.d. ’77
(2000-2006)
paul b. stanilonis, m.d. ’65
(2000-2006)
1944
Wilton W. Covey
357 Weybridge Street
Middlebury, VT 05753
(802) 388-1555
(2004-2006)
(2002-2008)
frederick mandell, m.d. ’64
(2002-2008)
mark allegretta, ph.d. ’90
(2003-2009)
mark pasanen, m.d.’92
(2004-2010)
naomi l. rice, m.d.’00
(2004-2010)
h. james wallace iii, m.d. ’88
(2004-2010)
R E U N I O N
Porter H. Dale
5 McKinley Street
Montpelier, VT 05602
(802) 229-9258
1948
1949
don p. chan, m.d. ’76
leslie s. kerzner, m.d. ’95
George H. Bray
110 Brookside Road
New Britain, CT 06052
(860) 225-3302
S. James Baum
1790 Fairfield Beach Road
Fairfield, CT 06430
(203) 255-1013
[email protected]
carleton r. haines, m.d.’43
(2002-2008)
1947
’ 0 5
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
James Arthur Bulen
P.O. Box 640339
Beverly Hills, FL 34464
(352) 746-4513
[email protected]
Joseph C. Foley
32 Fairmount Street
Burlington, VT 05401
(802) 862-0040
[email protected]
Richard E. Pease
P.O. Box 14
Jericho, VT 05465
(802) 899-2543
Edward S. Sherwood
24 Worthley Road
Topsham, VT 05076
(802) 439-5816
[email protected]
R E U N I O N
’ 0 5
1950
Simon Dorfman
8256 Nice Way
Sarasota, FL 34238
(941) 926-8126
Chuck Miller writes: “Mary
and I hope to attend the
55th 1950 class reunion in
the spring. We hope that
there is a good turnout!”
1952
Brewster Davis Martin
Box 128
362 VT RT 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]
Congratulations to
Michael Wiedman for
being promoted to
Professor at Harvard
Medical School. He
writes: “We attended the
20th reunion of one of
my Everest expeditions,
‘Ultima Thule’. We
continue to give evening
lectures on hypothermia
with my hiking-sport wife
Irenée, at Lakes of the
Clouds Hut, under the
summit of Mount
Washington. The bad
weather always cooperates.” Sumner Yaffe writes:
“The 50th Reunion was
spectacular. The medical
school has grown significantly as well as have my
classmates — all with
grayish hair and many
with increased weight!”
John Tampas counters that
he has in fact lost weight
and has no gray hair, since
he lost it all. He invites
other class members to
“weigh in.” Margaret
Newton tells us: “I have
been writing stories about
my experiences as a physician. One has been published. I am working for
universal health care.”
R E U N I O N
’ 0 5
1955
Stanley L. Burns
27 Colonial Square
Burlington, VT 05401
(802) 862-6205
[email protected]
1956
Ira H. Gessner
1306 Northwest 31st Street
Gainesville, FL 32605
(352) 378-1820
[email protected]
1957
Larry Coletti
34 Gulliver Circle
Norwich, CT 06360
(860) 887-1450
[email protected]
S P R I N G
2005
33
M.D. CLASS NOTES
H A L L A
Donald Zehl reports: “Sue
and I have moved to ‘The
Cedars of Chapel Hill’ —
a continuing care retirement community. In our
sixteenth year of retirement. Email:
[email protected]”.
1958
Peter Ames Goodhue
Stamford Gynecology, P.C.
70 Mill River Street
Stamford, CT 06902
(203) 359-3340
Congratulations to Neil
Diorio, who lives in
Thousand Oaks, Calif.,
and recently published a
suspense novel titled The
Will. Brian Supple, M.D.’94
reported: “I have already
had the pleasure of reading Neil Diorio’s wellwritten book. He has done
a fantastic job.”
1959
’ 0 5
1960
Marvin A. Nierenberg
6 West 77th Street
New York, NY 10024
(212) 874-6484
[email protected]
Melvyn H. Wolk
Clinton Street
P.O. Box 772
Waverly, PA 18471
(570) 563-2215
[email protected]
34
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
Wilfrid L. Fortin
17 Chapman Street
Nashua, NH 03060
(603) 882-6202
[email protected]
George Reservitz is
“enjoying retirement after
35 years of active practice
of urology and 22 years as
Chief of the Division of
Urology at Mt. Auburn
Hospital in Cambridge,
Mass.”
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]
H. Alan Walker
229 Champlain Drive
Plattsburgh, NY 12901
(518) 561-8991
Jay E. Selcow
27 Reservoir Road
Bloomfield, CT 06002
(860) 243-1359
[email protected]
R E U N I O N
1961
Arnold Kerzner writes:
“I continue to work more
than my body and mind
allows for; but I love
child/family psychiatry. I
have recently been elected
as President-Elect to the
New England Council on
Child Psychiatry. I’ll enjoy
work while you enjoy your
retirements.”
1964
Anthony P. Belmont
211 Youngs Point Road
Wiscasset, ME 04578
(207) 882-6228
[email protected]
Lester Wurtele reports:
“Our second grandchild,
Zachary Matthew
Sugerman, was born on
November 8, 2004. He is
every bit as wonderful as
his big sister Sara Jane
who is 21 months. Still
practicing radiology. Had
the good fortune to be
able to return to Vermont
twice this year.”
R E U N I O N
’ 0 5
1965
George A. Little
97 Quechee Road
Hartland, VT 05048
(802) 436-2138
george.a.little@
dartmouth.edu
Joseph H. Vargas, III
574 US RT 4 East
Rutland Town, VT 05701
(802) 775-4671
[email protected]
Allan Gardner writes:
“Barb and I will continue
to work full time in our
profession for another five
years and then will probably retire back in New
England. Looking forward
to 40th Reunion.” Special
congratulations are also in
order for several members
of the Class of 1965 who
will receive Medical
Alumni Association
Awards during Reunion
this June. Pat Fenn was
selected for the A. Bradley
Soule Award while Joseph
Vargas and Frederick
Burkle will both receive
the Service to Medicine &
Community Award.
1966
(908) 359-6161
[email protected]
Robert George Sellig
31 Overlook Drive
Queensbury, NY 12804
(518) 793-7914
[email protected]
Susan Pitman Lowenthal
75 Blue Swamp Road
Litchfield, CT 06759
(860) 597-8996
susan_w_pitmanlowen
[email protected]
G. Millard Simmons
2101 Calusa Lakes Blvd.
Nokomis, FL 34275
(941) 484-6418
[email protected]
1967
John F. Dick, II
P.O. Box 60
Salisbury, VT 05769
(802) 352-6625
Virginia Barnes Grogean
writes: “Continue to enjoy
retirement in Maine. Son
Scott is finishing a residency in internal medicine
at Berkshire Medical
Center in Pittsfield, MA
where he lives with his
wife Kayda and 4-year-old
son. Son Tim has begun a
pediatric practice in Torrington, Conn. He was
married to Claudia Lopez
this past summer. She is an
OB/GYN resident at
UConn.”
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
R E U N I O N
’ 0 5
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]
1971
Wayne E. Pasanen
117 Osgood Street
North Andover, MA 01845
(978) 681-9393
wpasanen@lowell
general.org
1972
F. Farrell Collins, Jr.
205 Page Road
Pinehurst, NC 28374
(910) 295-2429
John Oprendek tells us his
“wife, Melissa, is in her
third year of study at the
University of Maine at
Augusta. Daughter Janet is
Director of Operations for
Flagship Cinemas for the
state of Maine and is
supervising our new theater in Waterville. Son
John III is doing respite
care in Burlington, Vt.”
Joe Benedict writes that he
is “currently Chairman of
the Department of Path-
DEVELOPMENT NEWS
FURTHEST AND NEAREST
The Medical Alumni Association’s MAA
Challenge Scholarship program has
attracted generous donors from across
the class years at the College of
Medicine. In the past few months,
MAA challenges have emerged from
among the most recent of graduates,
and those farthest from their days at
the school. Davis Evelti, M.D.’93
became the most recent alumni donor
in the program when he established
the Mary Marlow Evelti Scholarship, a
$20,000 term scholarship, in memory
of his late mother. Mary Evelti represented District 7-1 in the Vermont
House of Representatives for fourteen
years, beginning in 1976. During this
time she served with distinction on
the Education Committee and Health
and Welfare Committee. She became
UVM’s oldest undergraduate when she
enrolled at the university in 1997.
Also recently, a member of
the Class of 1915 was honored by the establishment
of another MAA scholarship. The late Morris
Wineck, M.D.’15, was honored by his grandchildren
with an endowed scholarship
in his name. Dr. Wineck died in
Morris
1984, but left behind a strong
Wineck,
attachment between his famiM.D.’15
ly and the school where his
medical career began. The Wineck
family established the scholarship in
1984, and have now significantly
enhanced its value through the MAA
Challenge Program.
SEELER ADDS TO FUND
Ruth Seeler, M.D.’62 has long been
concerned with the heavy debt burdens current medical graduates face
when starting their careers. In 2000
she acted on her concerns and established the first MAA Challenge
endowed scholarship. Now Dr. Seeler
has deepened her commitment with a
new estate provision of over $300,000
for the Ruth Seeler M.D.’62 Endowed
Scholarship fund, ensuring an even
greater impact in perpetuity.
REUNION GIVING
Medical Reunion is coming up this
June, and already members of the various reunion classes are planning and
making generous gifts to commemorate their milestones. One such donor
is Marjorie Topkins, M.D.’50 who has
made a substantial gift to the College
in memory of her father, Samuel
Topkins, M.D.’15. Marjorie Topkins’ gift
will be remembered with the naming
of one of the new Medical Education
Center small group learning rooms as
the “Topkins Family Room.”
GIFT FOR A FRIEND
Over the years, we hear many stories
from alumni about classmates who
influenced them, helped them in medical school, and often remained lifelong friends. A 2005 reunion class
member who wishes to remain anonymous has a suggestion for fellow graduates who are returning for their
reunion this year. The reunion class
member has made a contribution to
the Student Locker Fund in honor of a
classmate — and has instructed that
the plate on the locker bear the classmate’s name as a surprise for the
classmate. The reunion class member
challenges other alumni to think
about those who inspired them in
medical school and to similarly honor
them through the locker project.
S P R I N G
2005
35
M.D. CLASS NOTES
H A L L A
ology at Lawrence &
Memorial Hospital in
New London, Conn. Still
enjoying singing tenor in
various groups. Sang in
concert with Berkshire
Choral Festival in
Canterbury Cathedral in
June 2004 (Puccini’s Messa
di Gloria and Rossini’s
Stabat Mater) — very
moving. Plan to sing
Mozart Requiem at the
International Choral
Festival at Innsbruck,
Austria in June 2005.”
1973
James M. Betts
715 Harbor Road
Alameda, CA 94502
(510) 523-1920
[email protected]
Philip L. Cohen
483 Lakewood Drive
Winter Park, FL 32789
(407) 628-0221
[email protected]
Victor Pisanelli is “still
practicing general surgery
in Rutland, Vt.”
1974
Douglas M. Eddy
5 Tanbark Road
Windham, NH 03087
(603) 434-2164
[email protected]
Cajsa Schumacher
441 Church Hill Road
Morrisville, VT 05661
(802) 888-1799
[email protected]
Walter Jacobs writes:
“Still in solo family
practice. Enjoyed
Reunion. Daughter
Alexandria begins college
in September and son
Travis enters law school in
August.” Congratulations
36
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
PUTTING FACES TO THE NAMES
Over the last few months, several new people have joined the Medical Development and Alumni Relations office. The full staff gathered at their headquarters in
Farrell Hall on UVM’s Trinity campus are: front row, Assistants Lisa Denton, Jane
Aspinall, and Elyzabeth Massucci, Assistant Dean Rick Blount, Director of Major
Gifts Manon O’Connor; back row, Director of Medical Annual Giving Sarah Keblin,
Development Operations Manager Ginger Lubkowitz, Development Officer Erin
Douglas, and Director of Medical Alumni Relations Kelli Shonter.
to John Persing, who was
recently elected president
of the Association of
Academic Chairmen of
Plastic Surgery and ChairElect of the American
Board of Plastic Surgery.
Jeffrey Allen reports:
“Living in Naples, Fla. I’m
doing practice management consulting and
financial planning for
physicians, having received
a Masters in Medical
Management from
Carnegie Mellon in 2000
and a Certificate in
Financial Planning from
Florida State University in
2003. Two daughters at
home in eighth and tenth
grade, and son Michael is
a realtor in Burlington.”
R E U N I O N
’ 0 5
1975
Ellen Andrews
195 Midland Road
Pinehurst, NC 28374
(910) 295-6464
[email protected]
Congratulations Patrick
Catalano, who will receive
the Medical Alumni
Association’s
Distinguished Academic
Achievement Award during Reunion this June.
1976
Don P. Chan
Cardiac Associates of
New Hampshire
Suite 103
246 Pleasant Street
Concord, NH 03301
(603) 224-6070
[email protected]
1977
Mark A. Popovsky
22 Nauset Road
Sharon, MA 02067
(781) 784-8824
mpopovsky@
haemonetics.com
Scott MacDonald writes:
“Donna and I are still in
Las Vegas. This year will
be our eighteenth year
here and we still love it.
Donna is the director of
nursing at a large local
convalescent facility and I
am still a partner in the
largest all cardiology
group in Nevada. Ah! To
have the simple, uncomplicated life of a med student again!”
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]
R E U N I O N
’ 0 5
1980
Richard Nicholas Hubbell
80 Summit Street
Burlington, VT 05401
(802) 862-5551
rich.hubbell@
vtmednet.org
1983
rshumway@
stfranciscare.org
Congratulations to Steve
Davis, a specialist in pediatric critical care medicine
at The Children’s Hospital
at The Cleveland Clinic,
who has been appointed to
the newly formed Pediatric Central Institutional
Review Board of the
National Cancer Institute
(NCI). The group will use
its clinical, scientific and
ethical expertise to review
NCI-sponsored clinical
trials and treatment protocols. Congratulations also
go to Marshall Forstein,
who will receive the
Medical Alumni Association’s Service to
Medicine & Community
Award during Reunion
this June.
Diane M. Georgeson
2 Ravine Parkway
Oneonta, NY 13820
(607) 433-1620
[email protected]
R E U N I O N
1981
Craig Wendell Gage
5823 Interbay Blvd.
Tampa, FL 33611
CraigGage@
alumni.uvm.edu
Andrew Weber writes:
“We enjoyed Marc’s bar
mitzvah this November.
I was disappointed with
Dr. Howard Dean’s loss in
the primary but proud of
his efforts. I hope to ski in
Vermont this February
and sun in Georgia
Sea Island for my 50th
birthday.”
1982
Linda Hood
4 Cobbler Lane
Bedford, NH 03110
(603) 471-2536
[email protected]
Anne Marie Massucco
15 Cedar Ledge Road
West Hartford, CT 06107
(860) 521-6120
Steven Klein reports:
“Twenty-one years after
graduation and there is
much to be thankful for. I
have two wonderful, wild
rebellious daughters of
college age (who have no
professional interests in
medicine). And, although
insurance companies, drug
companies & governmental agencies toil mightily
to squelch any enjoyment
of the practice of family
medicine on Long Island,
N.Y., I still derive enough
personal satisfaction to
make the entire journey
worthwhile!” Edward
Havranek was the lead
author of the article
“Predictors of the Onset
of Depressive Symptoms
in Patients With Heart
Failure” which was published in the Journal of the
American College of Cardiology. He has been a staff
cardiologist at Denver
Health since 1991 and is a
Professor of Medicine at
the University of
Colorado at Denver
Health Science Center.
1984
Richard C. Shumway
34 Coventry Lane
Avon, CT 06001
(860) 673-6629
UPCOMING EVENTS
March 17
Match Day
’ 0 5
1985
Vito D. Imbasciani
1915 North Crescent
Heights Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90069
(323) 656-1316
[email protected]
Katherine Stoddard Pope
will receive the Medical
Alumni Association’s
Service to Medicine &
Community Award during
Reunion this June. While
serving in Iraq with the
California National Guard
last fall, Vito Imbasciani
kept a weblog of his experiences over the four
months. To read “The
Baghdad Diaries”, visit
Vito’s website at
www.yovito.com.
1986
Darrell Edward White
29123 Lincoln Road
Bay Village, OH 44140
(440) 892-4681
[email protected]
Clifton Slade just returned
from the 31st Combat
Support Hospital,
Baghdad, Iraq. Nicole
Noyes reports: “All is well
in NYC. Job is great.
Three kids. Skiing often.”
Khin Khin Gyi writes that
she started her sabbatical
at UCLA in January of
2005. “Updating my skills
in electrophysiology. Will
keep you all posted. Hope
to return to Burlington in
2006 for our twentieth
reunion.”
April 15
American College of Physicians
2005 Annual Meeting
San Francisco Marriott
San Francisco, California
April 16
Alumni Executive Committee
Meeting
May 22
College of Medicine
Commencement
June 10-12
Medical Reunion 2005
June 11
Planned Giving Meeting
August 3
Fourth Annual Peter A. Martin
Brain Aneurysm Golf Tournament
Champlain Country Club
St. Albans, Vt.
August 6
Madi’s Fund for Hydrocephalus &
Associated Neurosurgical
Research Annual Fundraiser
Summit Lodge
Killington, Vt.
September 21
An Evening in Celebration of
UVM
American Museum of Natural
History
New York, N.Y.
October 7-9
UVM Homecoming
October 8
College of Medicine Family Day
For updates on events see:
www.med.uvm.edu/
medalum
S P R I N G
2005
37
M.D. CLASS NOTES
H A L L A
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
dren following the birth of
my second daughter
Michelle last August. Both
my wife Patricia and I are
urologists in Roseville,
Calif. and are doing fine.”
David Couillard tells us:
“We now have three chil-
1989
CONTINUING MEDICAL EDUCATION
2005 CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
The Stowe Conference on Digestive Diseases
March 4-5, 2005, Trapp Family Lodge, Stowe, Vt.
Child Psychiatry for the Primary Care Clinician
May 6, 2005, Hampton Inn and Conference Center,
Colchester, Vt.
Women’s Health: Perception, Prevention, and Practice
May 12-14, 2005, University of Vermont Conference
Center at the Sheraton Hotel, Burlington, Vt.
Family Practice Review Course
June 8-11, 2005, University of Vermont Conference
Center at the Sheraton Hotel, Burlington, Vt.
Vermont Summer Pediatric Seminar
June 16-19, 2005, The Equinox, Manchester Center, Vt.
CardioRenal Symposium for the Primary Care Provider
August 5-7, 2005, Trapp Family Lodge, Stowe, Vt.
ALS – Update in the New Millennium
August 15-16, 2005, Sheraton Harborside,
Portsmouth, N.H.
Primary Care Sports Medicine
August 31-September 2, 2005, University of Vermont
Conference Center at the Sheraton Hotel,
Burlington, Vt.
College of Medicine alumni receive a special 10% discount
on all UVM Continuing Medical Education conferences.
For more information contact:
Continuing Medical Education
Farrell Hall
210 Colchester Avenue
Burlington, VT 05405
(802) 656-2292
http://cme.uvm.edu
38
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
Mark Eliot Pasanen
1234 Spear Street
South Burlington, VT 05403
(802) 865-3281
mark.pasanen@
vtmednet.org
1993
Peter M. Nalin
13216 Griffin Run
Carmel, IN 46033
(317) 962-6656
[email protected]
R E U N I O N
1992
Joanne Taplin Romeyn
22 Patterson Lane
Durham, CT 06422
(860) 349-6941
’ 0 5
1990
Barbara Angelika Dill
120 Hazel Court
Norwood, NJ 07648
(201) 767-7778
barbrichanddillon@
earthlink.net
Christopher Pilcher will
receive the Medical
Alumni Association’s
Recent Alumni Award
during Reunion this June.
1991
John Dewey
15 Eagle Street
Cooperstown, NY 13326
[email protected]
Leo Gabriel Katzman was
born to Philip and Joanne
Katzman on September
17, 2003. Congratulations
are also due to Mitzi
Garahan. Mitzi was named
one of San Diego’s “Top
Doctors” in anesthesiology
by San Diego Magazine.
Mitzi was nominated by
colleagues in the San
Diego County Medical
Society.
1994
Holliday Kane Rayfield
P.O. Box 819
Waitsfield, VT 05673
(802) 496-5667
[email protected]
Holliday Kane Rayfield
gave birth to Miranda
Louis Rayfield on
November 23. Miranda
was seven weeks early but
Holliday reports she’s
home and the whole family is doing great.
R E U N I O N
’ 0 5
1995
Allyson Miller Bolduc
252 Autumn Hill Road
South Burlington, VT 05403
(802) 863-4902
allyson.bolduc@
vtmednet.org
Congratulations to Allyson
Bolduc! Allyson will
receive the MAA’s Recent
Alumni Award during
Reunion this June. Peter
Christakos writes: “I was
married three years ago in
Virginia and we have been
living in the seacoast area
of New Hampshire. We
have a two year old son,
Nicolas, who keeps us
moving. Parenting is my
favorite job thus far!”
Peter and his family will
be relocating from New
Hampshire to Massachusetts. Holly Mason
reports: “After doing residencies in Chicago and
living in the Bay area of
California for two years
while Ted completed his
fellowship at Stanford, we
finally settled down in
Westfield, Mass. I am a
surgeon at Baystate
Medical Center in
Springfield (part of the
Dept. of Surgery) doing
primarily breast surgery.
Ted is in private practice
doing otology and neurootology. He has established the first cochlear
implant program in western Massachusetts. In July
’03, we welcomed our first
child, Sophia, who is the
light of our lives.”
Congratulations to Brooke
Spencer! Brooke is an
Interventional Radiologist
in Scottsdale, AZ now. In
July 2004, she married
John Sposato and his
daughter Elizabeth (3½
years) in Norwich, Vt. on
her parents’ farm. Leslie
Kerzner tells us: “Steve
and I are enjoying life on
the North Shore of
Massachusetts with our
two daughters Elana
(almost 5) and Adriana (1
year). We went to Brooke
Spencer’s wedding in July.
Last year, we saw Lori
(Everling) Deschene and
her twin girls. Hope to see
a lot of classmates at the
Reunion.” Tracy Phuong
Tram writes: “Hello everybody! Best wishes.” Laurie
GORDON MILLER / MEDICAL PHOTOGRAPHY
Yntema reports: “I am
now in my seventh year
with a busy internal medicine practice in Ellsworth,
Maine. It continues to be
challenging on every level
— which means both satisfying and exhausting, of
course. I still feel grateful
to be doing this job. To
keep things particularly
interesting, in the last several years I have gotten
divorced and remarried,
and have decided to
become a parent at age 46
— I expect to be adopting
a little boy from Russia
later this year. Never a
dull moment!”
ADMISSIONS TRANSITIONS
With the retirement this fall of Cathleen Gleeson,
Ph.D., who had directed the admissions office of
the College since 1995, two interim appointments
were announced by Dean Evans. James Rathmell,
M.D., at left, now serves as Interim Associate Dean
for Admissions, and Tiffany Delaney, at right, is
Interim Director of Admissions.
1996
1997
Anne Marie Valente
4616 Dolwick Drive
Durham, NC 27713
(919) 806-8110
Julie Clifford Smail
3094 Mt. Baker Circle
Oak Harbor, WA 98277
(360) 240-8693
jsmail@
fidalgomedical.com
Patricia Ann King, M.D.,
Ph.D.
832 South Prospect Street
Burlington, VT 05401
(802) 862-7705
patricia.king@
vtmednet.org
Lisa Belisle reports: “My
husband, Kevin, and I are
still living in Yarmouth,
Maine with our three children, Campbell (11), Abby
(8½) and Sophie (3½). Our
days are filled with family
activities. I have a private
practice and continue to
precept UVM students
and Family Medicine residents at Maine Medical
Center. I’m also involved
with Maine’s statewide
medical office-based literacy program Raising
Readers.”
Patty Salisbury writes: “I
moved to Australia two
years ago, on the far south
coast of New South Wales,
and live in a rural area
about ten minutes from
the beach. All my kids
have joined me and we
love it here! I work part
time running an Aboriginal Health Clinic and
the rest of the time divide
between a busy private
practice, obstetrics, running the ED one night a
week and going around
Australia teaching ALSO
(Advanced Life Support in
Obstetrics). We have a
small farm and life is
good. If you remember my
kids, they’re all grown up
now. Wade just graduated
high school and is working
in construction, saving
money for an overseas
trip, Skye and Forrest are
in university and Leif is a
stonemason. It’s still a wild
time when we are all
together! If anyone wants
to come and visit, they
sure are welcome.”
1998
Halleh Akbarnia
4700 Bromley Lane
Richmond, VA 23226
(804) 204-2595
[email protected]
Benjamin Lowenstein
recently joined the medical staff at Portsmouth
Regional Hospital in New
Hampshire. He also practices cardiology at
Seacoast Cardiology in
York, Maine. Congratulations Stephen Messier,
who has been accepted
into the Air Force Neonatology Fellowship program at the San Antonio
Uniformed Services
Health Education Consor-
S P R I N G
2005
39
M.D. CLASS NOTES
H A L L A
tium (SAUSHEC), located
at Wilford Hall Medical
Center. He will begin the
three-year fellowship in
July 2005. Since completing his pediatric residency
at Wilford Hall Medical
Center, Stephen has
served for the past four
years as chief pediatrician
at Eielson Air Force Base
near Fairbanks, Alaska.
1999
Everett Jonathan Lamm
18 Roberts Drive
Hampton, NH 03842
(603) 929-7555
[email protected]
Deanne Dixon Haag
4215 Pond Road
Sheldon, VT 05483
(802) 524-7528
R E U N I O N
Bay Medical Center as a
new internist. She also
shares a practice at Glen
Cove Internal Medicine in
Rockport, Maine. Laura
has a special interest in
women’s health, cardiology, and diabetology.
Before joining PBMC, she
was chief resident in internal medicine at Maine
Medical Center in
Portland.
2001
Ladan Farhoomand
1481 Regatta Road
Carlsbad, CA 92009
626-201-1998
[email protected]
Joel W. Keenan
Greenwich Hospital
Five Perryridge Road
Greenwich, CT 06830
[email protected]
JoAn Louise Monaco
Suite 6-F, The Sophian
Plaza
4618 Warwick Blvd.
Kansas City, MO 64112
(816) 753-2410
[email protected]
2002
Jonathan Vinh Mai
15 Meadow Lane
Danville, PA 17821
(570) 275-4681
[email protected]
2003
South Burlington, VT 05403
(802) 864-7787
scott.goodrich@
vtmednet.org
Havaleh Gagne reports:
“In January 2003, Steve
and I had a baby girl,
Jaydenne. I had a good
review of general medicine, OB and pediatrics for
boards by the end of the
year. Internship flew by,
and now we are living outside of Syracuse while I
work on radiation oncology residency.”
Omar Khan
33 Clearwater Circle
Shelburne, VT 05482
(802) 985-1131
[email protected]
Michael Jim Lee
Apt. 413
2300 Overlook Road
Cleveland Heights, OH
44106
(216) 229-7799
michael_j_lee1681@
yahoo.com
Naomi Leeds Rice, M.P.H.
Apt. 5, 38 Grove Street
Boston, MA 02114
(617) 771-8060
[email protected]
Laura Trask joined the
medical staff at Penobscot
M E D I C I N E
TODAY!
Visit with classmates and friends
Access the interactive, secure College of Medicine alumni directory
ALUMNI.UVM.EDU/COM
Update your personal information
Enjoy free lifetime e-mail forwarding
and your personal UVM alumni address
’ 0 5
Jay Edmond Allard
USNH Yokosuka
PSC475 Box 1757
FPO, AP 9L350
[email protected]
V E R M O N T
CONNECT
WITH YOUR CLASSMATES
CONNECTION
Scott Goodrich
13 Mountain View Blvd.
2000
40
UVM
S I M P LY L O G O N T O A C T I V A T E Y O U R A C C O U N T !
MEDICAL ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
INITIATES GRADUATE ALUMNI AWARD
The College of Medicine is excited to announce the creation of the
Medical Alumni Association Graduate Alumni Award. The award will
be given to an alumnus/a from the UVM College of Medicine’s Ph.D. or
M.S. programs who has demonstrated: outstanding achievement in
basic, clinical or applied research, education, and/or industry; exemplary public service and humanitarianism; and/or outstanding commitment to the College of Medicine community. Awardees will serve as
role models for current students, and the nominees will be evaluated
by the Graduate Awards committee. The committee is seeking nominations from alumni and will review all nominees.
The Graduate Awards committee is made up of UVM graduate
alumni, faculty, current students and Senior Associate Dean for
Research and Academic Affairs, Russell Tracy, Ph.D. The first award will
be given in the fall of 2005. To submit a nomination, visit the medical
alumni website by going to http://alumni.uvm.edu/com/ and click on
“Graduate Alumni,” or call (802) 656-4014.
Help your classmates and friends reconnect with you.
Activate your account at ALUMNI.UVM.EDU/COM
Using your ten-digit UVM ID # located on the Vermont Medicine mailing label,
Or contact the Medical Alumni Office for your ID number:
E-mail: [email protected] or 802-656-4014
UVM
The UVM Connection the on-line community for alumni, parents, and friends of UVM
CONNECTION
ALUMNI.UVM.EDU/COM
OBITUARIES
H A L L A
IN MEMORIAM
WILLIAM MACDONALD JR .,
M . D.’71
Dr. MacDonald died February 19, 2004 in Honolulu,
Hawaii. Born in Providence,
R.I. on January 1, 1945, he
attended Brown University
before earning his undergraduate degree at the College of
Medicine. He was an intern
and resident at the Hospital of
the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of
California, San Diego. He
joined the Everett Clinic in
the State of Washington in
1976 as a cardiologist and
served as president and Board
Chair since 1996. He also
served on the Board of
Directors for the Strategic
Planning Board of Providence
Health Systems and was a
Board Director for First Choice
Health Network. He married Karen
Knight in 1968, and had three children.
MERTON N . FLANDERS , M . D.’36
Dr. Flanders died April 1, 2004 in
Lewiston, Maine. Born Aug. 9, 1909,
in Hampden, Maine, he attended
public schools in Portland and was
graduated from Portland High
School in the Class of 1928. He
received his B.A. degree from the
University of Maine at Orono in
1932, before earning his M.D. He
interned at Maine Medical Center in
Portland and Royal Victoria Hospital
in Montreal. Dr. Flanders completed
his residency at New York Eye and
Ear Infirmary followed by post graduate endoscopy training at Jefferson
Post Graduate School of Medicine,
and maxillofacial and plastic training
at Post Graduate School of Medicine
at the University of Pennsylvania. He
served in the U.S. Army Medical
Corps as a Captain from 1941 to
1946, including service in the
42
V E R M O N T
M E D I C I N E
Obituaries of these College of Medicine
alumni will appear in a subsequent issue
of Vermont Medicine:
Howard Jacobs, M.D.’43
Henry Tulip, M.D.’47
Irene I. Siu, M.D.’49
Arnold C. Taye, M.D.’57
David A. Austin, M.D.’60
Robert Smart, M.D.’67
s
Philippines. Following his tour of
duty in the service he took training in
Otolaryngology Surgery at the
Lempert Endoural Institute in NYC.
He started his private practice in
Waterville, Maine, followed by 35
years of practice in Lewiston. He
retired from private practice in 1972,
to become Medical Evaluation
Officer at the Department of Adjudication for Togus Veterans Hospital
in Augusta. He permanently retired
in 1978.
ROGER FRANCIS GREENSLET,
M . D.’53
Dr. Greenslet died August 18, 2004 at
his home in Manchester-by-the-Sea,
Mass. He was 83. He was born on
July 22, 1921 in Bennington, Vt. In
1939, Dr. Greenslet was admitted to
the University of Pennsylvania where
he studied optometry and received
his degree in 1943. The advent of
World War II saw Sgt. Greenslet
shipped out to England and subsequently to Europe where he spent
three years as a medic in the Army’s
45th Field Hospital unit. The
45th Field Hospital was
attached to Patton’s Third
Army and cared for troops
during the Battle of the
Bulge. After the war, Dr.
Greenslet enrolled in the
University of Vermont to fulfill his dream of becoming a
medical doctor. He received
his M.D. in 1953. In 1955,
Dr. Greenslet moved his family to Manchester where he
practiced medicine until
1969. In 1969, due to illness,
Dr. Greenslet reluctantly
closed his private practice.
The following year he accepted Beverly (Mass.) Hospital’s
invitation to help design the
first emergency room department. Dr. Greenslet served as
chief of the emergency room
department at Beverly Hospital until
1975 when he joined GTE/Sylvania
as medical director. He retired in
1986.
Bronze Star and Silver Star for his
actions in combat. He was discharged
as a major in 1946. In 1946, he began
general practice in Monroe, N.H.,
where he lived and worked until
1970. He was on the staff at
Brightlook Hospital in St. Johnsbury,
Vt., and Cottage Hospital in
Woodsville, N.H. He made house
calls throughout the Northeast
Kingdom, visiting almost every home
in about a dozen towns and villages.
For many years he was also Grafton
County Medical Examiner. In 1970,
he moved to Newmarket, N.H.,
where he was physician at the UNH
Health Center (Hood House) until
retirement in 1988. He and his wife,
Elvira, moved to Gainesville in
January of 2004.
PETER V. BOVE , M . D.’55
Dr. Bove died on September 27,
2004, after a long illness. He was a
native of Bristol, Conn. and attended
the University of Connecticut before
joining the Class of 1955 at the
College of Medicine. He served in
the United States Air Force from
1956 until 1958 before completing
his residency at Children’s Hospital
in Los Angeles. Dr. Bove lived on the
San Francisco Peninsula, where he
practiced medicine as a pediatrician
for 36 years, both in private practice
and at Peninsula, Mary’s Help, and
Mills Hospitals. Devoted to the
health and well-being of children, he
also volunteered his services for
Samaritan House.
KEHNROTH SCHRAMM , M . D.’58
Dr. Schramm, of North Vancouver,
British Columbia, died on Sept. 24,
2004. Born in White Plains, N.Y., in
1932, he graduated from Dartmouth
College before earning his M.D. at
the College of Medicine. He performed his internship and residency
in pediatrics and psychiatry at
Syracuse Medical Center. He taught
at Goddard College in Plainfield, Vt.,
McGill University, and the University of Regina. He moved to Calgary
in 1973 to complete a residency in
psychiatry and became the senior
psychiatric resident at Foothills
Hospital. He practiced family psychiatry in Vancouver for 25 years. In
recent years he was a doctoral candidate in education at the University of
British Columbia.
PAULINE E . CLARKE , M . D.’50
Dr. Clarke passed away October 7,
2004, in Indialantic, Fla. Born
December 1, 1922 in Mt. Vernon,
New York, she was a longtime resident of Fairfield, Conn. Dr. Clarke
first enlisted in the United States
Navy in September 1941 and reenlisted after completing medical
school at the College of Medicine.
During her military career, she
obtained the rank of Commander and
served at the U.S. Naval Hospital in
San Diego, The Naval Medical
School in Bethesda, Maryland, and
the U.S. Naval Hospital in Chelsea,
Massachusetts. She resigned her
commission in 1963 and moved to
Florida. Dr. Clarke practiced in
Brevard County for many years.
PAUL MERRILL CHOATE , M . D.’40
Dr. Choate died in Gainesville, Fla.,
Sept. 18, 2004, from complications
following a hip fracture. He was born
in West Barnet, Vt., Jan. 17, 1916.
After grammar school in West
Barnet, he attended Peacham
Academy for two years and Vermont
Academy in Saxtons River, where he
graduated in 1933. He received his
B.S. at the University of Vermont in
1937, before coming to the College
of Medicine. He joined the U.S.
Army in 1941, and served as a medical officer in the First Infantry
Division. Attached to the 924 Field
Artillery Battalion, Dr. Choate participated in campaigns in Tunisia,
Morocco, Sicily, Normandy (Omaha
Beach), the Ardennes (Battle of the
Bulge), the Rhineland and Czechoslovakia, returning to the U.S. Sept.
27, 1945. He received a Purple Heart,
FACULTY
NORMAN ALPERT, PH . D.
Professor Norman Alpert, Ph.D.,
died November 27, 2004 at his home
in Shelburne, Vt. He was a colleague,
mentor, and friend to many at the
College of Medicine, and an internationally recognized authority in the
area of cardiac hypertrophy and
energetics. Dr. Alpert earned his A.B.
degree from Wesleyan University in
1943, and his Ph.D. from Columbia
University in 1951. He joined the
College of Medicine faculty in 1966
as professor and chair of the Depart-
ment of Physiology & Biophysics.
During the next 29 years he built one
of the premier departments of muscle biology focused on heart failure.
He was also the founder of Bio-Tek
Instruments of Winooski, Vt. At the
time of his death at age 82, Dr.
Alpert was still very active as a principal Investigator of a National
Institutes of Health R01 grant, as
well as first author of a manuscript in
press concerning Familial Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.
S P R I N G
2005
43
A Pioneer Remembered
Eva R. Sargent, M.D.’35, was used to “firsts.” She was among the
first women graduates of the College, and was the only woman in her graduating class. She was the first in her family to attend college, much less earn a
medical degree. And Dr. Sargent continued to be on the leading edge of
change in her medical practice; she even co-invented a special extracting
device she’d developed through the thousands of deliveries she attended in her
EVA SARGENT, M.D.’35
december 14, 2004
4:30 p.m.
Standardized patient Eric Zellman
waits his turn in the hallway of the Professional Learning
obstetrical practice.
Now, through a trust established by Dr. Sargent and her husband, and the
generosity of her sons, her “firsts” continue. When a group of medical students gather next fall in the just-opened Medical Education Center for their
first small-group learning experience under the College’s new curriculum,
they’ll do so in the Eva Sargent M.D.’35 Room. All thanks to the foresight
and generosity of this medical pioneer.
and Assessment Center.
photograph by Andy Duback
To explore your options in giving to the College of Medicine, contact the
Medical Development and Alumni Relations Office today:
(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
The return of the
CLASS OF ’15
They came to the College of Medicine when William Howard Taft was president, when the horse was still the
main mode of transportation. They left to follow careers throughout Vermont and the nation, careers that would
track the incredible change in medical practice in the 20th Century. Now they are gone, but the College continues
to improve thanks to the generosity of Class of 1915 members and their families. Recently, the late Morris Wineck,
M.D.’15, was honored by his grandchildren with an endowed scholarship in his name. And Marjorie Topkins,
M.D.’50 made a substantial gift in memory of her father, Samuel Topkins, M.D.’15, that will be commemorated
with the naming of a small-group learning room in the new Medical Education Center.
Your gift to the Medical Annual Fund can have long-lasting effects for the medical students of today,
and tomorrow. For more information contact us at:
medical development and alumni relations office
(802)656-4014 [email protected] www.med.uvm.edu/giving
COL L EG E OF MED ICIN E
VERMONT MEDICINE
89 Beaumont Ave.
Burlington, Vermont 05405
Non-Profit Org.
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
Burlington, VT
Permit No. 143