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Vermont Business MagazineDrEllamarie Russo-DeMara has moved full time to Gifford’s Twin River Health Center, where she will focus on providing comprehensive women's health services. A board certified OB/GYN since 1990, and at Gifford since 2005, she became the first menopause practitioner in Vermont in 2011. Dr. Russo-DeMara provides routine gynecological care, contraception, and menopause consultation and treatment. She will continue to offer genetic testing and counseling for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer in the Twin River office. Since 2012 she has been assisting women with a history of opiate addiction through Gifford's Medication Assistance program.

“As an office -based practitioner, I am happy to be able to spend more time with each of my patients,” she said. “As a trained Osteopathic physician, I have always approached patient care in a holistic manner. Listening to the patient and seeing the ‘whole picture’ is very important."

Vermont Business MagazineGifford Health Care is partnering with Vermont Blueprint for Health, the Vermont Department for Health, and the Greater Burlington YMCA to offer the year-long, 25-session YMCA’s Diabetes Prevention Program. This is the first time workshops will be offered in Rochester, Vt., and will be facilitated by Lifestyle Coach Cynthia Thurston.

Offered free of charge, this self-management program provides education and support to help adults at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes get more active, lose weight, and decrease their risk of getting diabetes. You have a greater risk of getting diabetes if you are overweight or obese; don’t get enough exercise; have high blood pressure; have abnormal cholesterol; or have a parent, brother, or sister with diabetes.

by Tim McQuiston Vermont Business Magazine BLA Partners, LLC which acquired Burlington Labs in January 2017, announced today the company will now be known asAspentiHealth. A new leadership team with depth of experience in healthcare has joinedAspentiHealth over the past months to ensure that the organization continues to maintain a high level of patient care, customer service, compliance and integrity, and continued commitment to the communitiesthey serve. Chris Powell is the new CEO for the expanding toxicology testing lab, which nearly went under last year before being rescued by the new ownership group and the state of Vermont.

Vermont Business Magazine Manufacturing Solutions Inc (MSI), a full-scale contract manufacturing, logistics, and commercial properties leasing company, has announced their firm has been tapped to produce DC Invents’ Quickeeze Sleeve Strap product. DC Invents, based in Hardwick, VT, has created a new product that makes work easier, faster, and safer. MSI provides comprehensive services up and down the supply chain, and will provide DC Invents with assembly, quality control, and unit-packing.

by Mike Smith Last week North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile. President Donald Trump tweeted, “North Korea has just launched another missile. Does this guy have anything better to do with his life?” Let me answer that: “No, Mr President, he doesn’t.” North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is determined to develop the capability to strike the United States with nuclear weapons. My question to the president is this: “What’s our strategy to stop someone that is so focused on our destruction?”

In April the president tweeted, “I have great confidence that China will properly deal with North Korea. If they are unable to do so, the US, with its allies, will! USA.”

But just last week the president tweeted, “Trade between China and North Korea grew almost 40% in the first quarter. So much for China working with us — but we had to give it a try.”

So what happens now?

Vermont Business Magazine What can universities learn from the maker movement about teaching biology to undergraduate students? Can the world of making help universities get more creative students excited about careers in biology? The National Science Foundation has awarded a $300,000 grant to a team of faculty at The University of Vermont to find out.

Vermont Business MagazineTwo University of Vermont-affiliated research teams have been awarded SPARK-VT grants by the university to help commercialize their work and move it a step closer to the marketplace.UVM PhDalumnus Ryan McDevitt; his doctoral adviser, Darren Hitt, a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering in the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences; and Patrick Lee, an assistant professor in the department, won for the cost-effective propulsion system for small satellites they have developed, which is poised to address the coming revolution in the miniaturized satellite market. A second team, led by Jason Botten, an assistant professor of medicine in UVM’s Larner College of Medicine, was recognized for its work to create the first therapeutic for preventing and treating a life-threatening disease caused by hantaviruses.

Vermont Business MagazineVermont tax revenue collections for the month of May 2017 were ahead of targets and the year-to-date numbers have nearly caught up with one month left in the fiscal year.The Vermont Department of Labor reported in June that the seasonally-adjusted statewide unemployment rate for May was 3.1 percent.Vermont skier visits finished this past season at nearly 4 million, well over the previous season's disappointment of 3.2 million. Falling just below 2016's record level, this past season's maple syrup production in Vermont of 1.98 million gallons is still twice the size of any other state and 46 percent of the entire production in the United States. AND MORE...

Vermont Business Magazine The Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity (CVOEO) has received an $18,000 grant from the Vermont Community Foundation’s Innovations and Collaborations grant program. This grant will help further CVOEO’s mission by supporting the Financial Empowerment for New Americans Project. Jan Demers, Executive Director of CVOEO said, “In these uncertain times for our New American neighbors, we’re grateful for this funding support, and we’re committed to continuing to scale up our services to ensure that all Vermonters have opportunities for bright financial futures.”

Vermont Business Magazine In a letter sent to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Monday, Attorney General Donovan, and a bi-partisan group of 30 Attorneys General are urging the federal government to adopt rules that would allow telephone providers to block illegal robocalls. The FCC has requested public comment on rules that would allow providers to block several types of “spoofed” calls, in which a call appears to be coming from one number, but is coming from a different number. Scammers frequently use spoofed calls to hide their identity and to trick consumers into believing that their calls are legitimate.

by Senator Bernard Sanders The Trump-Ryan-McConnell "health care" bill currently being pushed by Republicans in Washington is one of the worst pieces of legislation to ever pass the US House of Representatives in the modern history of our country. This legislation would throw 22 million Americans off of health insurance, cut Medicaid by almost $800 billion, significantly raise out-of-pocket health care costs, defund Planned Parenthood and do away with protections for people with pre-existing conditions. Meanwhile, it would provide $500 billion in tax breaks to the wealthiest 2 percent, insurance companies and drug companies.

I will do everything I can to defeat this bill.

Vermont Business Magazine The University of Vermont Health Network has proposed an increase in commercial insurance rates of 0.72 percent for Fiscal Year 2018, following a series of historically low requests in recent years made jointly by the UVM Medical Center and Central Vermont Medical Center. This is the second year in a row the request is under the rate of inflation, and the lowest request made by either hospital in at least 15 years.