The Faculty Practice Division of the University of Vermont Medical Group recently honored ten faculty members at The University of Vermont Medical Center and Robert Larner, MD College of Medicine at the University of Vermont who received awards for their exceptional teaching and research efforts.
“These awards seek to recognize and encourage the critically important work our members do beyond providing excellent patient care,” said Claude Deschamps, president and CEO of the UVM Medical Group. “The value of having an academic medical center is rooted in the expertise our physicians develop through research and scholarly activities. This expertise provides direct benefits to our patients and impacts the education of medical students, residents, fellows and other physician colleagues.”
Individual Awards
Each award carries a $1,500 cash award and a $6,000 block grant related to educational efforts.
· The GME Teacher of the Year award went to Judith Lewis, MD, an associate professor and director of the Psychiatry residency program. She was recognized for her openness to new ways of teaching and her continual search for ways to improve resident education.
· The CME Teacher of the Year award was a tie between Anya Koutras, MD and Patricia O’Brien, MD. Dr Koutras is an associate professor in Family Medicine who has taught medical students and residents for over 20 years. Among her accomplishments are increasing attendance to the Family Medicine Review Conference by 34 percent since she began directing it in 2010 and becoming the course director for the Annual Update on Women’s Health Conference in 2015. Dr O’Brien is an Assistant Professor and Clinical Scholar in Medicine-Hematology/Oncology. She started the Women’s Health and Cancer Conference nineteen years ago and since then it has grown into a yearly educational forum for patients and providers where Dr O’Brien acts as the lecturer and MC.
· The Junior Investigator of the Year award was a tie between Alissa Thomas, MD and Michael LaMantia, MD. This is Dr Thomas’s first year as an Assistant Professor in Neurological Science, following a fellowship here in Neuro-Oncology. In her time here, she has opened two new clinical trials, worked on three studies, and had four original peer-reviewed research articles published with two more accepted and in press. Dr LaMantia is an Associate Professor in Primary Care and Internal Medicine and joined UVM this summer as the section head of Geriatrics. He currently has 29 publications, one of which was selected by the American Geriatric Society (AGS) as one of the 20 top influential papers in Geriatrics from 2000-2015.
· The Senior Investigator of the Year award was presented to Anne Dixon, MA, BM, BCh. In addition to being a Professor in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Dr Dixon is the director of clinical research at the Vermont Lung Cancer and focuses her research on asthma. She has a stellar national and international reputation in the field of asthma, holding membership on NIH study sections, review panels, and the VA Merit review panel.
Research Grants
Research and education grants were created to help align the academic missions of the hospital and the College and to enhance multidisciplinary and multi-departmental work. Each of our two research grants provides $50,000 for two years for projects that include junior and senior faculty from more than one department and link to infrastructural strengths at our institutions.
· Assistant Professor of Family Medicine, Amanda Kolb, MD, was awarded a grant to hold a controlled trial on treatment of low back pain at five UVM Family Medicine clinics and our Urgent Care center. About 4,000 patients with a diagnosis of non-specific low back pain are seen at our Family Medicine sites, and this study could change the standard of care and improve patient outcomes.
· Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Michelle Yang, and Associate Professor of Medicine-Gastroenterology, Richard Zubarik, were awarded a grant to research a way to diagnosis pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) early using specific biomarkers.
Education Grants
Each education research grant provides $25,000 for two years of study related to scholarly pursuit. One grant is funded by the UHC Trust; a second has been funded for 2016 by the UVM Medical Group.
· Associate Professor of ObGyn, Stephanie Mann, MD, and Professor of General Internal Medicine, Mark Levine, MD, were awarded a grant to study how a GME-supported targeted curriculum can directly impact patient outcomes as residents learn the skills necessary to provide safe, high-quality, patient-centered care. Their long-tern goal is to design and implement a GM-supported population health curriculum.
· Professor of Medicine-Pulmonary Critical Care, Laurie Leclair, MD, and Family Medicine Physician at Hudson Headwaters Health Network in Northern New York, Colleen Queen, MD, were awarded a grant to study if longitudinal incorporation of medical students into primary care practice will improve targeted patient care quality outcomes and satisfaction.
About the University of Vermont Medical Group
The University of Vermont Medical Group, with more than 800 members, is the multi-specialty physician practice group for The University of Vermont Health Network. The UVM Medical Group has two divisions: the Adirondack Region Division in Northern New York and the Faculty Practice Division, whose members practice at the UVM Medical Center and throughout the Network and have joint appointments at the University of Vermont College of Medicine.