University of Vermont (College of Medicine)

Throughout its nearly 200-year history, the University of Vermont College of Medicine has developed a longstanding approach to medical education that reinforces the centrality of the doctor-patient relationship. The College was formally founded in 1822, and today graduates nearly 100 physicians and 20 biomedical Ph.D.s each year.

The College of Medicine is the seventh medical school to be established in the United States, and has a rich tradition of providing innovative medical education as well as outstanding research and patient care. Our faculty and graduates are dedicated, talented people who have contributed to virtually every area of modern medicine. We have powerful programs in cardiovascular diseases, the neurosciences, lung disease, diabetes, and many other areas.

The College of Medicine has a close affiliation with one of the outstanding teaching hospitals in the northeast, Fletcher Allen Health Care, which provides a complete array of medical services and training opportunities. The College of Medicine is fully integrated with the campus of the University of Vermont in Burlington, and is located close to the shores of beautiful Lake Champlain. We invite you to explore the College of Medicine through our web site and links to the wonderful resources that are available to our faculty, students, and graduates.

Our Mission: Educate new generations of physicians and scientists.
The school's innovative Vermont Integrated Curriculum has become a national model for educating physicians in an atmosphere that stresses the interrelated nature of the basic and clinical sciences. Many new physicians continue their post-graduate residency training at Fletcher Allen Health Care, and many more participate in continuing medical education. The presence of the academic health center means more qualified health care professionals are attracted to the area: nearly 40 percent of Vermont's current doctors received their education or training here.

Our Mission: Advance medical knowledge through research.
Research funding at the College of Medicine has increased 300 percent in the last decade, to more than $82 million annually. Today, researchers in laboratory, clinical and community settings work to bring greater understanding of disease and wellness, and new, more effective treatments in key areas such as cardiovascular, cancer, neuroscience and lung biology. Thanks to the presence of an academic health center, Vermont is one of only 20 states with both a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center and a General Clinical Research Center funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Our Mission: Render compassionate and effective care.
At more than 40 patient care sites and 100 outreach clinics in Vermont, New York, and New Hampshire, the health care professionals of Fletcher Allen and the University of Vermont provide personalized care and treatment. Clinical services offered include primary, secondary, and tertiary care covering every major area of medicine. Vermont's academic health center is also home to the state's only Level I Trauma Center, an National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, a specialized children's hospital, and the most advanced CT and MRI imaging systems.

Our Mission: Collaborate and engage with the communities we serve.
To be effective, an academic health center must be an integral part of the communities it serves, learning from every act of service. Our community connections range from the thousands of educational moments that take place as our students learn in health care practices, service, and research projects throughout the region and around the world, to the many programs that assess and address community health needs - like the Area Health Education Centers that help find and place health care professionals in rural communities where they are needed. The academic health center also serves as a vital driver in the regional economy, employing more than 6,800 people.

The faculty, students, and staff of the UVM College of Medicine are, in many different ways, a resource for the community they are a part of. Like good community members, they seek to be responsive to the varying needs of people around them. The College's students, spurred on by a curriculum that integrates education and community service, bring information and preventative care to community members young and old. Faculty and staff are important providers of information and care, whether on the medical campus or across the region at Area Health Education Centers. And the College's library and events are a continuing source of education for the community.

Most medical schools and academic health centers have as their missions the traditional and metaphoric “three-legged stool” of education, research and patient care. Here, the College of Medicine is committed to a more complex and involved structure, what Dean John Evans refers to as “a four-legged stool—including
the involvement and engagement that we have with our
community.” That fourth mission is visible across the campus, throughout the community, and around the state, from direct care for patients, to outreach that encourages young people to think about careers in medical science, to working with policy makers to create a better health care system for the citizens of Vermont. Our faculty, staff and students work every day to both serve and learn from the communities in which we live.

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College of Medicine Medical School Location

College of Medicine Courses

FOUNDATION COURSES :

* Orientation : The College of Medicine Orientation is a one-week orientation for students entering the University of Vermont College of Medicine. During this week, students blend presentations to the full class, interactive internet based instruction, small group sessions mentored by either faculty or more senior students, and field experiences in the community. Student centered experiences are enhanced by assessment with feedback, thoughtful orientation with key contacts identified, and development of what will become each student’s personal portfolio.

* Leadership Groups : Medical Student Leadership Group is a longitudinal program that meets weekly during the Foundations curriculum, then at interim points during the Bridge curriculum of the clinical years. Leadership groups may also communicate via Internet based Web Boards. Instruction is largely small group student centered, with periodic large group presentations and regular assignments of readings and fieldwork. Collaborative group work begins the first week of Orientation with an introduction to group dynamics and personal development; it progresses to discussion of family systems and applications of epidemiology to improve community health. Assessment of achievement relies heavily on self, peer, and group assessment and improvement through the development of student portfolios and facilitator observation and feedback.

* Introduction to Clinical Decision Making : Introduction to Clinical Decision Making is a two-week course to introduce students to the basic vocabulary, concepts, and methods of human and population genetics, epidemiology, statistics, public health, and ethics. Knowledge from each discipline is presented in lecture and readings, with methods and integrated concepts presented through small group case discussions. Students are expected to access information from in-class discussions, textbook and journal readings, and Internet sources.

* Cell and Molecular Biology : Cell and Molecular Biology is a four-week course that addresses the fundamental vocabulary, concepts, and methods of molecular genetics, cell physiology, biochemistry and metabolism including cell-cell and cell-environment communication, cell proliferation and cell death. Students acquire this knowledge through lecture, assigned readings, problem sets, interactive computer modules, and small group discussion. Examinations are administered weekly.

* Human Structure and Function : Human Structure & Function is a 12- week course designed to familiarize first year medical students with the fundamentals of the composition of the human body and how it performs in the healthy state. This is an integrated study of micro and gross anatomy, physiology, basic imaging principles, embryology and clinical skills. Our diversified team of clinical practitioners and basic scientists coordinate traditional pedagogical methods with innovative and unique computer based lessons and small group learning.

* Attacks and Defenses : Attacks and Defenses is a six-week course designed to integrate studies in the principles of infectious diseases, immunology, hematology and oncology as well as medical conditions of poison, trauma, and shock. This includes concepts of homeostasis, cell metabolism, and the physical examination and related interviewing, diagnostic testing and imaging.

* Nutrition, Metabolism & the Gastrointestinal System : Nutrition, Metabolism and the Gastrointestinal System in Health and Disease is an 8 week course that organizes studies in nutrition, gastrointestinal systems, organ system metabolism and endocrine system through lessons that integrate cell metabolism, normal and pathologic anatomy, pharmacology, physiology, pathophysiology and the physical examination and related interviewing, diagnostic testing and imaging. Learning is facilitated through faculty lectures, computer based tutorials, assigned readings, small group case discussions and workshops for problem solving and skills development. Clinical correlations reinforce the lessons of the community preceptorships. Written examinations are given after each of the modules.

* Neural Science : Neural Science is a nine week course designed to organize study of the nervous and behavioral system through lessons that integrate cell metabolism, endocrinology, normal and pathologic anatomy, pharmacology, physiology, pathophysiology and the physical examination and related interviewing, diagnostic testing and imaging. Several instructional methods support learning in this course, including lecture, readings from a variety of sources, laboratory sessions, physical examination and interviewing skills sessions, and case discussions prepared by students. Case discussions contain significant unique content and focus on symptoms, differential diagnosis, pathologic anatomy, pathophysiology, genetics, ethics, pharmacology, clinical imaging and laboratory results. Each case will have a videotape case trigger.

* Connections : Connections is a two week course that organizes the study of skin, connective tissue, and the musculoskeletal system through lessons that integrate cell metabolism, endocrinology, normal and pathologic anatomy, pharmacology, physiology, pathophysiology and the physical examination and related interviewing, diagnostic testing and imaging. It is a novel course that will introduce students to the study of the orthopedics, rheumatology and dermatology during the basic sciences.

* Cardiovascular, Respiratory and Renal Systems : Cardiovascular, Respiratory, and Renal Systems is a 9-week course that organizes studies in the cardiovascular, lymphatic, respiratory, renal, and urinary systems through lessons that integrate cell metabolism, endocrinology, normal and pathologic anatomy, pharmacology, physiology, pathophysiology and the physical examination and related interviewing, diagnostic testing and imaging.

* Generations : Generations is a seven week course that organizes studies in reproduction and development including embryology, aging and death through lessons that integrate cell metabolism, endocrinology, normal and pathologic anatomy, pharmacology, physiology, pathophysiology, the physical examination and related interviewing, diagnostic testing and imaging. This course examines variations in presentation of illness, metabolism and etiology across cultures and ages. The course is organized into five Epochs that investigate relevant topic across the life cycle. In addition, four themes run longitudinally through the course, including those related to families and family dynamics, death and dying, disability, and sexuality and sexual health.

* Convergence : Convergence is a four week course that uses problem based learning to reinforce topics covered in previous courses and teaches clinical problem solving skills in preparation for the students’ transition into their clerkship rotation schedules. The course format will include the presentation of cases to be discussed and formulated within the context of small group settings. The groups will consist of 10 students and 1 facilitator.

* Doctoring In Vermont : Doctoring in Vermont is a course with both a spring (March-June) and fall (September-December) session. Each session consists of 6 afternoons (total of 12 sessions for the course) spent in the office of an assigned community preceptor recruited from among the primary care physician community within a one-hour drive of Burlington. Students travel to their preceptor’s office and practice examination and interviewing skills under direct supervision. In the fall students must accomplish two "complete" history and physical examinations, one with their preceptor and one with a standardized patient at the campus Assessment Center.

CLERKSHIPS :

* Medicine
* Surgery
* Obstetrics & Gynecology
* Pediatrics
* Psychiatry
* Family Medicine
* Neurology

ADVANCED INTEGRATION

* Acting Internship in Internal Medicine : The Purpose of the Sub-Internship in Internal Medicine is to consolidate and refine the medical knowledge and clinical skills at a level of competency necessary to deliver comprehensive care to medical inpatients. Through increased responsibility in the evaluation and management of patients and through closely supervised direct patient care experiences, students are expected to attain a level of competence and self confidence sufficient to be prepared for entering their first post-graduate year of residency.

* Scholarly Project : The purpose of the Scholarly Project is to encourage the development of students as physician-scholars by gaining an understanding of the processes and methods involved in scientific inquiry. A scholarly project polishes inquiry, analytical, and communication skills. It solidifies the foundation for lifelong learning by providing a background against which critical evaluation of data can be carried out. The research project may be in the basic or clinical sciences.

* Students Teaching Students : Recognizing that all physicians teach peers, students and residents, staff, and patients, Students Teaching Students provides senior students with basic skills of teaching and evaluation as well as a “coached” environment for practicing their skills. Coaches are faculty educators involved in the formal program and teaching faculty of each course. In addition, the teaching practicum allows students to revisit foundational sciences, and, by teaching, “learn twice”.

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