Vermont Medicine Magazine
DEPARTMENT OF Neurology ~ 2012 Annual Report
Selected Highlights
- Over the 2011–2012 academic year, neurology faculty contributed 81 publications to biomedical literature.
- Members of the department were awarded 11 grants (new or yearly renewals) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) or other funding agencies.
- Faculty members received grant funding for 28 clinical trials from the NIH, Foundations and the biopharmaceutical industry.
- Five faculty are members of NIH study sections or research review panels for major organizations or foundations and six faculty serve on the editorial board of 17 journals.
Robert Hamill, M.D., Chair
The Department of Neurology programs in education, research and clinical care remain productive and strong. Neurology faculty contribute substantially in teaching and mentoring throughout the Vermont Integrated Curriculum (VIC) and during the neurology clinical core curriculum, senior selective programs and acting internships. The neurology residency training program and post-residency fellowship training program have successfully recruited excellent residents and fellows. Graduate and medical students, as well as UVM undergraduates, select neurology faculty as mentors in laboratories to complete their M.D./ Ph.D. and Ph.D. degrees and honors projects in the undergraduate programs
Our UVM/Fletcher Allen clinical programs provide excellent neurological care. For the second consecutive year, a national survey identified neurology as a top clinical specialty service, and we rank as “High Performing,” indicating that our performance was competitive with nationally ranked “Best Hospitals.” In addition, our stroke program is recognized as a Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) and American Heart Association (AHA) approved Stroke Center. The program in Functional Neuroscience (Deep Brain Stimulation) has continued to grow, bringing leading edge technologies to patients. The clinical trials program remains very strong, bringing important new therapies to patients in our region.
Scholarship remains a high priority of the faculty. Highlights include: Peter Bingham, M.D., received a Fulbright Scholar Award for 2012–2013. He will collaborate with the Pediatric Neurology department at Yerevan State University in Armenia to develop an educational outreach program, including a novel ‘docudrama’ to improve the delivery of subspecialty child neurology services.
Margaret Vizzard, Ph.D., received the prestigious University Scholar Award from UVM. Her more than 100 publications have improved understanding of fundamental mechanisms by which the nervous system responds to injury and inflammation; the knowledge gained has relevance to a number of human diseases and disorders.
Robert Shapiro, M.D., Ph.D., delivered the Harold G. Wolff Lecture Award at the annual meeting of the American Headache Society. This is internationally recognized as the highest award in the field of Headache Medicine. Angela Applebee, M.D., was honored as the Stanley F. Waterman Lecturer (Greater New England MS Chapter meeting).
In summary, the strengths of the neurology faculty permit major contributions to education, research and patient care, fulfilling the core mission of an Academic Medical Center.
Note: the Department of Neurology merged with the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology to form the Department of Neurological Sciences on August 1, 2012.
Last modified January 24 2013 09:41 AM
