A record number of family medicine residency matches this March for the graduating Class of 2015 at the University of Vermont College of Medicine – 17 students, with four matching to the UVM Medical Center – attracted recognition from Vermont’s Green Mountain Care Board, the Legislature-established independent group charged with ensuring that the state’s health system changes improve quality while stabilizing costs.
In a letter to UVM College of Medicine Dean Frederick Morin, M.D., UVM Medical Center CEO John Brumsted, M.D., and UVM Family Medicine Chair Thomas Peterson, M.D., Green Mountain Care Board Chair Al Gobeille shared the Board’s recognition from its March 26 meeting.
“We hear from all areas of the State that our ability to develop a high quality, accessible, and fully integrated health care system in Vermont will depend on a solid foundation in primary care,” wrote Gobeille. “For this reason, we believe the increased number of students choosing family medicine this year is an important milestone. It represents a true commitment by the leaders of the College of Medicine and University of Vermont Medical Center to serve both the needs of their institutions and the needs of all the people in Vermont.”
“We have worked very hard to provide excellent and innovative education to all of the UVM medical students, instilling in them the importance of primary care, and support them in all of their career choices,” says Peterson.
“We’re proud of the Match results our graduating students achieved in family medicine – and primary care as a whole – and appreciate the Green Mountain Care Board’s recognition of this achievement,” says Morin.
The following UVM College of Medicine Class of 2015 students have matched to a family medicine residency: Zoe Agoos (Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pa.); Christopher Azevedo (Oregon Health & Science University); Benjamin Clements (UVM Medical Center); Anastasia Coutinho (Sutter Medical Center of Santa Clara, Calif.); Amanda Dauten (Family Medicine Residency of Idaho); Jessica Faraci (UVM Medical Center); Elyse Goveia (Lancaster General Hospital, Pa.); Charles Hackett (University of Minnesota Medical School-Duluth); Whitney Hine (Tacoma Family Medicine, Wash.); John Paul Kelada (Ventura County Medical Center, Calif.); Lauren Krieger (Case Western/University Hospitals, Cleveland, Ohio); Olga Kuzina (University of Massachusetts/Hahnemann Family Health Center, Worcester, Mass.); Job Larson (Jacksonville Naval Hospital, Fla.); Andrew Nobe (University of California Irvine Medical Center); Darlene Peterson (Maine Medical Center, Portland, Maine); David Swift (UVM Medical Center); and Michelle VanHorne (UVM Medical Center).
About the Green Mountain Care Board
Members of the Green Mountain Care Board (GMCB) are nominated by a broad-based committee and appointed by Governor Peter Shumlin. In addition to Gobeille, who owns Burlington, Vt.-based Gobeille Hospitality, the Board includes: Cornelius Hogan, former Vermont Secretary of the Agency of Human Services; Betty Rambur, Ph.D., R.N., UVM Professor of Nursing and Health Policy; Allan Ramsay, M.D., UVM Professor of Family Medicine Emeritus; and Jessica A. Holmes, Ph.D., Middlebury College Professor of Economics. The Legislature assigned the GMCB three main responsibilities: regulation, innovation, and evaluation. The Board regulates not only health insurance rates, but also hospital budgets and major hospital expenditures. The Board also innovates, testing new ways to pay for and deliver health care as part of its role in building a new system. Finally, the board evaluates innovation projects, proposals for what benefits should be included in Vermont’s new health system, proposals for funding the new system, and the effect of the new system on Vermont’s economy.