Around the Larner Community

BREAKING WITH TRADITION

ON SEPTEMBER 30, UVM and the Larner College of Medicine hosted a ceremonial groundbreaking to celebrate the four-story, 62,500-square-foot Firestone Medical Research Building currently under construction adjacent to the Heath Science Research Facility, and slated for occupation in the fall of 2022. Dozens of people attended the event in the College’s Hoehl Gallery.

“Most of you will have noticed that this is not a traditional groundbreaking,” noted Larner Dean Richard L. Page, M.D., in his introductory remarks. “In fact, construction of the Firestone Medical Research Building began one year ago yesterday, on September 29, 2020... This beautiful building has taken shape, and, thanks to biomedical research leading to vaccines, we are able celebrate this construction finally here together.” College Earns IN OCTOBER, the Larner College of Full LCME Medicine was awarded continued accreditation for a full eight-year term by the Accreditation Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), the accrediting body for all M.D. degree programs in the U.S. and Canada.

The reaccreditation process was a rigorous one, involving 18 months of self-study organized by 12 standard areas of medical education containing 93 specific elements that are examined for compliance. At Larner, this work was accomplished by a task force and committee structure involving over 300 members of the College community. The self-study also includes a detailed survey of the medical student body, called the Independent Student Analysis, which is written and administered by the students themselves. After the self-study is submitted for review, the LCME conducts a site visit, typically over two or more days.

In 2020 and 2021, the process was complicated by the unique circumstances and limitations presented by the pandemic, which necessitated a pivot to online self-study meetings and a “virtual site visit” by the LCME reviewers over two afternoons in April 2021. Adding to the challenge were the effects of an October 2020 cyberattack on the UVM Medical Center, the College’s clinical education affiliate.

“Despite those challenges, and thanks to the amazing ingenuity, resilience and energy of people from across our community—faculty, staff, and students both in Vermont and Connecticut—our self-study was completed in full and on time,” said Larner Dean Richard L. Page, M.D.

Sanders and Wilcox Named to Leadership

Two new leaders were welcomed to their roles at UVM in early 2022. The College, UVM Health Network, and UVM Health Network Medical Group announced in December that Jason Sanders, M.D., M.B.A., formerly senior

vice president and provost at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center had been appointed to fill three critical executive leadership roles—senior associate dean for clinical affairs at Larner, president and CEO of the Medical Group, and Network executive vice president for clinical affairs. He succeeds Claude Deschamps, M.D., who stepped down at the end of September.

Rebecca Wilcox, M.D., has been appointed Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, succeeding Charles Irvin, Ph.D. Dr. Wilcox, a Larner faculty member since 2009, is Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and currently serves as Vice Chair for Education for her department and Section Leader of the Gastrointestinal/Liver Pathology Service at the UVM Health Network.

Jason Sanders, M.D., M.B.A.