Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Follow

• 

  Increasing Awareness of Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) and RSV Immunizations

  Joanna Pierce

  Short-term Project

  Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a common seasonal respiratory virus that can cause severe respiratory infection in infants, young children, and older adults. Recently, the FDA approved RSV vaccines and monoclonal antibody products to help protect individuals at risk of developing severe infection. Since these approvals, there has been an increase in questions about RSV and immunizations from patients and healthcare professionals. This project aimed to create educational materials about RSV and immunization guidelines, safety, and efficacy for patients and healthcare staff. The goal of these educational materials was to increase awareness of RSV, increase discussions between healthcare providers and patients about RSV and immunizations, and to increase RSV immunization rates among at risk populations.

• 

  Using narrative medicine to address healthcare stigma in Washington County, Vermont

  Finlay Pilcher

  Short-term Project

  Stigma is a barrier to good health for people with certain medical conditions and non-medical circumstances. The purpose of this project is to use stories from members of the Washington County Community to advocate for the use of narrative medicine to mitigate healthcare stigma. A 10-minute recording was shared of an interview with someone with opioid use disorder during the presentation. Afterwards, healthcare professionals were asked whether the presentation, including the recording, impacted their percetion of narrative medicine and its clinical utility.

• 

  Assisting Rural MAT Patients Through Peer Social Support

  Anthony Plochocki

  Short-term Project

  Throughout the COVID19 Pandemic, there has been a spike in opioid relapse and opioid overdose related death. This problem, though multifactorial, can be attributed to lack of social outlets for MAT patients. Now that different social support groups are reopening, there is a greater emphasis placed on groups for patients suffering with alcoholism rather than those suffering from opioid addiction. This project hopes to plant the seeds for group therapy for MAT patients, giving them a social outlet with the hopeful outcome assisting patients with forming non-user networks.

• 

  Community resilience in Vermont after the 2023 flooding event

  Alex Poniz

  Short-term Project

  Between July 10th-11th 2023 Vermont experienced catastrophic flooding after receiving prolonged heavy rainfall of up to 9” over 48 hrs. Damage from the 2023 event rivals the historic destruction of Hurricane Irene in 2011 and is exceeded only by the Great Vermont Flood of 1927, an event predating modern flood controls. We collected oral histories from Vermonters to better understand their lived experience of the flood and its impacts, and identifed common themes related to community and individual resilience.

• 

  Implementing a Patient Resource Guide on Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) at a Connecticut Primary Care Practice

  Mahima R. Poreddy

  Short-term Project

  Intimate partner violence is an ongoing public health crisis in the United States. According to the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence, nearly 39,000 victims were served in 2021, which was a 5% increase from the year prior. As intimate partner violence continues to affect numerous lives in Connecticut and across the nation, the risks of seeking assistance in these situations prevent those experiencing domestic violence from accessing support services. The cost of intimate partner violence can range from an increase in health care utilization to restricted access to safe housing. The Ridgefield Primary Care practice does not currently have educational materials or resources displayed regarding domestic violence or sexual assault. By designing a brochure on intimate partner violence, primary care patients will have increased awareness of local and national services. The patient resource guide highlights how to identity intimate partner violence, including emotional abuse as well as physical or sexual abuse. By increasing awareness on this subject and including contact information to access support, patients are better equipped to seek assistance safely and connect with their medical provider.

• 

  Bridging Cultural Barriers to Perinatal Mental Health Care in New Americans

  Madeline Yvette Powell

  Short-term Project

  Perinatal mental health outcomes are worse in New Americans, particularly in refugee patients. Mental health stigma and cultural differences in views on mental illness impact New Americans’ willingness to discuss mental health concerns with healthcare workers. This is in addition to language barriers, time constraints, financial barriers, and general mistrust of medical professionals.

• 

  Improving Knowledge of Contraceptive Options in Teenage Male Populations

  Anthony Quach

  Short-term Project

  Despite a plethora of contraception available on the market, nearly 50% of pregnancies in Vermont are unintended. Currently, most educational initiatives aimed at improving contraceptive usage are targeted towards individuals with uteruses, and not their partners with penises. Both qualitative and quantitative data suggest that there are significant gaps in this latter population’s knowledge about contraception for various reasons like limited contraceptive education within formal sexual education in schools, lack of parental and/or physician discussions about contraception, and various complex social and cultural factors. This intervention aims to bridge the knowledge gap in this population by using an educational pamphlet. Improving the awareness and understanding of contraception options in populations who do not actively use contraception may help partners have more open and informed discussions that lead to more consistent contraceptive use.

• 

  Improving Primary Care Competency in Gender Affirming Care

  Kae Luci Ravichandran

  Short-term Project
• 

  ROAD Program Educational Case Series

  Clifford A. Reilly

  Short-term Project

  This project was done in conjunction with the Refocus on Alcohol Dependence (ROAD) program, which has been working to create low barrier treatment options for alcohol use disorder (AUD) in the Central Vermont community. This project was a series of educational cases designed to help primary care providers feel more comfortable with the medications and associated dosages used in the treatment of AUD, raise awareness about community resources in treating AUD, and provide the most current overall treatment recommendations.

• 

  Improving Depression Screening Protocol and Subsequent SBIRT Referrals

  McLaine S. Rich

  Short-term Project

  As a federally qualified health center, Lamoille Health Family Medicine receives annual data evaluating their performance in a number of categories. They exceeded expectations in screening eligible patients for depression, yet did not see the same success in referrals following a positive screening. After discussing with nursing and physician staff it became clear that there were discrepancies regarding office workflow/specific responsibilities. Moreover, some physicians expressed that they were unsure exactly how to handle positive screening results. This flowsheet developed will alleviate confusion in who is responsible for each step of screening, and uses evidence based guidelines for when to refer to mental health counselors vs. other interventions.

• 

  Handout to Promote Diabetes Education in Spanish Speaking Patients

  Javier Rincon

  Short-term Project

  Hispanic adults are 70 percent more likely than non-Hispanic white adults to be diagnosed with diabetes by a physician. In 2017, Hispanics were twice as likely to be hospitalized for treatment of end-stage renal disease related to diabetes, as compared to non-Hispanic whites. In 2018, Hispanics were 1.3 times more likely than non-Hispanic whites to die from diabetes. Lack of readily accessible educational material in different languages can lead to educational deficits in non-English speaking patients.

• 

  Depression Screening and Suicide Risk Assessment in Older Patients

  Faith Robinson

  Short-term Project

  Older adults are at an increased risk of depression, but they are often undiagnosed and untreated. Depression is also a significant predictor of suicide in older Americans, who have among the highest rates of suicide of all age groups in the United States. Most older adults seek treatment in primary care settings and are less likely to use emergency interventions, so knowing how to screen for depression and suicide risk is crucial for primary care. Unfortunately, primary care providers, while being first-line for identifying depression, accurately recognize less than half of patients with depression. This pamphlet is aimed at increasing provider awareness of tools they can use to screen for depression and asses suicide risk in older patients.

• 

  Improving Identification of Peripheral Arterial Disease In the Outpatient Setting

  William Robinson

  Short-term Project

  Over 7 million Americans are known to have peripheral arterial disease (PAD). However, it is well established that many more live with the disease and are simply undiagnosed, often due to variations in presentation. Presence of PAD is associated with significant morbidity and mortality, but when caught in its early stages, progression can be slowed with simple conservative measures. Therefore, a more targeted screening program with in-office ankle-brachial index capability (sensitivity and specificity >90% for diagnosing PAD) could identify a debilitating disease much earlier in its course regardless of symptom presentation, and create an opportunity to significantly improve preventative health in the outpatient setting.

• 

  DoxyPEP

  Angela E. Russo

  Short-term Project
• 

  Improving access to and quality of self-guided physical therapy exercises at home for patients residing in regions with limited resources

  Matthew R. Rzemien

  Short-term Project

  Access to physical therapy can be a challenge for those residing in resource-limited settings such as a rural area like Essex County, New York. Nonetheless, musculoskeletal complaints are some of the most common reasons patients seek care in primary care clinics. In areas that lack the availability of formal physical therapy, clinicians often provide patients with instructions on how to perform exercises at home to help improve their pain. This project sought to bolster the resources available to distribute to patients to improve the quality of self-guided physical therapy exercises at home.

• 

  Incorporating Social Stories into Patient Waiting Room

  Ashwini Sarathy

  Short-term Project

  Missed well child appointments are common across the country. In an effort to limit anxiety related to doctor's appointments, social stories were printed and offered to patients in the waiting room. The social stories went over common activities performed while at the doctor's office including taking blood pressure, height, weight, getting vaccines and physical exams.

• 

  Screening for areca (betel) nut & quid use

  Gabriela Sarriera Valentin MS

  Short-term Project

  Standardized screening tools for patients who use betel quit and areca nut products do not currently exist. Given the increased risk of oral and oropharynx cancer development in this patient population, increasing awareness of this practice could result in decreased morbidity and mortality. The purpose of this project is to (1) increase provider awareness of this cultural practice and its associated health consequences, (2) to develop a screening tool, and (3) to propose suggested follow-up when concerning lesions are identified.

• 

  Improving Safety for Recreational Water Sports at Candlewood Lake, CT

  Brian L. Shaw II

  Short-term Project

  Every year millions of people utilize bodies of water to participate in recreationally acitvity. Although the time spent outside and being physically active are widely endorsed as healthy habits, any body of water comes with safety risks that many do not anticipate. This project looked to improve safety for recreationally water sports and activity at Candlewood Lake, CT the largest lake in the state that is accessed by thousands evach year.

• 

  Pre-visit questionnaire for diabetic patient visits

  W. Evan Shaw

  Short-term Project

  What role does a pre-visit questionnaire, such as a "diabetic distress tool," play in optimizing diabetic patient visits?

• 

  Adolescent Substance Use: Standardizing Screening Methods in Clinical Practice

  Bryan D. Shin

  Short-term Project

  Adolescent substance use is a highly pervasive issue that strongly correlates with increasing depression and anxiety rates. Standardized screening tools for substance use, such as the CRAFFT or the Screening to Brief Intervention Tool, are freely available but not widely utilized for every patient encounter in clinical practice. This project aimed to improve standardization of substance use screening at a primary care clinic located in Castleton, Vermont through implementation of the CRAFFT tool as an automatically-loaded form in each adolescent encounter note. The goal was to improve substance use detection rates by facilitating efficient incorporation of standardized screening into the primary care provider's workflow.

• 

  Consent Education for Adolescents

  Paige T. Song

  Short-term Project

  In primary care practices, prevention and early intervention is key. Educating adolescent patients about consent and reinforcing the topic early on may help to decrease the downstream prevalence of sexual violence.

• 

  GUIDE2LABS: Integrated Patient Education in Epic

  Jared Stone

  Short-term Project

  This project aimed to build on a prior family medicine clerkship project which designed a pamphlet containing high-yield facts to help patients interpret common lab results. An Epic SmartPhrase was created from this information and made available for all users at Colchester Family Medicine. Fewer messages from patients inquiring about lab values would be expected to be routed to providers if this intervention were successful upon further evaluation. Future projects could create SmartPhrases which cover other frequently ordered tests, such as complete blood counts with differential, thryoid cascade, iron studies and urinalysis.

• 

  Identifying Food Insecurity and Healthy Eating Limitations in Diabetic Patients

  Eric G. Stoutenburg

  Short-term Project
• 

  The Medication-Assisted Therapy (MAT) Program Algorithm at Community Health Centers Riverside (CHC-R)

  Aathman Swaminathan

  Short-term Project
• 

  Is there an app for that? Introducing Self-Guided Therapy-Based Mental Health Apps in a Primary Care Setting

  Althea Jem Darbin Tapales

  Short-term Project

  The prevalence of mental health disorders in Vermont continues to be an economic burden, especially in Addison County. The Addison County, VT Community Health Improvement Plan 2022-2025 identified “Access to Mental Health Services” as the top priority with a general concern regarding the affordability and demand of such services, and shortage of providers in the general community. Consequently, the shortage of mental health services along with the coronavirus pandemic resulted in a mental illness epidemic which led to an accelerated growth of self-guided therapy-based mental health apps. Most apps are affordable, accessible, and prioritize patient privacy which overcomes barriers to traditional mental health treatments such as cost, access, and stigma. Thus, the utilization of mental health apps not only offer a cost-efficient method for delivering empirically supported mental health interventions, but also serve as a potential solution in alleviating the mental health burden due to staff shortages across Vermont. However, such apps continue to be underutilized potentially due to provider and patient uncertainty in the effectiveness or credibility of such methods. Hence, providers, especially in-house psychologists/psychiatrists/behavior health specialists within primary care settings, require further advanced training on the APA framework as a screening tool to further guide the decision-making process around current evidence-based mental health apps and their potential use for low-risk psychiatric patients who are on their waiting list. The primary goal of this project is to generate a handout listing and briefly describing evidence-based and peer-reviewed therapy-based mental health apps that target various psychiatric conditions commonly encountered in a primary care setting in Addison County, VT using the OneMind PsyberGuide database and the updated APA evaluation framework criteria as guides. This handout can then serve as an accessible resource for both providers and patients seeking quality therapy-based mental health apps.