UVM Health - Porter Medical Center

04/13/2026

Getting dressed. Driving. Returning to work.
These everyday moments can feel out of reach after injury or illness.

In this episode of Living Healthy Together, hear how occupational therapy helps people reconnect to purpose, preserve independence and return to the lives they know.

🎧 Listen to the podcast
~ Link in the comments ~

04/11/2026

🎨 Calm in Color 🎨
“When I pick up a brush, everything slows down.” Meet Jessa Murphy Barcomb a laboratory assistant at Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital
~~~
Painting is the one place where my mind finally goes quiet.

In the rest of my life, things can feel loud and nonstop — work, family, the usual whirlwind. But when I pick up a brush, everything slows down. The world narrows into color. Even the sky feels different when you're really looking at it.

Green painting by Jessa Murphy Barcomb.
I’ve been doing art for as long as I can remember. My mom must have seen something in me, because she never questioned it — she just let me create. Over the years, I tried everything: photography, drawing, ceramics. But painting is where I found a calmness I didn’t know I needed.

Now it’s even more special because my son paints with me. He has his own tiny easel, and we set up together in the backyard or on the porch. The cows wander around behind us, the dogs stretch out on the boards, and we just pause. No talking. No distractions. Just color and quiet.

He’s usually a wild, talkative kid, but when we paint, he settles right into the stillness with me. It feels like sharing a part of myself I never knew how to put into words.

A lot of my pieces carry emotions I don’t always say out loud. One of my favorites is a painting I made after my dog, who had been with me for 19 years, passed away. I used the colors from his collar and the blanket I buried him with: peach and lime green. They shouldn’t work together, but somehow they do. I’ll never sell that one. Some things are too close to the heart.

Painting gives me space to breathe, feel and just be myself.
~~~
The Mosaic Project is a collection of short stories about the people of University of Vermont Health. These are your coworkers, caregivers, neighbors, family members, friends – each with unique life experiences that are part of the vibrant mosaic of who we are.

04/07/2026

April is National Donate Life Month. Join us in helping save and heal lives. Please register your decision to be an organ and tissue donor today.

~Link in the Comments~~~

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04/06/2026

The deadline is almost here. Submissions are already reflecting a wide range of perspectives - there’s still time to add yours!

📝 Submit your proposal by April 10
🔗 Learn more — link in the comments

📅 Save the Date: September 24–25 | UVM Davis Center + virtual

Presented by:
• University of Vermont Health
• The Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine at The University of Vermont
• UVM College of Nursing and Health Sciences

04/05/2026

How do you know when alcohol use becomes a concern?

Alcohol is common in everyday life. But its impact on our health - and the risk of dependency - aren’t always easy to see.

🎧 Listen to the podcast
~ Link in the comments ~

In this episode of Living Healthy Together, you’ll hear from a Vermonter in recovery sharing their lived experience, along with clinicians and public health experts.

They share:
• Why alcohol use disorder can be hard to recognize and treat
• How it affects individuals, families and our communities
• How people find care and support

04/04/2026

📷 More Alike Than Different 📷
“The war taught me that all life is worth protecting.” Meet Paul El Azoury, MD, a nephrologist and Medical Director at Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital.
~~~
The first 15 years of my life were overshadowed by war. I was born in Lebanon and just a year later civil war broke out, carving my hometown into a deadly patchwork of neighborhoods controlled by rival factions.

There were bright moments — hiking in the mountains and climbing rich fruit trees. But the war never cared about my plans. School was often interrupted by violence, and I had to navigate streets dotted with landmines just to get there.

I will never forget when the war ended. Entire neighborhoods that had been off limits were suddenly open. I met people I’d been taught to fear — “the other.” But we were all just humans, with the same needs, the same hopes for our kids and the same desire to live in peace and prosperity. Breaking the circle of violence starts with understanding and accepting our differences.

It’s a worldview I try to pass on to my own children, here in the Adirondacks, 35 years later.

The war taught me that all life is worth protecting. The human body is a beautiful feat of engineering, millions of years in the making. I saw medicine as the best way to honor our shared humanity.

I’ve always followed my instincts. And after medical school, they led me to the United States, the pinnacle of clinical innovation. I’ve been lucky to practice medicine across the region for 15 years, making a home and raising a family in the mountains around Plattsburgh.

We spend time hiking and skiing in the Adirondacks or visiting Montreal to expose our boys to different cultures, rich with art, language and sport.

I feel most at peace in the mountains with my camera. It reminds me of the peaceful times in my youth — hiking in the mountains of Lebanon.
~~~
The Mosaic Project is a collection of short stories about the people of University of Vermont Health. These are your coworkers, caregivers, neighbors, family members, friends – each with unique life experiences that are part of the vibrant mosaic of who we are.

04/02/2026

Thanks to WPTZ for highlighting the importance of partnering to build our workforce. Through nursing education pathway programs with Norwich University and Vermont State University, UVM Health is addressing Vermont’s nursing shortage by strengthening the pipeline of bedside nurses and future nursing faculty.

With the help of Norwich University and Vermont State University, more nurses are entering the workforce.

03/31/2026

As we wrap up Social Work Month, we’re proud to join communities across Vermont in recognizing the essential work of social workers. We are grateful for the critical role social workers play in advocating for patients, supporting families, and strengthening our communities. Thank you for all that you do!

03/30/2026

Is there a doctor who made a difference for you or someone you love?

💬 Share a message of thanks in the comments.

Today, we’re celebrating our physicians. Their work shows up in big moments and small ones - through expertise, compassion and simply being there when it matters most.

Thank you to our doctors for the difference you make in the lives of patients and the communities we serve.

03/29/2026

We don’t usually think about our bones - until a fracture or fall puts our independence at risk.

In this episode of Living Healthy Together, UVM Health clinicians share practical advice on prevention, screening and bone-healthy habits you can use at any age.

🎧 Listen to the podcast
~ Link in the comments ~

03/28/2026

🐕 Room to Roam 🌄
“It started with a yellow lab named Olson.” Meet Denise McLaughlin a nurse and certified diabetes educator at Elizabethtown Community Hospital.
~~~
We’d lost two dogs and a horse in six months. I told my husband we needed a break from caring for animals. A week later I walked in and found him crying. The house felt wrong without an animal in it. So, I emailed Passion 4 Paws and said, “We’re not ready to adopt. But we can foster a dog that needs a place to land.”

They sent Olson. He was calm, housebroken and followed me to the barn like he’d been doing it his whole life. I swore we wouldn’t keep the first foster pet. Then the adoption email came in. I didn’t open it for a week. When I did, I saw he was going to a widow who’d just lost her dog and wanted someone quiet to walk with. I knew he’d be cared for.

That was number one. We’re now on number 21.

Molly’s the current dog. She’s a retired bear-hunting coonhound who howls, bites and is mostly unimpressed with us. But she’s done 11 of the Adirondack High Peaks with me. She’s 12 now, so we top out at five miles. She fits our lives. The tough ones always do. We don’t have kids or other pets. We live on a dead-end dirt road with a barn. They can take their time here.

People assume I grew up in the country. I didn’t. I was born in Vermont but lived in a big city in Germany until I was eight. We moved back to an old farmhouse in Crown Point with a fireplace for heat and cobwebs everywhere. I wanted nothing to do with farm chores or horses. Then I got my first one at 10.

Now, the barn is my reset button. I’ve had my horse for nine years, since he was four months old. We just came back from the biggest show of his career — three great days and one terrible ride, and of course that’s the one I obsessed over. Horses have a way of telling you exactly who you are. With dogs I have endless patience; with him I’m a perfectionist who needs to be told to breathe.

I picked up hiking later. I finished the 46 High Peaks a few years ago and have two left for my winter badge. It wasn’t part of my childhood, but it became part of my life fast.

People ask how I balance nursing, hiking, horses, fostering. I don’t think of it as balancing anything. This is just the shape my life took, one dog and one ridge line at a time.
~~~
The Mosaic Project is a collection of short stories about the people of University of Vermont Health. These are your coworkers, caregivers, neighbors, family members, friends – each with unique life experiences that are part of the vibrant mosaic of who we are.

03/27/2026

The Northern New England Poison Center, in partnership with the Vermont Language Justice Project, has created short, easy‑to‑understand videos in 13 languages to help people know when and how to contact the Poison Center.

These resources are designed to support New Americans and multilingual community members by improving access to timely, trusted poison information.

✅ Watch the videos here: Poison Prevention in Other Languages | Northern New England Poison Center