Medical Matters Weekly Welcomes Dartmouth Institute Leader

BENNINGTON, VT—May 17, 2022— Amber E. Barnato, MD, MPH, MS, director of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, will be the next guest on Medical Matters Weekly at 12 p.m. on Wednesday, May 25. The show will cover Barnato’s wide range of expertise, including public health/preventive medicine, hospice/palliative medicine, the institute’s work, health equity, and Barnato’s research regarding life support decisions families and physicians make for patients in the ICU.

The show is produced by Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC) with cooperation from Catamount Access Television (CAT-TV). Viewers can see Medical Matters Weekly on facebook.com/svmedicalcenter and facebook.com/CATTVBennington. The show is also available to view or download as a podcast on svhealthcare.org/medicalmatters.

In addition to her role as director of the Dartmouth Institute, Barnato is the John E. Wennberg Distinguished Professor at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. The Institute is both an academic department and a cross-campus institute bringing together more than 150 faculty who serve the mission of improving health and health care by conducting research jointly with staff and academic, health system, and community partners and by teaching and learning from more than 200 graduate students annually in the department’s MS, MPH, MHCDS, and PhD programs.

Barnato is trained in two medical specialties, public health/preventive medicine and hospice/palliative medicine.  Her own research focuses on understanding the causes and consequences of variation in end-of-life intensive care unit (ICU) and life-sustaining treatment use among seriously ill older adults. She focuses on the interplay between organizational norms, provider-patient communication, and implicit cognition, and how these phenomena produce racial disparities in end-of-life treatment.

Medical Matters Weekly features the innovative personalities who drive positive change within health care and related professions. The show addresses all aspects of creating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle for all, including food and nutrition, housing, diversity and inclusion, groundbreaking medical care, exercise, mental health, the environment, research, and government. The show is broadcast on Facebook Live, YouTube, and all podcast platforms.

After the program, the video is available on area public access television stations CAT-TV (Comcast channel 1075) and GNAT-TV's (Comcast channel 1074), as well as on public access stations throughout the United States.
 
About SVHC:
Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC) is a comprehensive, preeminent, healthcare system providing exceptional, convenient, and affordable care to the communities of Bennington and Windham Counties of Vermont, eastern Rensselaer and Washington Counties of New York, and northern Berkshire County in Massachusetts. SVHC includes Southwestern Vermont Medical Center (SVMC), Southwestern Vermont Regional Cancer Center, the Centers for Living and Rehabilitation, and the SVHC Foundation. SVMC includes 25 primary and specialty care practices.

Southwestern Vermont Health Care is among the most lauded small rural health systems in the nation. It is the recipient of the American Hospital Association’s 2020 Rural Hospital Leadership Award. In addition, SVMC ranked fourth nationwide for the value of care it provides by the Lown Institute Hospital Index in 2020 and is a five-time recipient of the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Magnet® recognition for nursing excellence. It has also received the highest marks possible from the Leapfrog Group. The health system is fortunate to have the support of platinum-level corporate sponsor Mack, a leading supplier of contract manufacturing services and injection molded plastic parts based in Arlington, VT.

Southwestern Vermont Medical Center provides exceptional care without discriminating on the basis of an individual’s age, race, ethnicity, religion, culture, language, physical or mental disability, socioeconomic status, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression. Language assistance services, free of charge, are available at 1-800-367-9559.