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N E W S F RO M T H E
F LO R I DA S TAT E U N I V E RS IT Y C O L L EG E O F M E D I C I N E
SUMMER 2004
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Dean’s Message
Marla Mickel
Hurt to lead research,
graduate studies
Regional Campuses
Health Affairs
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SSTRIDE: A DECADE OF BOOSTING
DIVERSITY IN SCIENCE AND MEDICINE
When Tirrell Johnson,
M.D., takes some extra time
with one of his cancer patients,
or spends an afternoon lending
a hand at a local health fair, he
looks back to when he was first
exposed to the world of medicine through FSU’s SSTRIDE
outreach program.
“I had thought about
medicine in high school, but I
didn’t really have an outlet or
exposure,” said Johnson, now
an acute care hematology/
oncology specialist at M.D.
Anderson Cancer Center in
Orlando. “Through SSTRIDE I
was able to see what physicians
do, the lifestyle and so forth,
and how they can help people,
and I thought that was something I could do.”
One of the first mentors for
SSTRIDE, Johnson was on
hand this month to help the
College of Medicine celebrate
the 10th anniversary of the
program, which began under
the FSU Program in Medical
Sciences and is expanding
under the auspices of the
College of Medicine.
SSTRIDE, which stands for
Science Students Together
Reaching Instructional Diversity and Excellence, seeks to
increase the number of underFSU
represented
students, such
as minority and
rural students,
in medical
school and
other science
fields. Through
the program,
middle and
high school
students
participate in
academic
enrichment
activities, both
in school and
after school,
and are tutored UCHENNA IKEDIOBI, LEFT, MENTORS STUDENTS IN THE
and mentored
SSTRIDE SCIENCE COURSE AT FAIRVIEW MIDDLE SCHOOL.
by college
students, most of whom are
He began medical school
pre-med.
through PIMS and graduThe SSTRIDE mentors
ated from the University of
also get help with their
Florida College of Medicareer goals. An undergradu- cine in 2000.
ate student majoring in
So far more than 90
chemical engineering at
percent of the 62 high
Florida A&M University in
school seniors participating
1994, Johnson didn’t settle
in SSTRIDE over the years
on a medical career until
have gained admission to
after he began tutoring
college, and 95 percent of
SSTRIDE students. Outreach the 79 mentors have been
staff gave him guidance
accepted into graduate and
about choosing courses,
medical school programs.
preparing for the MCAT and
applying to medical school.
see SSTRIDE p.2
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COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
SSTRIDE from p. 1
Uchenna Ikediobi, who started in
SSTRIDE during her freshman year at
Rickards High School in Tallahassee, is
one of many SSTRIDE students who
have gone on to college and become
mentors for middle and high school
students. After eight years in SSTRIDE,
first as a student and then as a mentor,
Ikediobi is now a college senior and will
be applying this year to medical schools,
including the FSU College of Medicine.
“There’s nothing I love doing more
than mentoring SSTRIDE middle and
high school students because I know
what they are going through,” Ikediobi
said. “It’s rewarding to be there for them
just like my mentors were for me, and to
guide them as they’re making this
critical decision of what to major in.”
Among those helping to celebrate
SSTRIDE’s 10 years of success were
many parents of SSTRIDE students and
mentors.
Mary Ardis, who has seen four
children go through the program, is
among SSTRIDE’s most enthusiastic
supporters.
“What we really understood and we
loved about SSTRIDE was that the things
we taught our children at home were the
same things that they taught at
SSTRIDE,” Ardis said. “We taught them
about the meaning and the purpose of a
good education. We taught them the
meaning of a good character, the integrity
that your life should have. We were a
family blessed to find SSTRIDE.”
Former SSTRIDE student Kendra
Lewis felt she took away much more from
the program than scientific knowledge
and career advice.
“Over the years SSTRIDE became a
family away from home that instilled not
only lessons of math and science but
priceless lessons of life,” said Lewis, now
a pharmacy student at Florida A&M
University. “SSTRIDE has been a major
influence in my life, and the major
reason I am where I am now.”
Initially, SSTRIDE programs were
established at several Tallahassee middle
and high schools. Under Gwendolyn
Randolph, director of community and
rural outreach, the program has expanded to several rural counties,
including Madison, Okaloosa, Taylor and
Gadsden.
The after-school program started out
in FSU’s Montgomery Gym, where PIMS
was then based. The SSTRIDE Center
moved to the medical school’s transitional
facilities in 2002, and the new College of
Medicine complex set to open this fall
will feature an expanded SSTRIDE
Center directed by Elizabeth Foster,
Ph.D.
The Florida Department of Education
Bureau of Instructional & Community
Support and Big Bend Area Health
Education Center provided some of the
seed money for SSTRIDE. Other program
sponsors have included the FSU College
of Arts & Sciences and the Pfizer
Foundation.
Former PIMS Director Myra Hurt,
Ph.D., founded the program with its first
director Thesla Berne-Anderson, and
Helen Livingston, Ed.D., interim
associate dean for student affairs,
admissions and outreach. The three
women were recognized at the SSTRIDE
reunion for their vision and dedication.
– N.K.
MESSAGE FROM
DEAN J. OCIE HARRIS, M.D.
Walk into any medical school
classroom in the country, and you will
find a room full of very smart people.
But in the classrooms at the FSU
College of Medicine you will find a lot
more than that. You will find students
of various ages and from a wide range
of ethnic, socioeconomic, educational
and career backgrounds.
Take for example the Class of
2008, which matriculated in June. The
58 students in the class were raised in
places as varied as Bonifay, Fla., a
town of 4,000, and São Paulo, Brazil, a
city of 15 million. The class is 50
percent female, 14 percent AfricanAmerican, and includes four students
over the age of 30.
Much of the diversity at the FSU
College of Medicine is a direct result
of the school’s outreach programs,
which support and encourage
minority, rural and disadvantaged
students in the pursuit of medical and
scientific knowledge, critical thinking
skills and career development.
These programs, which begin in
middle school and offer a continuous
career pipeline through the postbaccalaureate level, got their start in
1994 under Dr. Myra Hurt, then director
of the FSU Program in Medical
Sciences.
At the 10-year mark, the impact of
our outreach programs is clearly being
felt. Of our 173 current students, 19
came through our college-level
outreach program. Prior to that, 22 of
our outreach participants had entered
medical school through PIMS. With
hundreds of middle school, high
school and college students still in the
pipeline, we expect to see an even
more diverse medical student popula-
FSU
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COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
tion over the
next 10 years.
At FSU we
believe
having a
diverse
student body
is critical not
only to the future of health care in
Florida, but also to the quality of the
educational experience our students
receive. That’s because with a
diverse student body, each student
brings unique strengths and characteristics to the group, enabling
students to learn not only from their
professors, but also from each other.
Marla Mickel: On her way to being a
well-rounded physician
In anatomy class, first-year medical
student Marla Mickel approaches each
dissection with the kind of confidence
that comes only with experience.
That’s because as a student in the
FSU College of Medicine’s post-baccalaureate Bridge Program last year, Mickel
took anatomy with the medical students in
the class ahead of her.
“When I got to anatomy for the first
time last year I didn’t know how to
pronounce words much less how to find
things,” Mickel said. “It was kind of like
just trying to memorize everything,
whereas this time I can put it all together
so it makes sense. And instead of feeling
like I’m trying to catch up to everybody
else, I feel like I can help people this time
around.”
For Mickel, the Bridge Program is just
one example of how FSU’s medical
school works to ensure that people who
belong in the field of medicine get where
they need to go. As the graduate-level
component of the medical school’s
outreach programs, the Bridge Program
gives applicants to the FSU College of
Medicine the opportunity to strengthen
their skills during a post-baccalaureate
year before being admitted as first-year
medical students.
“If a student is not as strong in one
aspect, that doesn’t necessarily mean
that student is not going to be a good
physician, so I think it’s good that the
school recognizes that,” Mickel said.
“The school understands what truly
makes a good physician and what type of
person can truly make a difference in
health care.”
Part of being a good physician, Mickel
said, is taking into account social and
spiritual aspects of the patient, as well as
that person’s specific physical condition
and medical history.
“A good doctor is not just someone
who’s interested in taking their knowledge
base in there, seeing a few symptoms,
and writing a prescription and the patient
is gone, but someone who comes in there
with a heart and understands that this
patient is centered in a situation that is
not allowing them to get better,” she said.
For that, you need someone who is
well-rounded, and Mickel believes the
College of Medicine’s outreach programs
are crucial to developing students who
reduced-price lunches, has seen firstwill be just that.
hand the need for programs like SSTRIDE.
Mickel, who wants to be a pediatri“Many of the children don’t get that
cian, got involved with SSTRIDE, the
foundation, with all the single-parent
medical school’s pre-college and
homes and grandparents raising chilcollege-level outreach program, during
dren,” she said. “They don’t think beyond
her sophomore year at FSU.
what they’re going to eat today.”
Through SSTRIDE she found a number
But even for her own daughter, who
of opportunities to broaden her medical
didn’t have such obstacles to overcome,
experience, from working with seriously ill
Mary Mickel believes FSU’s outreach
children at the Boggy Creek Gang Camp
programs have played an important role.
to attending conferences of the Student
“She has been much stronger and
National Medical Association. These
had more confidence in her abilities
activities gave Mickel insights she
because of the Bridge Program,” Mary
believes will be important to her career.
Mickel said. “It’s made her a much
“If I say I want to be a pediatrician, I
stronger physician candidate.”
have to know how to interact with
– N.K.
children,” Mickel said. “If you want to
become involved
in the health-care
system, you need
to know something about it. You
have to go to
conferences
where healthcare issues are
discussed.”
But Mickel
feels like she
gained the most
from SSTRIDE
through her work
as a mentor for
middle and high
school students.
MARLA MICKEL, CENTER, WORKS ON A DISSECTION WITH FELLOW FIRST-YEAR
She remembers
STUDENTS CHARLES CLARK AND KATRINA SLAUGHTER.
one student in
particular who
had decided she wasn’t going to college.
“She was one of those students where
you have to break through that wall before
they are receptive to what you have to
say,” Mickel said. “Once we built a
relationship, once she understood I
wanted to help her, that I was interested in
her success, she opened up to me.”
Eventually, the student began to excel
in school and decided she wanted to go
to college after all.
“That made me happy because I felt
like I had made a difference,” Mickel said.
Mickel’s mother, Mary, an elementary
school principal who once worked at a
Jacksonville school where more than half
MARLA MICKEL
the students were eligible for free or
FIRST-YEAR MEDICAL STUDENT
“The school
understands what truly
makes a good
physician and what
type of person can
truly make a difference
in health care.”
FSU
3
COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
Hurt to lead research, graduate studies
After 13 years of playing
the lead role in medical
student affairs at FSU, Myra
Hurt, Ph.D., is returning to
her roots in biomedical
research.
Hurt has been named
associate dean for research
and graduate programs for the
FSU College of Medicine,
succeeding Carol Van
Hartesveldt, Ph.D., who
recently took a position in the
Division of Graduate Education at the National Science
Foundation.
“I’ve been involved in
building things for quite a
while now, and this is another
opportunity to build,” said
Hurt, who was among those
leading the charge for a fouryear medical school at FSU
from the beginning.
Having served as director
of the FSU Program in
Medical Sciences since 1992,
Hurt realized while at a
leadership development
course at Harvard University
in 1999 that FSU had a
unique opportunity to
reinvent medical education.
“Everyone in medical
education has long been
cognizant of the fact that
students are still being
trained the way they’ve been
trained for 50 years,” Hurt
said. “I realized that we had
the ideal scenario to develop
a model for a new way.”
When FSU’s medical
school was first created in
2000, Hurt served as interim
dean, later moving to associate dean for student affairs,
admissions and outreach. She
has played a key role in the
school’s successful effort
to earn provisional
accreditation, in the
planning and development of the new medical
school building complex,
and in the creation of the
school’s first doctoral
programs.
Kirby Kemper, Ph.D.,
FSU vice president for
research, notes that in
spite of wearing so many
administrative hats, Hurt
still maintained her own
research program.
“Now that the
MYRA HURT, PH.D., ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR RESEARCH AND GRADUATE PROGRAMS
medical school is up and
running, it is time for the
“I’ve been at Florida State
administration to turn its
for 15 years,” Hurt said. “I
attention to strengthening its
have a lot of colleagues in
research program both in
various parts of the university,
biomedical sciences and in
and I hope to use that to help
the sort of rural and innerus build our future.”
city health care that we
With the medical school
expect the school to excel in,”
and
its Division of Student
Kemper said. “With the drive
Affairs now on solid footing,
that Dr. Hurt has displayed
Hurt found it the ideal time
throughout her career here, I
to take on a new challenge.
expect her to be equally
Although she plans to keep
successful in establishing a
her eyes focused squarely on
unique research program that
what’s ahead, one thing will
will fit the mission of our
somewhat different model of a carry forward into her new
position.
medical school.”
“I love our students, and I
Hurt’s goals in her new
will
always be their advocate
position include: enhancing
no matter what my role is,”
the medical school’s research
she said.
funding portfolio; helping
Having served as assistant
department chairs pursue
dean under Hurt, Helen
their research goals; developLivingston, Ed.D., has been
ing graduate programs;
named interim associate dean
establishing a visiting
scientists program; enhancing for student affairs. The
medical school will soon open
the school’s image to aid in
a national search for Hurt’s
faculty and graduate student
permanent successor.
KIRBY KEMPER, PH.D.
recruitment; and increasing
FSU VICE PRESIDENT FOR
collaboration with the rest of
– N.K. RESEARCH
the university.
“With the drive
that Dr. Hurt has
displayed
throughout her
career here, I
expect her to be
equally
successful in
establishing a
unique research
program that will
fit the mission of
our somewhat
different model
of a medical
school.”
FSU
4
COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
Regional Campuses
Berg to head new campus in Sarasota
Bruce Berg, M.D., has
been selected to head the
FSU Regional Medical School
Campus – Sarasota, which will
begin receiving medical
students next year.
As assistant dean for the
Sarasota campus, Berg will
oversee the clinical education
program for those FSU
medical students assigned to
Sarasota for their third and
fourth years of medical
school.
“I’m excited about the
possibilities for this new FSU
clinical campus,” Berg said.
“I believe that there will be
wonderful opportunities for the
students, the local physicians
and the community of
Sarasota. Everyone will benefit
from the medical education
that will take place here.”
After practicing pulmonary
and critical care medicine in
the Sarasota area for 19 years,
Berg began working on
patient safety and quality
improvement initiatives for
Sarasota Memorial Hospital,
where he has served as chief
medical information officer
since 1998 and as patient
safety officer since 2001.
“Dr. Berg has played a
critical role at Sarasota
Memorial in the area of
medical informatics, an
evolving field that is heavily
emphasized in our curriculum,” said Dean J. Ocie Harris,
M.D. “He will help take us in
the direction we are wanting to
move with medical information
technology and its ability to
enhance patient care and
prevent medical errors.”
Eight third-year students
will be assigned to the
Sarasota campus beginning in
July, while fourth-year students
from the college’s other
regional campuses will be
able to complete elective
rotations with local physicians
beginning in January. Enrollment will gradually increase to
40 students.
The FSU College of
Medicine has established an
advisory board for the
Sarasota campus. Founding
members are: G. Duncan
Finlay, Jr., M.D., CEO, Sarasota
Memorial Health Care System;
Douglas R. Luckett, COO,
Doctors Hospital of Sarasota;
Sandra K. MacLeod, M.D.,
medical director, Sarasota
County Health Department;
Adam Bright, M.D., president,
Sarasota County Medical
Society; as well as medical
school administrators Alma
Littles, M.D., and Mollie Hill.
“We now have four
campus deans, and all have
different backgrounds that
bring something unique and
valuable to our organization,”
Harris said. “We’re fortunate to
be able to take advantage of
their wealth of experience in
medical education, practice
management, and patient
care.”
– N.K.
BRUCE BERG, M.D., M.B.A.
“I believe that there
will be wonderful
opportunities for the
students, the local
physicians and the
community of
Sarasota.”
Muszynski tapped to lead Orlando campus
Orlando pediatric infectious disease specialist
Michael Muszynski, M.D., has
been appointed assistant
dean for the FSU Regional
Medical School Campus –
Orlando.
Muszynski, who began his
duties July 1, succeeds
Anthony Costa, M.D., who
recently joined the faculty of
the Family Practice Residency
Program at Florida Hospital.
Muszynski has served as
academic chairman of the
department of pediatrics at
Orlando Regional Healthcare
for the past nine years and
division chief of pediatric
infectious diseases at
Nemours Children’s Clinic
since 1997. He has served on
the faculty of FSU’s medical
school on a part-time basis
since last year.
“I’ve always seen great
advantages in providing
medical education in community settings, as in FSU’s
model,” Muszynski said. “I’ve
been very impressed with
FSU’s program since joining
the faculty, and I look forward
to applying my knowledge of
the local medical community
to the growth and enhancement of the medical school’s
Orlando campus.”
Muszynski has 21 years of
clinical teaching experience,
including 12 years as director
of the Pediatric Residency
Program at Arnold Palmer
Hospital for Children and
FSU
Women in Orlando. He helped
develop the residency
program into one of the best
community-based residency
programs in the country. He
also founded the HUG-Me
Program for pediatric HIV/AIDS
care and research in Central
Florida.
Dean J. Ocie Harris, M.D.,
said Muszynski’s extensive
background in medical
education makes him a great
asset not only to the Orlando
campus but also to the
medical school’s education
program overall.
“He has broad expertise
encompassing clinical care,
research and program
development,” Harris said.
“Also, having lived and
5
COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
MICHAEL MUSZYNSKI, M.D.
worked in Orlando for 18
years, he’s very familiar with
the community, which will be
a great help in further developing the regional campus.”
– N.K.
FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
Health Affairs
Center on Patient Safety hosts summit
More than 60 health-care industry
executives from throughout Florida
learned about the latest and most
effective strategies for preventing medical
errors at a June 25 Patient Safety Summit
organized by the FSU College of Medicine Center on Patient Safety.
Nir Menachemi, Ph.D., director of the
Center on Patient Safety, designed the
summit to further the center’s objective of
reducing medical errors in Florida.
“It was a forum in which hospital
CEOs could learn about some of the
cutting-edge approaches to patient safety
that other successful organizations use,”
he said. “They heard about hands-on
tools that they can use to make actual
changes in their institutions.”
Recent Institute of Medicine reports
refer to medical errors as a leading cause
of disability and death, killing more
people annually than highway accidents,
breast cancer or AIDS. The reports point
to flawed systems, rather than individuals,
as the underlying cause of most errors.
Keynote speaker James Conway,
executive vice-president and COO of
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, described
how he led the reconfiguration of the
Harvard-run
cancer center
following a highprofile medical
error case in which
a Boston Globe
reporter died of a
chemotherapy
overdose.
Conway
emphasized the
need for open
SUMMIT SPEAKERS INCLUDED (L-R): NIR MENACHEMI, PH.D., DIRECTOR OF THE MEDICAL
communication
SCHOOL’S CENTER ON PATIENT SAFETY, JAMES BAGIAN, M.D., OF THE V.A. NATIONAL
about medical
CENTER FOR PATIENT SAFETY, ALLAN FRANKEL, M.D., OF PARTNERS HEALTHCARE
errors within our
SYSTEM, JAMES CONWAY OF DANA-FARBER CANCER INSTITUTE, AND ROBERT BROOKS,
health-care
M.D., ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR HEALTH AFFAIRS, FSU COLLEGE OF MEDICINE.
systems.
“Dana-Farber
promotes open, interdisciplinary discusInfrastructure Advisory Board, said the
sion of untoward events by all who work,
summit was remarkable.
visit or are cared for at the institute,”
“The Patient Safety Summit provided
Conway said. “This includes errors,
solid guidance on how to enhance the
mistakes, misunderstandings or system
culture of safety at each of America’s
failures resulting in harm, potential harm
hospitals, big or small, urban or rural.
or adverse outcome.”
Drs. Brooks and Menachemi put together
Menachemi said he received positive
a powerful conference.”
response from all those who attended.
The summit was sponsored in part by
Michael Heekin, the appointed chair
the Florida Hospital Association.
of the Governor’s Health Information
– M.B.
DOCTORS’ MEMORIAL PILOTS WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY
Doctors’ Memorial Hospital in Perry
has advanced its patient-care technology
with support from the FSU College of
Medicine Center on Patient Safety.
With funding from the state of Florida,
Nir Menachemi, Ph.D., director of the
center, began a pilot program this spring
to evaluate the need for and feasibility of
implementing a wireless clinical information system in a rural hospital.
Menachemi worked with hospital
officials to establish Doctors’ Memorial as
the test site and subcontracted with
Cogon Systems Inc., an IT vendor based
in Pensacola. First, he wanted to see
whether the project would be technically
feasible given the existing IT infrastructure of the hospital. Second, he sought to
determine whether the doctors and
nurses would find benefit from using the
new technology as part of their routine.
Under Menachemi’s direction, Cogon
trained a group of seven doctors and five
nurses to use a wireless and Webbased information system called
Moment of Care, which integrates
disparate information from all areas
of the hospital – from administration
to the laboratory – into a single
database. The information in the
database is available to clinicians
through wireless handheld devices
they can take with them anywhere,
giving them the ability to retrieve
DOCTORS’ MEMORIAL HOSPITAL, PERRY
patient information at the hospital,
or in their clinic, office or car.
“Better and immediate access to
and immediate access to information
clinical information can result in fewer
regardless of physical location.
errors and increased quality of care,”
“When outside of the hospital, having
Menachemi said.
access to labs or personal information is
Menachemi said the doctors reported
good if I need to transfer a patient, place
that they found the mobile access to
orders or change treatment,” said one
clinical information extremely valuable.
participating doctor.
The most common perceived advantages
to physicians were “better use of time”
– M.B.
FSU
6
COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
Study examines IT use in Florida hospitals
FSU College of Medicine
researchers have completed a
landmark study on information technology utilization in
hospitals across the state.
Nir Menachemi, Ph.D.,
director of the Center on
Patient Safety, said past
research on hospital IT
systems generally focused on
one or two institutions at a
time.
“There had not been a
systematic, large-scale
attempt to look at the use of
information systems and
quality of care overall,”
Menachemi said. “So we
wanted to look at how all
hospitals in Florida utilize IT
on a widespread basis.”
With funding from Blue
Cross Blue Shield of Florida,
researchers from the medical
school’s Center on Patient
Safety and its Blue Cross
Blue Shield Center for Rural
Health Research and Policy
surveyed 199 acute care
hospitals in Florida, receiving
a 49 percent response rate.
The hospitals, both rural and
urban, were queried regarding the use of all IT applications within their institutions,
with an emphasis on clinical
and patient safety technologies.
Menachemi and his FSU
colleagues performed a
comprehensive assessment of
the type and level of sophistication of the hospitals’ IT
systems, and then looked at
the barriers preventing the
adoption of new technology.
The greatest hurdle noted was
cost, but issues Menachemi
calls “dynamic factors,” or
factors that can be changed
by hospital leadership, were
the most important.
Menachemi said communication and physician involvement had the strongest
relationship to the level of IT
infrastructure in the surveyed
hospitals.
The study suggested that if
physicians in an institution
approached hospital leadership and expressed interest in
technologies that can improve
patient safety, the level of
available patient safety IT
increased. If physicians at a
given organization took the
initiative one step further and
actually took part in the
process of planning and
implementing new technology,
there was an even greater
increase.
“These are things that can
be influenced and taught, and
it’s exciting because hospital
leadership, with the help of
physicians, can do things to
improve their patient safety
IT capabilities,” Menachemi
said. “Where there is teamwork, and everyone is on the
same page, there is change.”
In addition to mailing
surveys to all Florida hospitals, Menachemi and colleague Darrell Burke, Ph.D.,
conducted on-site visits with
nearly all of Florida’s rural
hospitals in order to ensure
their participation in the
study.
Although somewhat true
for all hospitals, Menachemi
found that the major difference among rural hospitals
was that if they were standalone facilities and not
system-affiliated, they were
even less likely to utilize
FSU
many IT applications. One
issue is that many rural
hospitals lack the financial
resources needed to install
new technologies, including
those for patient safety, as
readily as urban hospitals.
Among rural hospitals,
financial barriers to IT
implementation were noted by
69 percent of stand-alone
facilities, and 20 percent of
system-affiliated ones.
“The good news, though,
for all hospitals – big or
small, rural or urban, for
profit or not – is that their
priority is to install systems
that improve patient safety to
reduce medical errors,”
Menachemi said. “Hospitals
are in the business of patient
care and they want to improve
that whenever possible.”
With funding being the
greatest barrier to the
adoption of clinical and
patient safety IT, Menachemi
said, hospitals need evidence
that IT will be cost-effective.
With a recently awarded
$113,500 grant from the
state, the next step for the
FSU research team will be to
conduct a study of the
economic and patient safety
value of IT to hospitals, said
Robert Brooks, M.D.,
associate dean for health
affairs.
“If we can produce
research that links the use of
IT to better patient care and
to better financial performance, and maybe even fewer
lawsuits, all of these positive
outcomes will encourage the
adoption of these new
technologies,” Brooks said.
7
COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
– M.B.
NIR MENACHEMI, PH.D., M.P.H.
DIRECTOR, CENTER ON PATIENT SAFETY
“The good
news, though,
for all
hospitals – big
or small, rural
or urban, for
profit or not –
is that their
priority is to
install
systems that
improve
patient safety
to reduce
medical
errors.”
FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
Friends of the COM
Maguire scholarship key to student recruitment
IVAN PORTER
“If someone was
willing to do that
for me, then I’m
supposed to be
here.”
MIKEL HOFMANN
“The medical
school has done
a lot for me, so it
seemed
appropriate that
I’d be here.”
Two students in the Class
of 2008 were able to make
FSU their choice for medical
school thanks to the latest gift
from Charlotte Maguire, M.D.
As applicants, Ivan Porter
and Mikel Hofmann were
highly qualified academically.
They also had interests
consistent with the college’s
mission, including a desire to
stay in Florida, as well as a
commitment to working with
medically underserved
patients.
But with other medical
schools trying to lure Porter
and Hofmann by offering
them full-tuition scholarships,
it didn’t look good for FSU,
which as a new medical
school didn’t have the big
scholarship endowments of its
more established rivals.
When she learned of the
situation, Maguire, who
already had created an
endowed scholarship fund
with a $1 million gift to the
College of Medicine, came
forward with a separate
$130,000 gift for two fulltuition scholarships. Her gift
put FSU’s offer on a par with
those the students had
received elsewhere.
Maguire is matter-of-fact
about the motivation behind
her generosity.
“I think the urgent need
was what did it, nothing
FSU
else,” she said. “We had the
two students that were the
quality type, and there didn’t
seem to be any money
around.”
For Porter, who was
attracted to FSU because of
the clinical experience
offered in the first year and
because of its proximity to his
hometown of Ft. Walton
Beach, the scholarship offer
cemented his decision.
“If someone was willing to
do that for me, then I’m
supposed to be here,” Porter
said. “That’s big for me. I
don’t really know what else to
say, but that’s just a big deal.”
As an undergraduate at
FSU, Hofmann had participated in the medical school’s
outreach programs, through
which she earned her medical
assisting certificate and
gained medical experience.
She knew she would be
comfortable in the learning
environment at the FSU
College of Medicine, but
having the scholarship made
her decision easier.
“The medical school has
done a lot for me, so it
seemed appropriate that I’d
be here,” she said, adding
that she hopes one day she’ll
be on the giving end of an
FSU College of Medicine
scholarship.
8
COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
That’s an idea Maguire
heartily endorses.
“I hope that the recipients
will be the ones that in the
future will pick up the tab
and help out when it’s
needed,” she said. “They
should keep it in mind to do
for their community what they
can.”
– N.K.
CHARLOTTE MAGUIRE, M.D.
“I hope that the
recipients will be
the ones that in
the future will
pick up the tab
and help out
when it’s
needed.”
$2.3 million Tully gift funds
medical student scholarships
A $2.3 million bequest from the estate of Leon and Billye
Tully, which will be fully matched by the state of Florida, will
create a $4.6 million endowed scholarship fund for students in
the FSU College of Medicine.
“The Tullys recognized that medical education is a costly
endeavor, and they wanted to help ensure that our students
graduate with minimal debt,” said Dean J. Ocie Harris, M.D.
“They will long be remembered at the College of Medicine for
their quiet generosity.”
A former Leon County commissioner, Leon “L.C.” Tully
passed away in December 2003, just over a year after the death
of his wife, Billye.
L.C. Tully was from a pioneer Tallahassee family. His
brother Robert “Bobby” Tully was a popular FSU student who
died of cancer shortly after his graduation and for whom FSU’s
Tully Gymnasium was named. His brothers James C. “Jimmy”
Tully and Jack Tully also graduated from FSU in the 1950s.
The late Jimmy Tully was a real estate agent who worked with
the management of Tallahassee Community Hospital (now
Capital Regional Medical Center) on the selection of the
original hospital site. Jack Tully was in the first class at FSU
when it became coeducational in 1947 and was the first
elected captain of FSU’s original football team.
“L.C. also had several nieces and nephews who are FSU
alumni, so he had many reasons for having a special regard for
FSU, as well as the medical community,” said Jack Tully.
BILLYE AND LEON “L.C.” TULLY
L.C. and Billye Tully, who were married for 54 years, were
both active in the Tallahassee community. L.C. Tully was the
youngest commissioner in Leon County history when he was
elected in 1933 at the age of 25. He entered the U.S. Army Air
Corps in 1942 and served in World War II. A former board
member of Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, Tully worked in the
real estate business for more than 40 years, having previously
run his family’s grocery business.
College establishes advisory council
The FSU College of Medicine has
established an advisory council made up
of community representatives who are
interested in helping the medical school
succeed in its mission.
The Dean’s Advisory Council, which
has 16 founding members, will have
representatives from each of the regions
in which the medical school operates a
campus.
Council chairman Jim Rodgers,
D.D.S., of Quincy, Fla., said the goal of
the council is to provide input to help
guide and support the development of
the college.
“We will serve as a resource to the
dean and the medical school,” Rodgers
said. “The College of Medicine is making
great strides, and we want to support it
and make sure others are aware of what
the school is accomplishing.”
At the council’s first meeting May 14,
each of the college’s associate deans and
department chairs made a brief presentation, and council members toured the
new medical school complex, which is
set to open in September.
The Dean’s Advisory Council will
meet quarterly.
FSU
9
COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
Dean’
s Advisor
y Council
Dean’s
Advisory
Jim Rodgers, D.D.S., Chair, Quincy
John Agwunobi, M.D., Tallahassee
DuBose Ausley, J.D., Tallahassee
Terri Jo Barron, J.D., Tallahassee
Ken Boutwell, Ph.D., Tallahassee
The Hon. Lacey Collier, J.D., Pensacola
Raymond Cottrell, M.D., Orlando
John Hillenmeyer, Orlando
Patrick Madden, Pensacola
Charlotte Maguire, M.D., Tallahassee
G. Mark O’Bryant, Tallahassee
Almena Pettit, Tallahassee
Mina Jo Powell, Tallahassee
Martin Proctor, Tallahassee
Sharon Roush, Tallahassee
Dennis Taylor, Pensacola
FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
On Course: Year 1
Neuroscience they won’t soon forget
In the early days of the
comedy show Saturday Night
Live, the character Father
Guido Sarducci performed a
stand-up routine about his
plan for a “Five-Minute
University,” where in five
minutes, for just $20, his
students could learn as much
as the average college
student remembers five years
after graduation.
Clinical neuroscience
professor Charles Ouimet,
Ph.D., of the FSU College of
Medicine has set out to
disprove the concept behind
the Five-Minute University. His
job, he says, is to make sure
medical students will remember the vast majority of the
material from his class for
decades to come.
“If you want students to go
on and be life-long learners,
they are only going to do that if
they have enthusiasm for your
subject,” Ouimet said. “You’re
really trying to show why your
field is great and communicate
that enthusiasm to the students.
If you don’t, you’ve failed.”
Ouimet is clearly no failure.
Second-year student Joe Rousso
said neuroscience is the only
first-year course from which
he remembers everything.
“He’s like a comedy showcase,” Rousso said. “He gets
so excited about what he’s
going to say, and he doesn’t
run out of funny stories. Even
on board-type questions, I
remember symptoms by
remembering his stories.”
During their first year,
students take clinical neuroscience and learn about the
nervous system and symptoms
that coincide with neurological disorders. They start with
the spinal cord and work their
way up through the brain stem
to the brain, which they
dissect in the lab.
“They learn the normal
connections, and they study
what happens if you disrupt
those connections, for
example, with stroke or trauma
or a genetic disorder,” Ouimet
said. “So they quickly master a
common vocabulary that
enables them to spend most of
their time solving problems
related to the nervous system.”
The material is taught in a
variety of ways, from the
laboratory to lectures to small
groups. Other faculty members assist in the course, chief
among them Gerry Maitland,
M.D., a Tallahassee neurologist who has been involved in
teaching medical students for
25 years. Ouimet teaches the
basic science of the course,
while Maitland teaches the
clinical aspects.
Maitland brings in another
unique component of the
course – patients with neurological disorders. The students
begin in small groups discussing a case and then convene
in a large classroom where
they conduct a question-andanswer session with a patient
whose case is similar to the
one they’ve been reviewing.
“When we bring in a
patient, it is no longer a blackand-white issue,” Ouimet said.
“You can read about something in a book, but when you
see the real thing it’s a very
different story.”
Rousso recalled a patient
with Parkinson’s disease.
Upon Maitland’s request, the
patient held off on his medication prior to visiting the class,
so the students could see and
discuss his symptoms. Then,
the patient took his medication
and returned 15 minutes later
so they could see the difference and ask further questions.
“You remember the clinical
signs by the ones you see, not
FSU
CHARLES OUIMET, PH.D., USES HUMOR AND STORYTELLING TO MAKE SURE HIS
NEUROSCIENCE CLASS IS NO “FIVE-MINUTE UNIVERSITY.”
the ones you read in a book,”
Rousso said. “Dr. Maitland
brought in a patient with
almost every neurological
disorder.”
Rousso and fellow classmate Tim Kubal became so
interested in neuroscience
after taking the course, they
elected to spend their summer
shadowing Maitland in his
practice and performing
neurological research.
As a teacher and a
clinician, Maitland sees value
in having patients in the
classroom and having
students in his practice.
“As part of the therapeutic
alliance, I like to have my
patients participate actively in
the treatment of their condition. The vast majority understand the students’ need to
hear first-hand how neurological disease impacts their lives
and are eager to participate in
the education of the students,”
he said. “And the students
keep you honest as a clinician. I think the presence of
students generates a meticulous history-taking and clinical
examination.”
10
COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
– M.B.
“He’s like a
comedy
showcase. He
gets so excited
about what he’s
going to say, and
he doesn’t run
out of funny
stories. Even on
board-type
questions, I
remember
symptoms by
remembering his
stories.”
JOE ROUSSO
SECOND-YEAR
MEDICAL STUDENT
Project develops Master Diabetes Clinicians
Diabetes patients in north
Florida are benefiting from a
new program coordinated by
FSU College of Medicine
faculty member Edward
Shahady, M.D.
With grants from Pfizer
and Astra Zeneca, the Florida
Academy of Family Physicians Foundation is funding
the Master Diabetes Clinician
Program, a model for training
Florida family physicians to
provide enhanced care for
patients with diabetes.
In its pilot phase, the
program involves four
physicians who have agreed to
redesign how their practices
monitor and care for diabetes
patients. Participating
physicians who graduated as
Master Diabetes Clinicians
were Scottie Whiddon, M.D.,
and Charles Kent, M.D., of
Quincy, and Tallahassee
physician Barbara Williams,
M.D., all clinical faculty
members in the College of
Medicine, as well as Robert
Ashley, M.D., of Gainesville.
Their office staff who
graduated as Master Diabetes
Associates were Sandy Baker
and Gay Burch in Quincy,
Willette Footman in Tallahassee, and Kristie Waldron in
Gainesville.
Chronic diseases such as
diabetes now account for 70
percent of all deaths in the
United States and 75 percent
of annual health-care costs,
according to the National
Center for Chronic Disease
Prevention and Health
Promotion.
“It’s not a knowledge
problem, it’s a systems
problem,” Shahady said.
“Doctors’ offices traditionally
have not been set up to care
for people with chronic
diseases.”
The goal of the project is
not only to achieve better
outcomes, but also to improve
both patient and physician
satisfaction with the way care
is delivered. Group visits are
a key feature of the office
redesign.
Participating physicians
and their staff received
training on the benefits and
methods of conducting group
visits, in which patients learn
how to exercise and maintain
a healthier diet, practices
which are crucial to diabetic
health. Group visits allow
physicians to facilitate
communication among
diabetic patients, enabling
them to learn from one
another.
“The power of the group is
getting them to talk, so what
you do is empower the group,
and you make it their disease,” Shahady said.
Developed exclusively for
the project, a new Web-based
diabetes registry generates a
report card for each patient,
as well as an overall report
card for the physician’s
practice, and a report card
that identifies high-risk
patients. Not only does the
patient get important feedback on how well he’s
controlling his diabetes, but
FSU
the physician can assess how
successfully he’s managing his
diabetic patient population as
a whole, and determine which
high-risk patients need
special attention.
After five months of
training, the four physicians
involved in the pilot phase
have entered an initial 450
patients into the registry and
have committed to continue
with the registry and group
visits for five years. Having
contributed $50,000 for the
pilot phase, Pfizer has now
provided an additional
$100,000 to expand the
project. Shahady plans to
take the program into 24
more physician practices – 12
in Tallahassee and the
surrounding rural areas, and
12 in the Jacksonville area.
– M.B.
EDWARD SHAHADY, M.D.
“The power of the
group is getting
them to talk, so
what you do is
empower the
group, and you
make it their
disease.”
BOOK OFFERS PHYSICIANS
ADVICE ON RETIREMENT
Edward Shahady, M.D.,
F.A.A.F.P., has published “A
Physicians Guide to the Art of
Successful Retirement”
through the American
Academy of Family Physicians. The book offers
advice on many aspects of
physician retirement, from
how to deal with one’s fears
and concerns to how to
close a private or group
practice.
In approaching a topic
unique to physicians ––
closing a practice ––
Shahady addresses the
psychological issues of
separation from patients and
staff, as well as the chal-
11
COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
lenges of finding a suitable
replacement, disposing of
medical records, and making
appropriate arrangements for
employees.
“I wrote the book because in talking to many
physicians I found that they
were unhappy in retirement,”
Shahady said. “They retired
to get away from something
rather than to go to the next
phase of their life. Through
my research, which involved
discussions with physicians
and their spouses, I discovered some excellent ways
to have a happy and successful retirement. The book
is full of these discoveries.”
FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
Honors
&Awards
Student Activities
Alex Ho and Michael
Hernandez were honored as
outstanding graduate-level
students by the University
Fellowship, which carries a
$15,000 stipend. Fifty students
are chosen university-wide
based upon applications,
résumés, MCAT scores,
recommendations and
essays. The fellowship is
awarded to provide students
the opportunity to devote an
academic year to intensive,
full-time study in their chosen
fields. They can hold the
fellowship for a maximum of
three years by reapplying.
DURING THE SUMMER OF 2003, PAUL PAYNE RAISED PEAS ON HIS FARM IN
WAKULLA COUNTY. NOW A THIRD-YEAR MEDICAL STUDENT, PAYNE RECENTLY
WAS AWARDED ONE OF TWO STUDENT RURAL HEALTH LEADERSHIP AWARDS
Kit Lu was selected to
participate in an eight-week
summer research fellowship
program at the National
Institutes of Health National
Center for Complementary
and Alternative Medicine in
Bethesda, Md. At the NCCAM,
BY THE NATIONAL RURAL HEALTH ASSOCIATION.
MEDICAL
STUDENT DAVID
BOJAN DID SOME
CLIMBING IN THE
Lu was involved with research
projects and attended a series
of lectures by some of the
world’s leading scientists, who
presented their research on
topics ranging from basic
molecular science to bioethics. At the end of the program,
fellowship participants
conducted poster presentations of their work.
Paul Payne was awarded one
of two Student Rural Health
Leadership awards by the
National Rural Health
Association. The awards,
presented this May at the
NRHA annual meeting in San
Diego, recognize students
who demonstrate a passion
for rural health, taking a
leadership role in some
aspect of health-care delivery,
advocacy or policy. Payne
was recognized for his
influential work in establishing
the first student chapter of the
Florida Rural Health
Association. This was the first
year the NRHA offered the
student awards.
CARPATHIAN
MOUNTAINS OF
END-OF-YEAR GALA AWARDS
HIS NATIVE
ROMANIA DURING
College of Medicine students and faculty were honored at
an End-of-Year Gala April 30. Awards recipients were:
A SHORT BREAK
BEFORE THE
START OF HIS
FOURTH YEAR.
AMA
Stephen Patrick was named
national chair of the Community Service Committee for the
American Medical Association Medical Student Section.
He also is sitting on a reference committee for the Florida
Medical Association annual
meeting.
Kimberly Ruscher
-Rogers
Ruscher-Rogers
was elected speaker of the
American Medical Association Medical Student Section
at the AMA annual meeting in
June. She will plan and run
the next two AMA student
meetings. Her term runs until
June 2005.
Interest
Groups
Hope Mitchell and Adam
Langley of the Geriatrics
Interest Group attended the
Florida Geriatrics Society
annual conference in Naples
July 30 – Aug. 1. The conference included discussion of
new policies affecting the
elderly, as well as medical
updates.
FSU
College of Medicine Awards
Students:
Outstanding Leadership Award – Shannon Price
Distinguished Service Award – Stefano Bordoli
Golden Caduceus Award – Chris Sundstrom
(greatest willingness to help fellow students succeed)
Torch Award – Paul Payne
(outstanding contributions toward the college’s vision and
mission)
Faculty:
Excellence in Teaching Award – Year One Basic Sciences:
Charles Ouimet, Ph.D.
Excellence in Teaching Award – Year Two Basic Sciences:
Graham Patrick, Ph.D.
Outstanding Clinical Professor Award:
Steven Grossman, M.D.
Medical College Council Awards
es
Organization of the Year – FSU Car
Cares
doli
Organizational President of the Year – Stefano Bor
Bordoli
escentini
Student of the Year – Bobby Cr
Crescentini
12
COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
Medical students bike the East Coast
to raise funds for indigent care
Second-year FSU medical students
Courtney Nall and Mason Shamis cycled
1,378 miles from Jacksonville to New
York City this June, in a bike-a-thon that
raised $3,500 for FSUCares.
Nall and Shamis traveled the back
roads of the East Coast for 23 days,
sleeping in campgrounds and cooking
meals on a mini-stove, with only a tiny
trailer to carry their belongings. They said
the kindness of the people they met in
small towns along the route was the best
part of their bike-a-thon, which will help
fund FSUCares’ efforts to assist local
partners with programs targeting indigent
patients in the Tallahassee area.
“Most of the time people would ask,
‘Why are you doing this?’ and ‘Why are
you so crazy?’ ” Nall said. “And when we
told them, they were so supportive and
encouraging. It was wonderful to see that
there are nice, compassionate people in
the world.”
In South Carolina, Nall and Shamis
arrived in an isolated community only to
find that the campground where they had
planned to stay no longer existed. The
owner of a local marina came to the
rescue by allowing them to camp in his
backyard and shower at the marina.
Also in South Carolina, they passed
through a small town where they saw
signs everywhere about a barbecue fundraiser to pay for a local man’s chemotherapy.
“Just to see the culture of these little
towns, and how they come together, I
considered what it would be like to
practice medicine in that sort of area,”
said Nall, a native of Auburndale, Fla., a
town of 11,000 in Central Florida. Nall felt
the bike trip confirmed her desire to
practice medicine in a small town like the
one in which she grew up.
Shamis hopes the bike-a-thon will start
a tradition at the College of Medicine.
“We would do this trip again in a
heartbeat, but ultimately I feel it would be
beneficial for our students to continue to
do this to raise public awareness for our
school, and for our students as future
doctors to realize what’s out there,” he
said. “Sometimes you can lose sight of it,
but I think it’s the people that matter most.”
In their travels, Nall and Shamis
managed to get by with just one rainy day
and with bicycle incidents limited to only
one flat tire a piece, which they repaired
themselves. They credit their preparedness and safety to Ken Brummel-Smith,
M.D., chair of the medical school’s
geriatrics department, who gave them six
hours of training on bike safety and repair,
NALL AND SHAMIS ON THE ROCKEFELLER
CENTER SET OF “THE TODAY SHOW.”
and loaned them his tent and cooking
equipment.
After arriving in the Big Apple and
stopping in on the outdoor set of “The
Today Show” at Rockefeller Center to
wave a sign for the FSU College of
Medicine, Nall and Shamis left their
bicycles at a bike shop to be shipped
home, and then flew home to Tallahassee
using tickets donated by AirTran airlines.
Contributions to FSUCares can be
sent using the pre-addressed envelope
provided in this newsletter. Please make
checks payable to the FSU Foundation
with “FSUCares” in the memo section.
INAUGURAL CLASS ENTERS THE HOME STRETCH
The 30 medical student pioneers in
the inaugural class of the FSU College of
Medicine have completed their third year
and are now on the home stretch toward
graduation.
In their fourth and final year, which
began in July, the students will complete
16 weeks of required rotations in geriatrics, emergency medicine, advanced
family medicine and advanced internal
medicine, as well as 24 weeks of electives.
One of only a handful of medical
schools in the United States with a
required rotation in geriatrics, FSU has
developed a first-of-its-kind program in
which the students are assigned to follow
individual patients rather than a specific
physician. The rotation is designed to
expose students to the full spectrum of
geriatric care, including not only doctor
visits and hospitalization, but also
rehabilitation, as well as in-home and
nursing home care.
In addition to the required rotations,
students can choose from dozens of
electives. About three-quarters of the
electives selected by the inaugural class
will take place through one of the medical
school’s regional campuses in Orlando,
Pensacola, Sarasota and Tallahassee.
Many of these electives will be with
residency programs at the medical
school’s affiliated hospitals.
The other 25 percent of the students’
electives will take place at sites around
the country, from California to Washington, D.C. These include residency
programs at the University of Kentucky,
the University of North Carolina, Emory
University, and the University of Florida,
among others. The most popular elective,
chosen by about half the students in the
inaugural class, is cardiology, followed by
emergency medicine and medical
intensive care.
Through their electives students gain
exposure to subspecialty areas in
FSU
13
COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
medicine and surgery, augmenting the
general medical education they receive
in the third year and helping them arrive
at a decision regarding their specialty
choice.
After applying to residency programs
over the next several months, FSU’s first
crop of MDs will find out where they are
headed next on the national Match Day,
March 17. On that day, medical students
around the country find out where they
will complete their residency training.
Then on May 21, the College of
Medicine will hold the first graduation in
its history. FSU President Emeritus Talbot
“Sandy” D’Alemberte, who devoted much
of his energies as FSU’s president to the
creation of the medical school, will
deliver the commencement address. The
college plans to hold the ceremony on
the site of the new medical school
building complex.
FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
Faculty Achievements
MA
Y-JUL
Y 2004
AY
-JULY
Publications
Edward Bradley III, M.D.,
authored the chapters “Acute
Pancreatitis: Definitions and
Classification for Clinical
Practice” in Clinical
Pancreatology and “Pancreatic Cystenterostomy” in
Mastery of Surgery.
Nir Menachemi, Ph.D., M.P.H.,
and Darrell Burke, Ph.D.,
(Information Studies) coauthored “Opening the Black
Box: Measuring Hospital
Information Technology
Capability” in Health Care
Management Review.
Philip Posner, Ph.D., coauthored “Hypotonic Swelling
Stimulates L-type Ca2+
Channel Activity in Vascular
Smooth Muscle Cells Through
PKC” in the American Journal
of Physiology. Cell Physiology.
Edward Shahady, M.D., coauthored “Young Man with
Knee Problems after a Judo
Injury” with William Paull,
M.D., and medical student
Beau Toskich, in Consultant;
“Acute Shoulder Pain in a
Teenager after a Fall” with
medical student Aaron
Nordgren in Consultant and
Pediatric Consultant; and “The
CALMER Approach: Teaching
Learners Six Steps to Serenity
When Dealing with Difficult
Patients” (with other colleagues) in Family Medicine.
John Tomkowiak, M.D., and
Anne Gunderson, A.R.N.P.,
C.R.R.N.-A., co-authored “To
IRB or Not to IRB” and (with
other colleagues) “Southern
Illinois University Report on
Geriatric Curriculum” in
Academic Medicine. They
also co-authored “Clinical
Consultation: How Do We
Ethically Treat Patients That
Refuse Therapy?” and “Health
Promotion and Disease
Prevention in the Geriatric
Population” in Rehabilitation
Nursing Journal.
Daniel J. Van Durme, M.D., coauthored “Heat Illness in
Athletes: The Dangerous
Combination of Heat, Humidity
and Exercise” in the American
Journal of Sports Medicine.
Presentations
John Bailey, D.O., Thagard
Student Health Center
psychiatrist, participated in a
panel discussion showcasing
the FSU Eating Disorders
Team at a Tallahassee
meeting of the Southern
College Health Association.
Jennifer Bencie Fairburn,
M.D., M.S.A., presented
“Project Public Health
Ready: A National Model for
Public Health Emergency
Readiness Competencies” at
the Inaugural Southeast U.S.
Homeland Security Conference in Orlando.
Edward Bradley III, M.D., was
an invited speaker and
moderator of the joint meeting
of the International Association of Pancreatology and the
Japan Pancreas Society in
Sendai, Japan.
Ken Brummel-Smith, M.D.
presented “Resident Safety in
Long Term Care: A Model for
Quality Improvement” at the
National Patient Safety
Conference in Boston.
Jeff Chicola, M.D., gave the
commencement address at
the University of West Florida
Medical Technology Program.
Fred Kobylarz, M.D., M.P.H.,
co-presented two abstracts
and posters titled “Cross
Cultural Aspects of Geriatric
Decision Making Capacity
Assessments” and “The
Experience of an In-Home
Geriatric Assessment Service
FSU
in Supporting Guardianship
Actions for Referred Adult
Protective Service Clients
Suffering Abuse or Neglect” at
the American Geriatrics
Society Annual Scientific
Meeting in Las Vegas.
Morton H. Levitt, M.D., M.H.A.,
presented the course,
“Computer Utilization:
Tomorrow’s Informatics Today:
Molecular Testing and
Information Management,” at
the annual meeting of the
College of American Pathologists in Phoenix. He also was
elected to a three-year term
on the Board of Governors.
Gerry Maitland, M.D., presented “The Effects of Auditory
Distraction on Visual Cognitive Performance in Multiple
Sclerosis” at the bi-annual
meeting of the International
Society of Neuro-ophthalmology in Geneva, Switzerland.
The manuscript on which the
paper was based was published in NeuroOphthalmology.
He also co-presented “Effects
of Distraction on Cognitive
Performance of Individuals
with Multiple Sclerosis and
Parkinson’s Disease” at the
International Association of
Logopedics and Phoniatrics in
Brisbane, Australia.
Nir Menachemi, Ph.D., M.P.H.,
presented “Factors Influencing the Use of Patient Safety
Information Technologies in
Hospitals” at the Patient Safety
Summit for hospital CEOs and
healthcare leaders, sponsored by the FSU College of
Medicine in Orlando.
Janet Shepherd, M.D.,
presented “Gynecologic Care
of the Older Woman,” “Female
Sexual Dysfunction,”
“Women’s Health Pharmacology: Contraception,” and
“Update on Herpes Virus
Infection” at the National
Nurse Practitioner Symposium
in Keystone, Colo.
Jeffrey Spike, Ph.D., and
Robert Glueckauf, Ph.D., copresented “Stigma in a Small
Town: How Telehealth Can
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COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
Help” at the joint meeting of
the American Medical
Informatics Association and
the Florida Bioethics Network
in Miami.
Jeffrey Spike, Ph.D., presented
“Beyond Death and Dying:
Ethics Committees and the
Information Technology
Revolution” as a plenary
session panelist at the joint
meeting of the American
Medical Informatics Association and the Florida Bioethics
Network in Miami. He also
presented “Cases that Haunt
Us,” as well as the plenary
address, “Persistent Vegetative State and Feeding Tubes:
Can the Consensus Hold?” at
the National Bioethics Retreat
in Wintergreen, Va.
David Steele, Ph.D., gave the
plenary address “SelfDirected Learning: Is It All
That We Think It Is?” at the
International Association of
Medical Science Educators
annual meeting in New
Orleans. He also presented the
workshop, “Educational
Scholarship: Discovery,
Integration, Application, and
Teaching & Learning.”
John Tomkowiak, M.D., and
Anne Gunderson, A.R.N.P.,
C.R.R.N.-A., co-presented
(with other colleagues)
“Health Professionals’ Beliefs
and Opinions About the
Elderly” to the American
Geriatrics Society in Las
Vegas, and “Geriatrics
Curriculum Initiatives at
SIUSOM” at the AAMC/
Hartford Geriatric Education
Conference in St. Louis.
Daniel J. Van Durme, M.D.,
presented “Updates on Skin
Cancer” at the annual
meeting of the Florida Academy of Family Physicians in
Boca Raton.
Andrew Wong, M.D., presented “The Failure of Joint
Fluid Aspiration in the Management of Infected Total
Knee Arthroplasties” at the
Florida Orthopedic Society
annual meeting in Key Largo.
Wang receives James and Esther King grant
Yanchang Wang, Ph.D., of
the FSU College of Medicine
has received a three-year,
$441,000, grant for his cancer
research through the James
and Esther King Biomedical
Research Program, which is
funded by the Florida Legislature.
Wang’s was one of 19
grants totaling $9.2 million
awarded to research scientists from across the biotechnology industry, including
world-class public and private
universities and clinical
research institutes.
Recipients are competitively selected by a process
overseen by the Biomedical
Research Advisory Council,
which is housed in the Florida
Department of Health. The
council is made up of nine
respected scientists from
across Florida, who use a
sophisticated multi-step
process to peer review and
rank all applicants’ projects.
Research topics are expected
to relate in some way to the
fight against tobacco-related
disease.
Wang’s research is aimed
at understanding how cell
growth and division is regulated at the molecular level.
“Our goal is to understand
the cause of cancer and to
find new targets for cancer
treatments,” Wang said. “We
plan to use molecular, cellular
and genetic approaches to
determine the role of a
particular enzyme in enabling
cells to respond correctly to
damaged DNA.”
The James and Esther
King Biomedical Research
Program’s mission is to
improve and expand biomedical knowledge in Florida by
encouraging research.
Wang’s grant was in the New
Investigator Research
category.
Myra Hurt, Ph.D., associate
dean for research and
graduate programs, expects
Wang to achieve great results
with the grant.
Honors &
Awards
being of all older adults.
Fellowship status is bestowed
upon select society members
who have shown a commitment to scholarship in the field
of geriatrics. She also recently
received a Diamond Award at
the second annual Diamond
Awards Celebration of Women
Making History, sponsored by
the Women’s Business Center
of the Emerald Coast.
Ken Brummel-Smith, M.D., and
Curtis Stine, M.D., have been
selected for inclusion in the
eighth edition of Who’s Who
Among America’s Teachers.
Five percent of nation’s
teachers are honored and are
chosen based on former
students’ recommendations.
Edward Bradley III, M.D., was
named one of the country’s
top general surgeons in the
2004-2005 “Guide to
America’s Top Surgeons”
published by the Consumers’
Research Council of America.
Donna Jacobi, M.D., has been
awarded fellowship status in
the American Geriatrics
Society, the premier professional organization of healthcare providers dedicated to
improving the health and well-
Service
John Bailey, D.O., was elected
president-elect of the Florida
Psychiatric Society for 2004
and will serve as its president
in 2005. The Florida Psychiatric Society is the district
branch in Florida of the
American Psychiatric
Association. Bailey also will
be serving a third term as a
delegate from Capital Medical
Society to the Florida Medical
Association at the annual
FSU
COLLEGE OF MEDICINE SCIENTIST YANCHANG WANG, PH.D., CHECKS THE GROWTH OF
BUDDING YEAST FOR USE IN GENETIC EXPERIMENTS. WANG IS STUDYING THE ROLE OF A
PARTICULAR ENZYME IN ENABLING CELLS TO RESPOND CORRECTLY TO DAMAGED DNA.
“Dr. Wang is one of the first
generation of junior faculty
researchers hired in the new
College of Medicine,” Hurt
said. “His excellent postdoctoral training with one of
the world’s experts on the
molecular regulation of cell
growth has equipped him well
to make maximum use of the
King grant and to add to our
understanding of the group of
human diseases we call
cancer.”
Wang also was recently
awarded a $240,000, threeyear American Heart Association Scientist Development
Grant.
House of Delegates meeting
in Orlando in September.
principal investigators for
“Survey of Perceptions and
Opinions Regarding the
Elderly in Rural Florida
Physicians” and were
awarded $14,000 by the
Florida Department of Health.
Robert Brooks, M.D., has been
appointed by Governor Jeb
Bush to serve on the
Governor’s Health Information
Technology Advisory Board
for the state of Florida.
Grants
John Fleming, M.D., Ariel
Cole, M.D., and Jennifer
Keehbauch, M.D., were
awarded a $290,000 Health
Resources and Services
Administration grant for
residency training in primary
care. Anthony Costa, M.D., will
help implement the grant,
which will expand education
in geriatrics at Florida Hospital
Family Practice Residency
and Geriatric Fellowship.
Anne Gunderson, A.R.N.P.,
C.C.R.N.-A., and John
Tomkowiak, M.D., were co-
15
COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
Fred Kobylarz, M.D., M.P.H.,
was principal investigator for
the Geriatric Academic
Career Award, which was
funded by the Division of
State, Community, and Public
Health, Bureau of Health
Professions, Health Resources and Services Administration, and the Department
of Health and Human Services
in the amount of $50,000.
Gerry Maitland, M.D., and
Graham Patrick, Ph.D., were
awarded a $25,000 grant by
UCBPharma Inc. for a pilot
study to evaluate the “Effects
of Levetiracetam on Vestibular
Function in Normal Subjects.”
FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
Calendar/Events
DEAN’S ADVISORY
COUNCIL MEETING
October 1
PARENTS’ WEEKEND
TAILGATE
October 2
FACULTY FAMILY PICNIC
October 23
WONCA 2004 WORLD
CONFERENCE
(World Organization of Family
Physicans)
October 13-17, Orlando
HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT ANGELA CELI OF LAKE WORTH
TAKES THE PULSE OF STEVE HARRIS, PH.D., DURING A
HEALTH FAIR OFFERED JULY 16 BY STUDENTS IN THE
MASON SHAMIS AND COURTNEY NALL CYCLED FROM FLORIDA TO
MEDICAL SCHOOL’S RURAL INSTITUTE FOR PRE-
NEW YORK TO RAISE FUNDS FOR FSUCARES. MORE ON PAGE13.
MEDICAL EDUCATION (RIPE) SUMMER PROGRAM.
FSUCARES 5K RACE
November 7
MOVING DAY
APPROACHES!
DEADLINE FOR 2005
APPLICATIONS
December 1
AN AERIAL VIEW OF THE NEW COLLEGE
OF MEDICINE COMPLEX FROM JUNE
SHOWS THE TWO BUILDINGS INTO
WHICH THE COLLEGE WILL MOVE IN
THIS WON’T HURT A BIT!
OCTOBER. NEXT YEAR AN AUDITORIUM
Give to the
College of Medicine!
WILL BE ADDED TO THE EAST SIDE OF
THE COMPLEX, ENCLOSING THE
Please use the envelope
provided in this newsletter
to make your contribution
today. Simply note “College
of Medicine” on the
envelope and in the memo
section of your check.
J. Ocie Harris, M.D., Dean
College of Medicine
CENTRAL CLOISTER, AND THE EASTERN
SECTION OF THE RESEARCH BUILDING
(LEFT) WILL BE COMPLETED.
EDITOR: Nancy Kinnally
FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY
PLEASE VISIT THE COLLEGE OF
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[email protected]
ASSOCIATE EDITOR:
Meredith Brodeur
COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
MEDICINE
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(850) 644-1855
Fax (850) 644-9399
www.med.fsu.edu
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COLLEGE OF MEDICINE