CONTACT: Nancy Kinnally
Phone: (850) 644-7824
Cell: (850) 443-7110
(941) 316-8120

By Tiffany Koenigkramer
March 1, 2005

FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY OPENS REGIONAL MEDICAL SCHOOL CAMPUS IN SARASOTA

SARASOTA, Fla.- The Florida State University College of Medicine is opening a regional campus in Sarasota that will be the school's fourth site for third- and fourth-year clinical training.

The public is invited to attend an open house of the FSU Regional Medical School Campus - Sarasota at:

201 Cocoanut Avenue
Thursday, March 3, 2005
12 - 6 p.m.

(The media is invited to come at 11 a.m., when faculty and staff will be available for interviews)

A community-based medical school, the FSU College of Medicine provides clinical training at regional medical school campuses around the state through affiliations with local physicians, ambulatory care facilities and hospitals. In the Sarasota area, the medical school is affiliated with Doctor's Hospital of Sarasota and Sarasota Memorial Hospital.

Beginning in July, nine third-year medical students will begin their clinical training in Sarasota. Four of the nine students are from Southwest Florida, including one from Sarasota, and the rest are from Southeast Florida.

Over the next few years, enrollment in Sarasota is expected to increase to 40 medical students, including 20 third-year students and 20 fourth-year students.

Under the direction of local physicians, these students will do clinical rotations in family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, surgery, obstetrics-gynecology and psychiatry. During their fourth-year, students will complete rotations in advanced family medicine, advanced internal medicine, geriatrics and emergency medicine, as well as a variety of electives.

At FSU's other regional medical school campuses, between 150 and 200 local physicians participate in FSU's educational program. As the Sarasota campus grows, it will likely involve a similar number of physicians from the area.
The Sarasota regional campus will be housed in the historic Weissgerber/ Famiglio house. The historic house was moved to its current site and renovated.

The Florida Legislature created the medical school in 2000 and charged it with educating physicians to serve the state's rural, geriatric, minority and other medically underserved populations. The medical school's other regional campuses are in Tallahassee, Orlando and Pensacola.

Initial community board members for the FSU Regional Medical School Campus - Sarasota are: Dr. Adam Bright, Sarasota County Medical Society; Dr. G. Duncan Finlay, Jr., chief executive officer, Sarasota Memorial Health Care System; Douglas R. Luckett, chief operating officer, Doctor's Hospital of Sarasota; Dr. Sandra K. MacLeod, medical director, Sarasota County Health Department; and FSU College of Medicine administrators Dr. Alma Littles and Mollie Hill.

For more information about the Sarasota campus, go to: http://med.fsu.edu/education/Regional/Sarasota/