The rising cost of health care has had a dramatic impact on vulnerable communities like historic Newtown, within Sarasota’s city limits.

Sarasota Regional Campus students, faculty and community board members took part, along with physicians with the FSU College of Medicine Internal Medical Residency Program at Sarasota Memorial Hospital. 

Dr. Vida Farhangi, Newtown Internal Medicine Clinic director, helped lead the project and oversaw residents like David Jerez (seen in photo). Drs. Karen Hamad, Cynthia Samra and Washington Hill joined the residents and medical students at the fair.

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As Gov. Ron DeSantis recently announced his $114.8 billion proposed state budget, it includes millions of dollars that would go toward Florida State and Florida A&M universities as well as Tallahassee Community College.

While FSU would be getting an $88.5 million in specific funding this year under DeSantis’s “Framework for Freedom” proposal for the 2023-2024 fiscal year, FAMU would receive $33.4 million and TCC would get $6.7 million.

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It was the first day of my inpatient internal medicine rotation and I felt as excited as ever to bein the hospital, participating in rounds. “How’s your day going?” I asked automatically in a cheery tone as I entered my first patient’s room.

“How do you think it’s going? I’m in the hospital,” the patient snarled dismissively. I stood there, a deer in the headlights, completely caught off guard.

A tractor-loader-backhoe, bulldozer and skid steer are parked next to a large sign that has been erected on a sprawling, dusty, brown parcel of property just north of Panama City Beach, Fla., along State 79 near Philip Griffitts Sr. Parkway.

On the sign is the colorful rendering of a new health care campus.

Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare is expanding its footprint west of the capital city with a new medical campus in partnership with Florida State University and The St. Joe. Company.

A groundbreaking ceremony took place last week for the FSU Health-Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare Medical Campus in Panama City Beach.

Florida State University’s College of Medicine dean position is no longer vacant as the university’s very own Dr. Alma Littles, senior associate dean for Medical Education and Academic Affairs, is appointed as the interim dean.
 

PANAMA CITY BEACH − The Beach celebrated a long-awaited milestone on Tuesday that will benefit local residents and tourists.

With about 200 people in attendance, local officials held a construction celebration for the FSU Health-Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare Medical Campus, which is being built through a partnership between the St. Joe Company, Florida State University and Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare.

Florida State University and Tallahassee Memorial Hospital have moved forward in a big way by breaking ground on their shared medical campus in Panama City Beach. The project is part of FSU’s long-term goal of climbing higher in national rankings and will also serve a massive retirement community that just completed its 1,000th home.

Paul Casto recalled the days, well within his lifetime, when Panama City Beach was without an ambulance.

“If there was an emergency, they had to send one from the old Bay Medical,” said the Ward 1 representative on the PCB City Council. “We’ve been talking  about the need for a hospital on this beach for 40 years.”

COVID-19 activity is picking up as a new subtype of the omicron variant - XBB.1.5 - makes its way across the United States.

Florida State University College of Medicine's Daniel Van Durme, M.D., said the new subvariant seems to bypass previous immunity and resist treatments such a monoclonal antibodies, though there has not been enough research to determine whether XBB.1.5 will be more severe than its predecessors.

"Get the newest booster," Van Durme said. "It can keep you out of the hospital and can literally save your life."

The FSU College of Medicine's Department of Geriatrics, through a federal training grant, partnered with Tallahassee Police and Leon County Emergency Management Services, to create training video that show how to better respond to emergency situations involving persons with dementia.

Aspartame, a sweetener used in thousands of products, produced anxiety-like behavior that can even pass on to future generations, according to a new peer-reviewed study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences earlier this month.

Florida State University College of Medicine researchers have found that aspartame, a commonly used artificial sweetener found in nearly 5,000 diet foods and drinks, is linked to anxiety-like behavior in mice.

Retiring Daytona Beach Regional Campus Dean Luckey Dunn, M.D., was honored for his 15 years of service to the College of Medicine during a farewell luncheon.

"Luckey was the perfect choice to be the founding dean here," said George Bernardo, M.D., who succeeds Dunn. "He started a tradition of excellence that our students get at the Daytona Beach campus. He just did a perfect job of getting us to where we are today."

Recent research suggests that high blood pressure may lead to an increase in neurotic behaviors.

FSU College of Medicine's Anthony C. Speights, M.D., senior associate dean for Interdisciplinary Medical Sciences and director of the Bridge to Clinical Medicine master's program, shares his thoughts on the importance of access to health care for rural and underserved populations.

Regular physical activity is now strongly recommended for people with rheumatoid arthritis, according to the new summary guidelines on integrative therapies from the American College of Rheumatology (ACR). Benjamin J. Smith, interim program director and associate dean of the Florida State University School of Physician Assistant Practice, was the co-principal investigator of the guidelines, which were presented at the Nov. 13 annual ACR Convergence Conference in Philadelphia.

Compared with non-Hispanic white women, women of other races and ethnicities waited significantly longer for pregnancy-related emergency care, according to study data.

“The United States has dramatic inequities in severe maternal morbidity and mortality compared to other high-income nations, with three to four Black women dying compared to every one white woman during the perinatal period,” Megan E. Deichen Hansen, MSW, PhD, research faculty in the department of behavioral sciences and social medicine at Florida State University College of Medicine, told Healio. “Since access to high-quality emergency care is essential to addressing severe maternal morbidity and mortality, this study sought to examine whether inequities were present within emergency room wait times.”

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. - A new healthcare facility has made its way to Bay County.

Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare Physicians Partners - Primary Care is now accepting new patients. The company held a ribbon cutting ceremony Friday to celebrate the grand opening of its new location in Panama City Beach. The move is the first step in a partnership with the St. Joe Company and FSU College of Medicine.

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The global coronavirus pandemic disrupted almost everything about our lives, from how we work and go to school, to how we socialize (Zoom happy hours, anyone?!), and ultimately strained trust in many of the overarching systems we depend on, from health care to government.

New research suggests it may have changed Americans' personalities, too, and not for the better.

American adults experienced about a decade’s worth of personality change in just two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, a new study revealed.
The research, published Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE, found declines in extroversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness among adults, with the most dramatic shifts displayed in people under 30.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — Florida State University and Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare say they are teaming up to bring a big economic boost to the area.

“I’m very excited,” shared FSU President, Richard McCullough.

“It’ll have a big impact,” added TMH CEO, Mark O’Bryant.

(CNN) — Covid-19 changed a lot – how we socialized, where we went, and even what work looked like. A new study shows the pandemic may have changed our personalities as well.

Psychologists have long believed that a person’s traits stayed pretty much the same, evenin the wake of stressful events. But by looking at pre-pandemic levels of neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness and comparing that to data collected in 2021 and 2022, researchers found notable personality changes among the United States population, according to the study.

A nearly $5 million grant to Florida State University's College of Medicine can possibly change the trajectory of young adults affected by the HIV epidemic, which remains a main health concern decades after the initial outbreaks in the U.S.

Florida State University invites the community to engage in the research process as its scientists look to better understand complicated diseases and other medical conditions.

The institution has joined ResearchMatch (researchmatch.org), a nonprofit program funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) where people - healthy or not - can sign up to participate in health-related research.

Florida State University College of Medicine professor Dr. Jonathan Appelbaum said the similarities between COVID and monkeypox data among Black and Hispanic populations is "just a microcosm of the health inequity in this country."

Florida college students are back on campus just as monkeypox is spreading quickly in the state, including among young adults.

But while universities are posting information and offering fliers about the disease, few are prepared for a campus outbreak. They have yet to announce how they plan to isolate students with the virus and help them keep up with classes, and few have acquired the Jynneos vaccine being used for people at high risk of monkeypox.

Susanna Zorn (M.D. Class of 2017) has joined the Tallahassee Orthopedic Clinic staff as a primary care sports medicine physician.

Florida State and Florida A&M officials are focused on educating students as they return to campuses in the midst of a nationwide monkeypox outbreak.

Fourth-year College of Medicine medical student Hayden Greene shares how connecting with a terminal patient provided an important lesson on her path to becoming a physician.

"I came to understand that the conscious  decision to make connections is what fortifies our ability to serve others as physicians. Our patients not only teach us about medicine but, more importantly, unconditional kindness, humility and empathy. These interactions and stories we carry throughout our careers ground and remind us of our 'why' we chose to practice medicine."

Dr. Jonathan Appelbaum speaks up in attempt to curb stigmatization and misinformation surrounding monkeypox.

Study International listed Florida State University's College of Medicine among five universities around the world that use games to enhance learning.

Work in the FSU College of Medicine Biomedical Sciences lab of Sanjay Kumar "is an important step for developing therapies to help patients."

FSU College of Medicine researchers have found a link between a protein in the brain and a heightened chance for neurodegeneration in people with temporal lobe epilepsy.

Families who breastfeed their children need support, according to guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics, and that requires social and systemic changes when it comes to workplace access and feeding stigma.

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The American Academy of Pediatrics has updated its guidance on breastfeeding – extending the recommended time for parents to breastfeed their children, while calling for policy change and "nonjudgmental support" for all families' feeding choices.

"We know that any breastfeeding is better than none... and the longer the total duration of breastfeeding the better," Dr. Joan Younger Meek, lead author of the AAP reports and a professor emeritus in clinical sciences at the Florida State University College of Medicine, told USA TODAY, pointing to breastfeeding health benefits for both babies and their parents.

The American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement Monday that extends the period of time for which breastfeeding is recommended to two years or more, but that also acknowledges the obstacles that stand in parents’ way.

“We need societal changes that will help to support this, such as paid leave, more support for breastfeeding in public and child care facilities and workplace support,” said Dr. Joan Meek, a professor emeritus in the department of clinical sciences at the Florida State University College of Medicine and lead author of the new recommendations.

As tourism skyrockets in Orlando, COVID-19 cases have also been on the rise.

Dr. Mark Chaet, dean of the Florida State University College of Medicine's Orlando Regional Campus, said it's important for at-risk people to remain aware and exercise caution, especially when visiting popular tourist destinations this summer.

Leaders at Florida State University and Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare are laying the foundation to establish Tallahassee as a leading medical research and health care center with the construction of FSU Health Tallahassee Center at TMH.

Florida State University President Richard McCullough hopes a planned academic health center will raise the level of medical care in the Tallahassee area.

Every rotation in the third year of medical school provides us with a concrete foundation of clinical knowledge for our medical degree and the opportunity to determine whether or not a particular specialty would be suitable for our future careers.

Pediatrics may teach us about developmental milestones; ob/gyn about the stages of labor; surgery about the 5 W's; family medicine about the USPSTF recommendations; and so on. However, each rotation taught me something unintentionally that could be applied broadly to my role as a resident physician and ultimately my future career.

About Abigail Schirmer
Abigail is a fourth-year medical student at Florida State University College of Medicine. She is interested in general surgery, patient safety research, medical education, and providing compassionate care to patients. Outside of medicine she enjoys running, CrossFit, swimming, general aviation, playing piano, and baking.

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Florida State University pediatrician Mary Norton said she has seen parents pour their last amount of formula into a bottle and tell her, “I have nothing else for my baby.” 

Indeed, families in Tallahassee and throughout Florida are feeling the effects of a national shortage of baby formula that continues to alarm health care workers, government officials and especially parents of infants. 

“I have had multiple conversations with families over the past few weeks who were very concerned about access to formula,” Norton said. “So, what you’re hearing on the national news, we’re seeing locally. For some families, this is a crisis because formula may be the primary or only source of nutrition their child gets.” 

When Cortez Brown picks up his diploma Saturday from Florida State University College of Medicine, he’ll be thinking about his mother and the sacrifices she made for him. 

“Since Day One my mom preached education,” said Brown, noting his mother, Octavia Curtis, didn't finish high school after giving birth to his older sister, who died at 2. “(My mother) stopped because family’s first.”

Brown was thinking about his single, working mom Saturday at the Vero Beach Highlands Clubhouse, where he unveiled plans for Octavian Village, an innovative nonprofit named after her that will provide enhanced educational opportunities for underserved students in Indian River County. 

To Brown, it’s his commitment to give back to a community that nurtured him as a student, complementing the passion for education his mother instilled in him from at least as far back as kindergarten at Rosewood Magnet School.

Students in the FSU College of Medicine's Physician Assistant program who do their clerkship rotations at the Fort Pierce campus have an opportunity to observe robotic surgery with a leader in the field. Adam Kurtin, D.O., of HCA Florida St. Lucie Hospital  has done more than 1,000 of the procedures and says they improve patient outcomes in several ways. He hopes to inspire the PA students to become part of a robotics surgical team.

Abigail Schirmer will move on to a residency in general surgery at Ascension St. John Hospital in Detroit, Mich.,after she graduates from Florida State University's College of Medicine on May 21. Looking back over the past four years, she wrote a letter to her younger self, the young woman who began medical school with no clue what she would experience, including navigating a global pandemic. The letter was originally posted on the Medscape blog.

Florida State University researchers are driving innovation and creating new forms of art while using their knowledge to contribute to Florida and beyond. In an article highlighting "10 Ways FSU is Changing the World," the College of Medicine was listed for its SSTRIDE program. Since 1994, Science Students Together Reaching Instructional Diversity and Excellence (SSTRIDE) has been cultivating pathways for under-represented students in the medical profession to succeed in medicine and other health-related careers. 

Myron Rolle -- elite athlete, Rhodes Scholar, Florida State University College of Medicine graduate, neurosurgery resident and humanitarian -- has faced insecurities, issues of self-worth and prejudice in his life. Yet the former FSU and NFL player never dwelled on those moments because he was, and is, always pursuing a better self. By Jim Henry of the Tallahassee Democrat.

Dhenu Patel, an undergraduate majoring in exercise physiology who is doing cancer research through the biomedical sciences lab of assistant professor Jerome Irianto, has been awarded the Barry Goldwater Scholarship. 

College of Medicine professor Angelina Sutin shares her thoughts on study findings published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology examining personality traits and their link to cognitive health as we age.

Jonathan S. Appelbaum, M.D., has been caring for patients with HIV since 1985. A geriatrician and internist and a professor of Clinical Sciences at the College of Medicine, Appelbaum's interest has been piqued by the intersection of HIV and aging.