News of the Week

College of Medicine to host AMWA Region 4 conference

Oct 19, 2022

The Florida State University College of Medicine will welcome American Medical Women’s Association members from four southeastern states to the daylong Region 4 Conference on Saturday, Oct. 22.

Madison Patrick, a second-year FSU medical student and the conference director, said 125 people registered for the event, primarily medical students but also academic physicians and undergraduate and graduate students interested in careers in medicine. This year’s theme is “Caring with Compassion.” (Visit the conference website.)

Dr. Melissa Parsons, an associate professor of emergency medicine and assistant program director in emergency medicine residency at UF Health in Jacksonville, will deliver the keynote address. Along with FSU College of Medicine graduate Dr. Lexie Mannix, Parsons co-founded sheMD, a free open-access medical education platform for women who want a career in medicine.

The goal of sheMD is “to inspire and educate women in medical training about gender disparities and to provide tools to overcome inequality,” according to its website. Parsons' topic will be "Being a Woman in Medicine: What We Wish We Had Known."

In addition to the keynote, the two other speakers are Dr. Shelby Blank, a general surgeon at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, and Dr. Nicole Bentze, dean of the college’s Sarasota Regional Campus and a board-certified family physician. Blank will discuss “Compassion Fatigue” and how self-care is important to delivering quality, patient-centered care. Bentze will address "Stress Management in Medicine."

Two hands-on clinics, one on suturing and one on implanting IUDs for birth control, as well as two concurrent panel discussions will also be a part of the program.

Dr. Harris Green of Dermatology Associates of Tallahassee and Dr. Austinn Miller, a dermatology resident there, will lead the suturing clinic. Dr. Shermeeka Hogans-Mathews, an assistant professor of family medicine and rural health at FSU, will lead the IUD clinic.

A panel composed of medical residents will take questions from medical students about what to expect as they apply for and begin residencies. Current medical students will answer questions from undergraduate students considering medical school.

Patrick attended her first AMWA conference at the University of Alabama-Birmingham while an undergraduate student at Auburn University. There, she presented her research on the effectiveness of natural compounds on drug-resistant tuberculosis. Based on her positive experience, she jumped at the opportunity to plan and oversee this weekend’s conference.

“A big part of every conference is getting to network and getting to learn from the other attendees,” she said. “It’s a relaxing environment but it’s still productive.”