August 2017

The FSU College of Medicine played a key role in a recent forum that allowed Florida experts to compare notes on patient care, medical education and research.

In the first week of August, for only the second time, the Council of Florida Medical School Deans had its midyear meeting in conjunction with the Florida Medical Association’s annual meeting.

“This forum ... provides an opportunity for the deans and other leaders of the medical schools to interact with their students, residents and faculty who are also actively participating in the FMA’s advocacy and educational programs,” stated a summary released after the forum. “... This cooperative network has allowed us to share ideas and best practices, recruit outstanding talent and pursue resources that benefit medical education and healthcare in the state as a whole, while enhancing programs at our individual institutions.”

During the FMA meeting, College of Medicine Assistant Professor Christie Alexander, M.D., and former Director of Community Clinical Relations Mollie Hill received prestigious awards. In addition, Alexander was elected to the association’s Board of Governors.

Here are more FSU connections: College of Medicine Dean John P. Fogarty, M.D., is chair of the deans’ council, which includes all six public and three private medical schools in Florida. Senior Associate Dean Alma Littles, M.D., a member of the deans’ council, also chairs the FMA’s Council on Medical Education, Science and Public Health. And interventional cardiologist John Katopodis, M.D., newly installed FMA president, is on the clerkship faculty of the College of Medicine’s Tallahassee Regional Campus.

Among the special guests attending were American Medical Association President David Barbe, M.D.; Joshua Lenchus, D.O., representing the Florida Osteopathic Medical Association; Florida Surgeon General Celeste Philip, M.D.; and state Rep. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart. Among the topics discussed were graduate medical education; well-being of medical students and residents; and pain management and the opioid crisis.

When honors were handed out, Alexander received the FMA’s Gerold L. Schiebler, M.D., Advocate for Students Award. (Read more about the award.)

Hill received FMA’s Distinguished Layman’s Award. She was recognized for her decades of service as executive director of Capital Medical Society and then with the brand-new FSU College of Medicine beginning in 2000. Here is an excerpt from her nomination: “The College of Medicine faced a unique challenge among medical schools, needing to arrange for student clinical rotations to take place in community settings all across Florida [since the innovative new medical school didn’t] operate its own teaching hospital or academic medical center.... The hard part was figuring out how to ensure that medical students would get access to physicians and their patients for the required rotations. Mollie was given this challenge and deserves a great deal of credit for negotiating affiliation agreements with (today) more than 100 hospitals, group practices, medical centers, surgery centers, clinics and other health-care facilities throughout Florida.”

Presenters with an FSU connection in the David A. Paulus, M.D., Poster Symposium included:

• Third-year student Bianca Alvarez, Orlando campus, "Dopamine Neuron Development in a Mouse Model of Early-Onset Generalized Dystonia" (co-authors Deirdre McCarthy, Nutan Sharma and Pradeep Bhide, Ph.D.).
• Third-year student David Aung-Din, Orlando campus, "Investigation on the Effects of Exogenous Melatonin on Working Memory and Driving Performance in Parkinson's Disease" (co-author Nick Garson).
• Third-year student Devan Patel, Fort Pierce campus, "Human Mesenchymal Stem Cell Treatment Prevents TBI-Associated Depression: Genes to Behavior" (co-authors Ali Darkazalli, Ph.D., Cynthia Vied, Ph.D., Nastaren Abad, Samuel Grant and Cathy Levenson, Ph.D.).
• Fourth-year student Nina Morgan, Sarasota campus, ""Atrial Fibrillation Masquerading as Panic Attacks" (co-authors Karen Hamad, M.D., and Wilhelmine Wiese-Rometsch, M.D.).
• Fourth-year student Megan Phelan, Fort Pierce campus, "VSD Complicated With Pulmonary Overcirculation."
• Resident Luba Muaddi, FSU Internal Medicine Residency Program at TMH, "Cystic Fibrosis Presenting as Cavitary Pneumonia in a 24-Year-Old Caucasian Female" (co-author Michele Edison, M.D.).
• Resident Krishna Patel, FSU Internal Medicine Residency Program at TMH, "Left Ventricular Noncompaction Cardiomyopathy: An Uncommon Case of Cardiac Arrest Potentially Missed on Echocardiogram" (co-authors Philip Denoux, M.D., and Gian Carlo Giove, M.D.).
• Resident Zareen Vaghaiwalla, FSU Internal Medicine Residency Program at TMH, "A Severe Presentation of Herpes Simplex-2 in the Immunocompromised Patient" (co-author Philip Denoux, M.D.).
• And resident Latrisha Wright, FSU Internal Medicine Residency Program at TMH, "Jod-Basedow Phenomenon in Follicular Carcinoma" (co-authors Mittal Patel, M.D., and Raymond Shashaty, M.D.).