Pediatrician Scott Needle, who serves as clerkship coordinator for the College of Medicine's Isabel Collier Read Medical Campus in Immokalee, has been named to the National Advisory Committee on Children and Disasters. The federal advisory committee includes 15 members who are appointed by the Department of Health and Human Services.

Needle also teaches FSU medical students on rotations in Immokalee and serves as chief medical officer for the Healthcare Network of Southwest Florida. 

The advisory committee is charged with providing advice and consultation to comprehensive planning and policies for meeting heath-care needs of children before, during and after a disaster or other public health emergency. Needle is the only pediatrician named to the committee.

Read more about Dr. Needle

Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine Researcher Xan Nowakowski, Ph.D., M.P.H., recently authored, “Chronic Inflammation and Quality of Life Among Older Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study Using Biomarkers to Predict Emotional and Relational Outcomes,” based on her dissertation research, which will be published in Health and Quality of Life Outcomes. Nowakowski also collaborated with Assistant Professor Jason Samerau, Ph.D. of the University of Tampa on, “Swell Foundations: Fundamental Social Causes & Chronic Inflammation,” to be published in Sociological Spectrum, also based her dissertation research.

Biomedical Sciences Associate Professor Michelle Arbeitman received a two-year $152,000 grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to analyze the interactions and function of the Extracellular Receptor Immunoglobulin Superfamily in fruit flies to understand mechanisms that cause disease.

A paper by Professor Michael Blabler, Ph.D., and graduate students Xia Xue and Liam Longo was selected for inclusion in “Two Decades of Publishing Excellence in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology.” Xue (biomedical sciences) and Longo (molecular biophysics) are students in the Blaber Lab in the Department of Biomedical Sciences. The special issue of the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences was created to highlight the journal’s contributions to the clinical success of biotechnology-based drugs, which have been used in the prevention and treatment of human and animal diseases for more than 20 years. 

September 2014

The aging-with-HIV blog for which College of Medicine Professor Jonathan Appelbaum is medical director scored a literary coup this month with a guest piece by one of this country’s top Olympians: Greg Louganis.

When Louganis was diagnosed with HIV in 1988, it was considered an instant death sentence. Now, 26 years later at age 54, he’s thrilled to be alive — but also coming to grips with the financial realities of living much longer than his savings account expected.

"We are honored that Mr. Louganis would share his intimate thoughts, circumstances and challenges with us," said Appelbaum, a member of the HIV-Age.org editorial board and director of internal medicine education at the College of Medicine. "Despite his historic success, he is experiencing many of the same personal struggles that many older HIV patients face."

Louganis and Appelbaum also are scheduled to be interviewed on a national radio call-in show Sept. 29.

Louganis was diagnosed with HIV just six months before he was scheduled to appear in his second Olympic Games. Despite that disconcerting health news, he competed — and brought home two gold medals. Thanks to his daily meds and his positive attitude, he’s thriving. Still, there are challenges.

“I was recently talking with a fellow 50-something friend about the challenges facing our population of long-term HIV/AIDS survivors,” Louganis writes. “We agreed that while remaining so grateful to be living longer, we are also constantly reassessing the financial burden of aging.”

For example, just to support himself, he had to sell his life insurance and use up his savings. Because the mortgage was a burden, and because he didn’t expect to live long, he sold his house. Yet life went on. At a certain point, he said to himself, “Heck, I need to get a job!”

So he did. After an absence of almost 20 years, he began a new venture as a coach for an 8- to 14-year-old developmental team. Then he was recruited to become “athlete mentor” for the nonprofit organization USA Diving.

He calls HIV/AIDS “my constant companion.”

“I take my cocktail of meds in the morning and in the evening, along with supplements and Chinese herbs,” Louganis said. “I go to acupuncture once a week, which helps my immune support, as well as pain management of old sports injuries. I also exercise, staying active with cardio and yoga practices. My exercise program is just as important to me as my morning and evening meds regimen.

“I will also soon be celebrating my first anniversary of being married to my soul mate.”

To see Louganis’ complete essay, visit http://hiv-age.org/category/editorial/.

Louganis and Appelbaum are scheduled to be interviewed from 4 to 4:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 29, on “Doctor Radio,” SiriusXM Channel 81. HIV-Age.org is an outgrowth of the HIV and Aging Consensus Treatment Strategies, with which Appelbaum was heavily involved back in 2011.

September 2014

Nine first- and second-year College of Medicine students were awarded scholarships totaling $40,000 this month by the Capital Medical Society Foundation.

These are the students, in alphabetical order: Allison Ellis (Class of 2017), Jennica Hagberg (2017), Samuel Muniz (2018), William Nimmons (2017), Nwamaka Onyeozili (2017), Chirag Patel (2017), Thomas Shakar (2017), Drew Williams (2018) and Israel Wootton (2017).

The scholarship recipients were chosen by a committee of Capital Medical Society members, led by Tallahassee pediatrician Frank Walker.

“Attending medical school is a very expensive proposition these days,” Walker said. “My fellow physicians are pleased and proud to help support medical students who have not only a financial need but a desire to stay in Florida and practice medicine in Florida.”

Wootton said the CMS scholarship has been a tremendous financial help to him, his wife and their three young children.

“To switch careers in my late 20s from architecture to medicine was a leap of faith,” he said. “My wife and I understood that this decision would take a financial toll for many years to come. In fact, we couldn’t do it without the support of those around me. I am overwhelmed by the kindness and support I have received. Tallahassee has been my home for the past 16 years. I am truly honored and grateful for the outpouring of support from Capital Medical Society and the Tallahassee community.”

The Capital Medical Society Foundation has been awarding these scholarships since before the medical school was created. Pam Wilson, executive director, looked up the totals: 

• The foundation awarded 14 scholarships to students in FSU's Program in Medical Sciences, the predecessor of the College of Medicine, totaling $20,889.
• So far, it has awarded 114 scholarships to College of Medicine students, totaling $357,000.

"Several of the physicians who were recipients of scholarships over the years," Wilson said, "serve on the Scholarship Committee."

In December, the foundation will host its annual Holiday Auction to raise money for more medical school scholarships.
 

Now it's a total of five College of Medicine students who have had their artwork featured on the cover of Academic Medicine. The latest addition is Rennier Martinez (Class of 2015).

His painting Niño Azul is featured on the October 2014 issue. "I saw a worried immigrant mother, with a sick child, who sought help from the community health clinic doctor because she had nowhere else to turn," Martinez wrote in the accompanying artist's statement. "She was ready to take any advice the doctor had and follow it to the letter. The level of trust this mother had in a doctor who, frankly, she did not know anything about was inspiring."

The College of Medicine students whose art was published on earlier Academic Medicine covers were Jesse O'Shea (also Class of 2015), Monica Chatwal (Class of 2013), Zach Folzenlogen (also Class of 2013) and Jared Rich (Class of 2012).

Vishal Dahya (M.D., ’14) was the lead author of a recent study that had encouraging results for HIV-positive people who’ve been getting long-term treatment.

The study, which Dahya presented at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, was reported on the website TheBody.com. Researchers found that the HIV-positive people they studied — people on long-term antiretroviral therapy — had no higher calcium scores than the population as a whole. Those scores are related to calcium buildup in plaques, which is seen as evidence of coronary artery disease.

Dahya, a first-year resident in the FSU College of Medicine Internal Medicine Residency Program at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, was also among HIV researchers interviewed by thebodypro.com on whether this had been a bad year for research on an HIV cure.

“Regardless of the diagnosis, regardless of disease, we have to stay positive in everything that we're doing,” Dahya replied. “Research has its downturns and upturns, but we have to be able to stay positive, because it's a process.

“Going back and trying to find the exact mechanisms that caused the relapses will definitely help prevent it from happening again, and also be able to further our research so we can get to that point in which we can find that cure.”

October 2014

Florida State University is working with the American Geriatrics Society and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to update the Physician’s Guide to Assessing and Counseling Older Drivers. Over the next three years, led by College of Medicine Geriatrics Professor Alice Pomidor, the organizations are taking a whole new approach to expand the guide.

“Most helper organizations have a great tendency to say, ‘This is important. You should know this. Here.’ — and they develop handouts that get thrown away,” said Pomidor, who heads the editorial board for this Older Adult Driver Project and chairs the AGS Public Education Committee. “We’re doing it a bit differently, by providing the information in multiple formats and having people choose which one is right for them.”

One broad goal of the AGS is to disseminate geriatrics knowledge not just to other physicians but also to nurses, pharmacists, social workers, physical and occupational therapists and other health-care providers, in addition to caregivers and older adults themselves. Not surprisingly, the plan is to make this updated guide useful to those same groups.

“There’s been sort of a medicalization of the issues with older drivers, where everybody says, ‘Oh, the doctors need to stop everybody,’” she said. “Well, if the doctors only see you once every six months, and then they see you for 15 minutes, the whole notion that people somehow have the magic ability to tell whether you should drive becomes ludicrous. You have to be trained how to assess the skill set and how to assess the physical capabilities for driving.”

Much of the content from the previous guidelines remains valid, Pomidor said, though some updating is needed. “We know more now, for example, about what is an effective way to assess someone’s thinking,” she said. “The old standard used to be the Mini-Mental State Exam, but it really has little ability to predict how someone will do as a driver. There are different ways to test someone’s cognition which are actually much more helpful.”

New automotive technology also will be incorporated. “Can you turn your head and look over your shoulder?” Pomidor said. “If not, you need a vehicle that has a rear-view backup camera.”

The target date for the new education and outreach programs is 2017. Meantime, NHTSA has an entire web page devoted to older drivers: http://www.nhtsa.gov/Driving+Safety/Older+Drivers. In Florida, the Safe Mobility for Life Coalition has a wealth of information and resources about older adult drivers and road users at http://www.flsams.org/.

Ken Brummel-Smith, chair of the Department of Geriatrics at the College of Medicine, has been appointed to the Florida Alzheimer's Disease Research Grant Advisory Board. The appointment was effective Oct. 1 for a period of two years and was made by Florida Surgeon General John H. Armstrong.