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.