Harold Bland, pediatrics education director for the Sarasota Regional Campus, and Michael Muszynski, dean of the Orlando Regional Campus, published, “The Florida State University College of Medicine Education Model in Pediatrics: 15 Years of Success,” in the winter 2017 issue of the Florida Pediatrician (page 27).

March 1, 2017

"Can Lawyers Improve Transitions of Care?" is a new article co-written by Marshall Kapp, J.D., MPH,  director of FSU's Center for Innovative Collaboration in Medicine and Law, and Paul Katz, M.D., professor and chair of the Department of Geriatrics. The article stems from a grant that Kapp's center received from the Retirement Research Foundation for a project titled Developing Educational Modules for Physician/Attorney Collaboration on Behalf of Older Individuals. 

 March 1, 2017

Two members of the Tallahassee Regional Campus faculty have been honored by the Capital Medical Society. Richard Zorn, M.D., who practices with Southeastern Surgical Group and is the College of Medicine's clerkship director for surgery, received the I.B. Harrison, M.D., Humanitarian Award. It's given each year to a physician who personifies the best of the medical profession. Wayne Batchelor, M.D., a cardiologist with Southern Medical Group, received the Outstanding Physician Award. It honors a physician who has demonstrated distinguished leadership in the profession.

March 1, 2017

A proposal submitted by Associate Professor Daniel Kaplan, Department of Biomedical Sciences, has been awarded a $25,000 College of Medicine seed grant. His proposal is titled "Developing a Novel, Screening Assay for Colorectal Cancer." The seed grant program is supported by the FSU Office of Research and the College of Medicine through a consortium partnership with the University of Florida and its Clinical Translational Science Award.

 March 1, 2017

An editorial by Professor George Rust, M.D. MPH, Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine, was published in the March 2017 issue of the American Journal of Public Health. Its title was "Choosing Health Equity: Investing in Optimal and Equitable Health for All." 

Faculty members Suzanne Harrison and Suzanne Baker are among the co-authors of a paper published in the current (March 2017) issue of Academic Medicine, the journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

An abstract for the article "Faculty Development for Medical School Community-Based Faculty" is available here: Academic Medicine abstract.  

Harrison, professor of family medicine and rural health, and Baker, research program director in the Department of Geriatrics, were joined in publishing the article with co-authors Joanna Drowos, Suzanne Minor, Alexander Chessman and Dennis Baker (who formerly served as the FSU College of Medicine's associate dean for faculty development).

Christie Alexander, M.D., assistant professor of family medicine and rural health at the College of Medicine, served as "Doctor of the Day" during the opening day of the 2017 Florida legislative session. The honor is more than ceremonial -- having a physician on hand provides a safety net in the event that an elected official or others involved in the session need immediate medical attention.

"Since so many are traveling from out of town and do not have local physicians, this is a great service for them," Alexander said. "This year, I didn't get any calls, but last year I saw several folks, so it varies. They have a full-time nursing staff that can do basic things such as checking blood pressure, and mild triage, but there are no full-time house physicians."

Alexander, a member of the College of Medicine's inaugural class (2005), served as Doctor of the Day in the middle of the 2016 session, but this year's visit was different.  Any physician may apply to serve as Doctor of the Day during the session, but for the opening day the physicians are exclusively selected by either the Senate president or the speaker of the House.

Senate President Joe Negron specifically wanted a family physician this year, a point he made clear when introducing Alexander.

"That made this opportunity quite an honor," Alexander said. "One, to be invited by the Senate president on behalf of family physicians across the state and to care for the elected officials on opening day, and two, as part of opening day itself -- to be able to be there as the Senate president gave his opening speech, as well as to be there for the joint session as Gov. Scott gave his State of the State address to the entire Florida Legislature."

Adding to the excitement, for Alexander, was the presence of FSU President John Thrasher. Thrasher served as speaker of the House in 2000 when legislation passed to create the new FSU College of Medicine.

"That made this honor more humbling for me," said Alexander, who serves as chair of the FSU Medical Alumni board. "Being there as a representative of the College of Medicine with the very people in the very arena that made my journey possible is hard to put into words. Humbling and somewhat surreal, to say the very least."

Photo: Christie Alexander with Senate President Joe Negron.

March 9, 2017

Comments from Marshall Kapp, director of FSU’s Center for Innovative Collaboration in Medicine and Law, were included in a February news story headlined “Florida nonprofit hospitals brace for legislative battle.” The lead paragraph of the story, published in the Naples News, referred to the governor’s proposal to deregulate the health care industry and stated that nonprofit hospitals worried about its impact on their ability to care for the poor. Kapp had testified before a Florida House subcommittee on the limited research done nationally on the possible effects of deregulation.

“We’ve seen a number of hospitals go out of business for various reasons. And the advent of new hospitals coming in and competing with existing hospitals for better-insured patients may be one factor for these hospitals going out of business or being forced to merge with others,” Kapp told the News.

The story continued: “Kapp said that in states such as California and Texas, where they have gotten rid of regulation, there is some evidence of a surge in for-profit hospitals, hospices and nursing homes in years immediately after the repeal was passed. In addition, Kapp said that as the industry develops to care for as many patients as possible outside of hospitals, more competition will further squeeze nonprofits. ‘It certainly does present competition for a shrinking market,’ Kapp said.”

March 9, 2017

A photo by Monica Nemat, a member of the College of Medicine’s ACTS 2 team, has been accepted for the Art in STEM exhibition at FSU’s Dirac Library on March 30. “ACTS 2” is the shorthand name of the African-American Alzheimer’s Caregiver Training and Support Project 2, a five-year project coordinated by Rob Glueckauf, professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine.

Nemat, an FSU undergraduate, is Glueckauf’s DIS (Directed Individual Study) student and has been working with ACTS 2 since late 2014.  "I decided to use this project as a platform to exhibit the importance and the beauty of this tailored method of telehealth," she said.

Her photo has been incorporated into a poster to spread the word about ACTS 2, which uses telephone counseling to relieve caregivers’ stress and offer them support.

March 9, 2017

Andrée Aubrey, director of the Area Health Education Center at the College of Medicine, has been appointed to the Florida Independent Living Council. The group's role is to ensure that people with disabilities have a voice in developing the State Plan for Independent Living; that their living needs are identified and met; and that advocacy on behalf of independent living programs and consumers is initiated and carried out. Aubrey, one of nine new council members Gov. Rick Scott announced in February, was appointed to a term that ends June 30, 2019.