By Joe Humphrey
Dec. 31, 2000
Times-Union staff writer
Source: http://www.jacksonville.com

TALLAHASSEE -- A group of 10 Florida State University seniors applied to medical school last year, seeking a chance to study at one of the state's four medical schools. They had practically equal grades and near-identical entrance exam scores.

"I knew they'd all be good doctors," Mark Helquist, one of the students, recalled. "They all had good patience, good temperaments."

But as students in Florida, where medical school slots are among the scarcest in the country, they also had long odds of getting accepted.

Only two people in the group, Helquist included, made the cut. The other eight have scattered to pursue careers as nurses, marine biologists and homemakers, among other vocations.

More than test scores and grades go into determining admission, but Helquist thinks more than just two would have been accepted if more space had been available for potential doctors. Beginning in May, a new medical school at Florida State will provide additional opportunities, as a charter class of 30 students begins its studies.

The state's first new medical school in more than a decade promises to offer something its counterparts don't: a strong focus on training primary care physicians who will work in traditionally underserved rural areas. Students will spendt their third and fourth years studying in clinics, doctors' offices and hospitals in Pensacola and Orlando. Florida also has one of the nation's fastest-aging populations, making geriatric care a priority.

The school has been deemed by many a political coup engineered by powerful FSU alumni, including former House Speaker John Thrasher, R-Orange Park. Critics say Thrasher, in his final year as a state lawmaker, led the charge to deliver his alma mater an impressive feather in its cap.

But Myra Hurt, interim dean of FSU's College of Medicine, offers this statistic to underscore the need for a new school: Florida licenses about 2,500 doctors annually but graduates only about 500 from its medical schools.

"We have always relied on the kindness of strangers," she said.

Optimistic beginning

Its medical school is new, but Florida State has three decades of experience offering medical education. Since 1971, FSU has offered a first year of medical school in conjunction with the University of Florida. Students spend a year in Tallahassee studying basic science, then transfer to Gainesville to complete their degree. So when 30 students show up in May, ready for their first year of school, Florida State will be prepared.

"It's an easier project than I thought it would be," FSU President Talbot "Sandy" D'Alemberte said. "To say we're going to deliver the first year of medical school next year, that doesn't cause us much concern at all. The real tricky questions are going to come a little bit further down the line."

Helquist, who earned his undergraduate degree in biology, is halfway through his first year of medical school in Tallahassee. He and 29 others will move on to Gainesville next year and will be replaced by Florida State medical students.

Enrollment is projected to grow from 30 students this year to 480 in eight years. By then, each class will have 120 students. To fulfill its mission, Florida State wants to find students with a clear interest in pursuing primary care.

"We will not have any problem in recruiting 30, 40, 50 students as we expand the medical school," D'Alemberte said. "The issue, in my mind, is whether we will get the applicants we want to fulfill our mission. Based on what has happened so far, I'm optimistic that we'll see those people come."

Helquist, for example, said half of his class has already decided to pursue primary care. He is still undecided.

As the classes grow, so too will the budget. And medical education is not cheap. A new building is needed in the next few years to house the college. The school must also purchase equipment, pay faculty and staff and manage its students throughout the state. FSU estimates it will need $15.2 million from the state this coming year and $34.1 million by 2008-09.

Selling primary care

Primary care doctors don't try to cure cancer or perform emergency surgery. They don't garner front-page headlines or collect big-time paychecks. But they are the type of doctors Florida needs most.

"One of the things we constantly face in our rural areas is a shortage of physicians, especially primary care," said Art Clawson, who directs emergency medical services and community health resources for the Florida Department of Health. "Any program designed to enhance that is very important to us."

The key is finding students who are willing to abandon the big cities and comfortable suburbs.

"We want people who understand that they may not be making the top dollars specialists make, but there's a lot of psychic income," D'Alemberte said. "Community involvement, a lower cost of living."

Hurt, who is leading the college as it searches for a full-time dean, said FSU must search for qualified students who come from the underserved areas, primarily those in the Panhandle.

"Our challenge over the next several years is going to be to get out into the communities of Northwest Florida and develop the applicant pool," she said. "They don't have people in their backgrounds who know what the ropes are."

D'Alemberte said he expects 65 to 75 percent of graduates to pursue primary care.

Thrasher said he expects the Legislature to ensure Florida State sticks to its mission. The oversight, he said, will occur in the funding process, where FSU will depend on millions of dollars annually to keep the school running.

"I think they'll stay to their mission," he said.

Students will spent their first two years in Tallahassee, studying basic science. The final two years will be spent at clinical campuses throughout the state. There, students will study with doctors in offices, clinics and hospitals.

Florida State plans to launch programs in Pensacola and Orlando, with its eyes on Jacksonville for expansion down the road.

The goal, D'Alemberte said, is to give students exposure to a wide range of problems, providing a chance to treat all cases, not just severe ones that only a specialist would see.

"We anticipate that probably less than 50 percent of our training will be in a hospital," he said. "We will attempt, through various devices, to get people out in the areas where they will see patients other than those examples with the most exotic types of diseases."

The plan also allows FSU to operate a medical school without a teaching hospital such as UF's Shands, which adds millions of dollars to an operating budget.

Said Thrasher: "Other states are looking at Florida and seeing this as a non-traditional way to create a medical school because of the savings for tax dollars."

UF pledges help

Did Florida need to spend millions of dollars to build a new school?

Months after the Legislature approved it, over the objections of the state's other medical school deans -- who said they could have increased their enrollments -- that argument has been muted.

"I think that nobody is worrying about the fight anymore," said Kenneth Berns, dean of UF's medical school. "The real issue is to try and help them get off to a successful start. Fundamentally, whenever they ask us for help, we give it to them."

The Board of Regents, which governs state universities, initially opposed the school's creation, then backed off, deciding the Legislature should have the final word. Spokesman Keith Goldschmidt said the regents now are fully supportive of the school.

Hurt said FSU's new medical school will prove its worth by creating more opportunities for potential doctors and by better serving areas that need physicians.

"In this state," she said, "it's harder to get into medical school than just about anywhere else in the country. There are a lot of people applying to medical school who are not getting in who are qualified and motivated."

By Jill Elish
May 2001

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.-The charter class of Florida State University College of Medicine arrived on campus May 7 to begin classes at the nation's first new allopathic medical school in more than 20 years.

Before attending their first class in gross anatomy, the 30 students attended orientation sessions and met with Dr. Joseph Scherger, who will begin his duties as dean of the new college in July. He currently is the associate dean for primary care and professor and chair of the department of family medicine at the University of California, Irvine, College of Medicine.

"The mission of the FSU College of Medicine to produce physicians for underserved communities, emphasizing primary care, geriatrics and a diverse group of students is what excites me most," Scherger said after meeting the students for the first time.

The College of Medicine was established by the Florida Legislature in May 2000 to train primary care physicians to provide health care for medically underserved populations in rural and inner city areas and to specifically address the needs of the growing geriatric population in the state and nation.

Fifty percent of the students in the new class are over age 22, 43 percent (13) are women and 10 percent (3) are married. Studies show that women, married and older medical students are more likely to choose primary care, according to Acting Dean Myra Hurt. Ninety percent of the students in the class indicated they are interested in primary care or general practice medicine, she said.

The class will graduate in 2005. Eventually, the college will graduate about 120 students each year.

The members of the first class, all from Florida, are:
BIG BEND AREA - Natosha Canty, Havana; Garrett Chumney, Apalachicola; Joda Lynn, Perry; Neil Rodgers, Quincy; and Laura Dacks, Jason Farrah, Julie Gladden, Adam Ouimet, Kim Ruscher-Rogers and Christie Sain, all of Tallahassee.
NORTHWEST - Amanda Davis, Wewahitchka; and Mark Bochey and Luc Thuan of Pensacola.
NORTHEAST - Kerry Bachista, Ponte Vedra Beach; Ajay Mhatre, Lake City; Victor Gonzalez and Kevin Raville, both of Gainesville; and Michael Hernandez, Karen Miles and Shayla Smith, all of Jacksonville.
CENTRAL - Robert Allison, Tampa; Nariman Heshmati, Indian Harbour Beach; Alex Ho, Lake Mary; Javier Miller, Oviedo; and Jason Rocha, Temple Terrace.
SOUTH - David Bojan, Hallandale; Lorna Fedelem, Naples; Sarah Fein, Boca Raton; Fawn Grigsby, Clewiston; and Sachin Parikh, Miami.

Sunday, May 13, 2001

By Sandy D'Alemberte
President, Florida State University

I was so glad to see Dr. Edward Holifield's commentary "FSU medical school built on deception" (Tallahassee Democrat, May 2001). Over the 30-year history of the FSU PIMS program, 20 percent of the students have been minorities and 7 percent have been black. In the past five years - with outreach programs and a statewide applicant pool - our numbers have improved to 31 percent minorities and 10 percent black.

Relative to other programs, FSU has done well, but nationwide the record is not good. The central problem for all of medical education is the" science and math in careers other education medical for them prepare that programs science K-12 educated being are students minority young enough Not pipeline.? FSU has developed outreach programs to address the "pipeline" problem. These will be familiar to the thousands of students, parents and teachers who have participated in them: "Saturday at the Sea," "Sea to See," "Physics Fair."

Of course, these programs are only a part of what FSU does with outreach. The Boys' Choir of Tallahassee and the substantial commitment of FSU to the Southside Schools Initiative should convince any fair-minded observer that FSU is attempting to reach out to minorities.

In 1994, recognizing the national, state and local "pipeline" problem in recruiting minority students, PIMS initiated the SSTRIDE program under the direction of Thesla Berne-Anderson. I invite Dr. Holifield to observe this program some day. SSTRIDE (“Science Students Together Reaching Instructional Diversity and Excellence”) targets middle and high school students who can benefit from special attention and pairs them with medical and graduate students who provide one-on-one mentoring. Anyone who visits this program will be impressed with the dedication of the staff, the commitment of the undergraduate and graduate student tutors/mentors from FSU and FAMU and the success of the students involved.

The new medical school at FSU will continue to focus on the "pipeline" problem and, recognizing that the medical school will not benefit immediately from the SSTRIDE program, has added another initiative - a special program to prepare bright college graduates who do not have sufficient science background for medical school. This special program began last week under the supervision of a committed medical educator, Ervin Davis. Dr. Davis has recruited some wonderful students who have shown a special commitment to future service in medically underserved areas. Four of them are minority students.

Dr. Holifield's "My View" piece was published in the Tallahassee Democrat on the eve of the orientation of the first class of the FSU College of Medicine. Of the 30 students in the class, nine are minority students. As I look over the background and commitment of these students, I am confident that they will follow their instincts to become primary-care physicians and provide their skills to medically underserved communities.

Finally, I need to say that Dr. Holifield's comparisons of FSU and FAMU are off the mark. FAMU unquestionably does a wonderful job of educating black students, but so does FSU. We are not segregated institutions, and FSU's black enrollment has grown more than 50 percent since I have become president. FSU has demonstrated its commitment to diversity, and Dr. Holifield is very wrong to ignore the facts.

By Nancy Kinnally
November 28, 2001

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A family physician from rural Milton, Fla., will serve as the assistant dean for the FSU College of Medicine’s regional campus in Pensacola.

The college announced Monday that it has appointed Dr. Paul McLeod to lead the development of the first of several regional medical campuses it will establish throughout the state.

McLeod, who spent 21 years in rural family practice and 10 years as an assistant clinical professor for the University of South Alabama, is currently national medical director for MED3000 Health Solutions. He will begin his new position Jan. 1.

Dr. Joseph E. Scherger, dean of the College of Medicine, said McLeod has all of the qualities needed for the job.

“He is a highly respected primary care physician and has served a rural population in Milton for many years,” Scherger said.

“He is recognized by his peers as a talented leader who will be able to put together a quality education program and get other doctors committed to teaching. And he will be a great mentor for our students because he is truly excited about helping develop the next generation of doctors.”

McLeod said the Pensacola area is an ideal place for the new campus, one of several regional medical campuses the college is establishing by forming partnerships with existing community hospitals and practices for the clinical education of third- and fourth-year medical students.

"The Pensacola community has a rich tradition of medical education,” McLeod said. “We have supported and benefited from residency programs for many years. The FSU program builds upon this foundation with an educational model that has already been eagerly embraced by our physicians and hospitals, both urban and rural. The result will be the well-trained, caring physicians needed to meet Florida’s most pressing health-care needs."

Three Pensacola hospitals – Baptist Health Care, Sacred Heart and West Florida Hospital – will be involved in the education of FSU medical students, as will several local practices. Scherger said the collaborative approach of the Pensacola medical community made it a natural for the first regional medical campus.

“The leaders of all three Pensacola hospitals are committed to working together to bring quality medical education to the community,” he said.

Dr E. Coy Irvin, the Escambia County Medical Society’s representative on the initial board for the school’s Regional Medical Campus - Pensacola, said the presence of the FSU College of Medicine will have a positive impact on Pensacola and the surrounding rural communities.

“Bringing the resources and students of the FSU College of Medicine to our hospitals and community practices will enrich the practice environment for our physicians and help us move forward with the adoption of new technologies and practice models to improve patient care,” Irvin said.

By Nancy Kinnally
November 28, 2001

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. –The Florida State University College of Medicine has established a Center on Terrorism and Public Health that will serve as a resource for educating health professionals and the public on how to deal with weapons of mass destruction and bioterrorism.

The center received approval Monday from the Florida Board of Education.

Dr. Robert G. Brooks, associate dean for health affairs and professor of family medicine at the FSU College of Medicine, will be the center’s director. Brooks joined the medical school in September after serving from January 1999 to August 2001 as Secretary of Florida’s Department of Health.

“The goal of this new center is to help local, state and federal government in its quest to protect the public,” Brooks said. “Our current health care system has little in the way of prepared materials and training modules on weapons of mass destruction and terrorism for practicing health professionals. To remedy that, the center will focus on the development, dissemination, and evaluation of educational materials and programs.”

Besides educating doctors, nurses and emergency workers, and the institutions in which they practice, the center will study ways to educate the general public. It will seek to assist city and county governments with public information and awareness efforts, and to educate the public directly through Web sites, e-mail, printed materials and other methods.

FSU Provost Larry Abele said the center is a good fit for the FSU College of Medicine.

“This center is very much in keeping with the mission of the FSU College of Medicine in that it will have a statewide impact at the community and individual level by helping to educate the medical community and the public, with the ultimate goal of improving the quality of health care in Florida,” Abele said.

The center’s 13-member board will include experts from FSU and around the state in fields such as infectious diseases and microbiology, environmental toxicology, emergency response, public health, social work, criminology and population studies. The board will meet regularly to plan, implement and evaluate grants and projects related to weapons of mass destruction and bioterrorism. The center plans to apply for state and federal funding as it becomes available.

The members of the Advisory Board are: Thomas Blomberg, Ph.D., FSU associate dean and professor of criminology and criminal justice; Janet Dilling, M.P.A., director of the Florida Public Affairs Center and the Askew School’s Emergency Management Certificate Program; Diane Harrison, M.S.W., Ph.D., associate vice-president for academic affairs and dean emerita of the FSU School of Social Work; Richard Hornick, M.D., academic chairman of the internal medicine residency program at Orlando Regional Medical Center; Richard Hunter, Ph.D., President & CEO of Food Technologies Inc. in Mulberry, Fla., Myra Hurt, Ph.D., associate dean of student affairs and professor of biology at the FSU College of Medicine, John Kelsay, D.Min., Ph.D., FSU professor of religion and author of a number of books and articles on Islamic thought and culture; Kathy Mason, R.N., Ed.D., dean of the School of Nursing at FSU and former head public health nurse at the Florida Department of Health; Richard Rasmussen, vice president for legislative affairs for the Florida Hospital Association; David Sly, Ph.D., professor in the FSU Center for the Study of Populations and senior research fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Christopher Teaf, Ph.D., associate director of both the Center for Biomedical and Toxicological Research and Waste Management and the Institute for International Cooperative Environmental Research at FSU; John Todaro, R.N., REMT-P, director of education for the Florida Emergency Medicine Foundation; and Bernd Wollschlaeger, M.D., the Governor’s appointee to the Florida Domestic Security Taskforce and chair of the Florida Medical Association’s Taskforce on Emergency Preparedness.

CONTACT: Ms. Mollie Hill
(850) 644-8936

By Nancy Kinnally
January 22, 2002

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- The Florida State University College of Medicine is moving forward with the creation of its regional medical school campus in Tallahassee and Friday will open the search for an assistant dean to oversee the campus.

Capital Health Plan, the Leon County Health Department and Tallahassee Community Hospital have signed affiliation agreements with the college that allow third- and fourth-year medical students to train with their physicians. The college will continue to develop affiliations with other health-care providers in the coming months.

Dr. Joseph Scherger, dean of the FSU College of Medicine, said each of the affiliates presents unique advantages.

“With the way TCH plans to use medical information technology in its new facility, the hospital will be a good model of 21st Century medicine for our students,” Scherger said, adding that students will be able to experience continuous care by following a patient or group of patients at Capital Health Plan, which has a patient population of 108,000.

Dr. Nancy Van Vessem, an associate medical director at CHP, said the organization’s reputation for member satisfaction and quality health care make it an ideal teaching site, and that the relationship with the College of Medicine will also benefit CHP patients.

“We expect that this type of partnership will continue to focus attention on improving the quality of care for our entire community," Van Vessem said.

When hired, the assistant dean will assume responsibility for coordinating the clinical education of those third- and fourth-year medical students who remain in Tallahassee after the second year of medical school.

Tallahassee is among six communities that have been identified as sites for the clinical education of third- and fourth-year students. Plans call for six third-year medical students to begin their clinical education in Tallahassee in July of 2003. Eventually, the college intends to have 12 third-year and 12 fourth-year students at its Tallahassee campus, with the remaining students assigned to other Florida communities.

The regional medical school campus in Tallahassee will be directed by a board with representation from all of the participating institutions. Members of the initial board are Dr. Avon Doll, representing the Capital Medical Society, John Hogan, executive director of Capital Health Plan, Dr. Marjorie Kirsch, medical director of the Leon County Health Department, Dr. Alma Littles, acting assistant dean of the Regional Medical School Campus – Tallahassee, and Sharon Roush, CEO of Tallahassee Community Hospital. The board can have up to 15 members.

During their clinical education, third-year students will spend 30 percent of their time in a hospital setting and 70 percent in physicians’ practices, while fourth-year students will spend 60 percent of their time in a hospital setting and 40 percent in physicians’ practices. Students will complete four- to eight-week rotations in specialties such as internal medicine, family medicine, pediatrics, psychiatry, geriatrics, and obstetrics and gynecology.

By Jill Elish
February 2002

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.-Dr. Charlotte Edwards Maguire, a distinguished pediatrician and supporter of the Florida State University College of Medicine, will be awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree in a ceremony at 5 p.m. Feb. 14 in the College of Medicine Administration Building.

"Dr. Maguire is a pioneer for women in medical sciences and an inspiration for future doctors," said FSU President Talbot "Sandy" D'Alemberte. "She has dedicated her career to caring for those who needed it most - minorities, disabled children and the indigent - and has helped FSU establish a medical school where that philosophy will flourish."

In 1999, Maguire donated $1 million to FSU's then Program in Medical Sciences and later the College of Medicine to create the Charlotte Edwards Maguire College of Medicine Dean's Chair and to endow student scholarships. The next year she was an outspoken advocate for the creation of the College of Medicine, and she has since donated an additional $1 million to create an eminent scholar chair in geriatrics. The gift will allow the FSU College of Medicine to recruit an eminent scholar in geriatrics who can focus attention on the special needs of an aging population.

"Dr. Maguire has been actively involved with our students, and these gifts are helping to prepare the next generation of Florida physicians," said Dr. Joseph E. Scherger, dean of the College of Medicine. "Her vision and her desire to make a difference in the lives of future doctors and patients truly exemplify her ideals."

Now a Tallahassee resident, Maguire was born in 1918 and grew up in Orlando. She earned her bachelor's degree from Memphis Teachers College in 1940

and her medical degree in 1944 from the University of Arkansas, where she was the only woman in her class. The opening of her pediatric practice in Orlando after her graduation was greeted with the newspaper headline "Orlando's first girl doctor returns." She took a special interest in children with disabilities, and from the beginning of her practice, she provided free services to those in need.

In 1949, she was appointed director of the Orlando Child Health Clinic. From 1947 to 1956, she served as chief of staff for the Central Florida Division of Children's Home Society of Florida and became the first woman president of the Florida Pediatric Society in 1952. She served as a delegate to the World Health Conference in London in 1957, working directly with Prince Phillip who was the honorary chair.

She then served as chief of the department of pediatrics at Mercy Hospital in Orlando from 1965 to 1968.

Maguire also assumed leadership roles in state and national health care organizations between 1952 and 1970. She helped create the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, now operating as the Department of Health and the Department of Children and Families. She founded the Irish and American Pediatric Society in 1965 and in 1970 was honored with the Distinguished Achievement Commendation by London's Two Thousand Women of Distinction.

She was one of the highest ranking women in the federal government under the Nixon Administration as assistant secretary of health and scientific affairs for the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare in Atlanta. She returned to Florida in 1975 to take a position as medical services director for HRS in Tallahassee. From 1980 to 1987, Maguire was a member of the clinical staff in the department of pediatrics at the University of Florida.

A life membership in the Florida Medical Association was conferred upon Maguire in 1981. In addition, she was named International Woman of the Year in 1992-93 by the International Biographical Centre in Cambridge.

Maguire's honorary degree will be the 107th conferred by the university.

By Nancy Kinnally
March 2, 2002

First-Year Med Students Tour Orlando Medical Facilities

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Dr. Anthony Costa, the newly appointed assistant dean for the FSU College of Medicine’s Regional Medical School Campus – Orlando, joined the college’s 30 first-year students for a tour of Florida Hospital and Orlando Regional Medical Center March 2.

Costa will lead the development of the third- and fourth-year clinical training program for those FSU medical students who are assigned to Orlando beginning in July 2003. Costa, who currently serves as associate dean for clinical education at the Barberton campus of the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, will officially begin his new duties July 1.

Dr. Joseph E. Scherger, dean of the FSU College of Medicine, said Costa brings 16 years of experience running medical education programs to his new position.

“At the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, Dr. Costa has assumed numerous leadership and management positions in medical education,” Scherger said. “He has a national reputation in medical education, and will use this expertise to foster a high-quality and collaborative learning environment for Florida State’s medical students.”
Costa said he was drawn to the FSU College of Medicine in part by Scherger’s “infectious” enthusiasm for the medical school and its mission.

“I believe in the mission of the school,” Costa said. “The school's mission is to produce the kind of doctors Florida, and indeed every state, needs.

I've worked on a similar mission for the past 15 years. I think I know what it will take to make the school succeed.”
Costa met some of the initial members of the board of directors for the Regional Medical School Campus – Orlando, as well as some of the medical school faculty, when he interviewed for the assistant dean position in January.

“I was very impressed by their talent and dedication to the school's mission,” Costa said. “I'm very excited about working at Florida State, and especially excited about working at the Orlando campus. It's a great medical community and has the potential to be a truly outstanding regional campus.”

Two Orlando hospitals – Florida Hospital and Orlando Regional Medical Center – will be involved in the education of FSU medical students, as will many local physician practices.

CONTACT
Phone: (850) 645-1255
March 18, 2002

Leaders in the development and use of virtual reality technology, the Internet and other multimedia resources for medical education are among the recently hired faculty at Florida State University’s new College of Medicine.

“We’ve been especially successful at bringing in people interested in innovations in medical education and will soon be known nationwide for our leadership in the field of medical information technology,” said Dr. Joseph E. Scherger, dean of FSU’s medical school. ”The opportunity to be involved in the development of a new medical school has been a tremendous draw.”

Among those innovators is Dr. Richard Usatine, developer of an online case-based dermatology program that has been adopted by a number of U.S. medical schools. Usatine, who is coming to FSU from the UCLA School of Medicine, will begin serving as associate dean for medical education in July.

Usatine was recognized by the Association of American Medical Colleges in 2000 with its Humanism in Medicine Award for his work with the homeless and medically indigent, but he also is a nationally recognized expert in the education of clinical faculty, known in academic medicine as preceptors. He will be working closely with Tallahassee physicians involved in teaching basic clinical skills to first- and second-year medical students.

Usatine and his FSU colleague, David Steele, Ph.D., are participants in a $1.75 million federal grant project that is developing a model four-year family medicine curriculum for use nationwide. Steele is the author of several recent publications on computer-aided instruction in medical education.

Another of the college’s recent hires, Andrew Payer, Ph.D., worked on the National Library of Medicine’s Virtual Human Project and with the virtual reality program at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. There he developed methods for applying the virtual reality technology used to train astronauts to the training of medical students. A medical educator for 30 years, Payer will serve as course director for the first-year curriculum.

Dr. Edward Klatt, a pathologist with more than 20 years of experience in medical education, also brings to FSU a wealth of experience in medical information technology. Klatt is widely known in academic medicine for developing WebPath, a popular multimedia resource for pathology education that is distributed worldwide. He also has been a director of autopsy services at two academic medical centers as well as a deputy medical examiner for the County of Los Angeles. At FSU he directs the second-year curriculum.

The college’s most recent hires include:
 

• Dennis Baker, Ph.D., who will direct faculty development both at FSU’s Tallahassee campus and at its regional campuses around the state. Baker, who comes to FSU from Ohio University, will work to increase the educational effectiveness of faculty in the basic science program and to ensure the quality of education being offered by the community physicians who will be hired to provide clinical training to third- and fourth-year medical students.
   
• Dr. Anthony Costa, who will serve as assistant dean for the regional medical school campus in Orlando. Costa is coming to FSU July 1 from Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, where he is associate dean for clinical education. He brings 16 years of experience in medical education to FSU and was named Educator of the Year by the Ohio Academy of Family Physicians.
   
• Graham Patrick, Ph.D., who will coordinate the pharmacology curriculum. Patrick has 29 years of teaching experience in health professions schools at Virginia Commonwealth University/Medical College of Virginia, where he earned numerous teaching awards.
   
• Philip Posner, Ph.D., an internationally recognized electrophysiologist who will coordinate and direct instruction in physiology and pathophysiology. Posner has had research funding from the National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association. He taught physiology at the University of Florida for 28 years before moving to Auburn University in 1999 as head of the department of anatomy, physiology and pharmacology. While at the University of Florida he was the recipient of three Teacher of the Year Awards.

CONTACT: Sarah Sherraden
(850) 644-9800

By Nancy Kinnally
May 2002

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Florida State University is putting out an unusual casting call, and it’s not coming from the schools of film or theater.

The FSU College of Medicine is looking for people of all ages who can be trained to feign a variety of medical conditions – from Alzheimer’s disease to tennis elbow to a stroke -- for the sake of education.

The stage for these medical mimics will be one of seven examination rooms in the college’s state-of-the-art Clinical Learning Center, a simulated doctor’s office in which medical students will practice their clinical and patient communication skills. Key to the center’s operation will be the recruitment and training of a group of up to 200 standardized patients to serve as the medical school’s “central casting.”

“Being a standardized patient requires good short-term memory and the ability to stay in character,” said Sarah Sherraden, director of the Clinical Learning Center. “You have to be able to consistently portray a patient with a given history and physical findings.”

FSU’s Clinical Learning Center is set to open this August in the medical school’s newly renovated quarters at the former FSU Developmental Research School at Stadium Drive and Call Street.

About 80 percent of U.S. medical schools operate similar programs, which are expected to become standard now that the National Board of Medical Examiners has mandated that by the middle of this decade the medical licensing exam will include observed patient encounters, known formally in academic medicine as Observed Structured Clinical Examinations, or OSCEs.

The “actors” selected for the standardized patient program will be paid $15 an hour and will be required to go through one to three one-hour coaching sessions prior to each set of student encounters.

The standardized patient program also will use patients with actual medical conditions or with a history of certain conditions. These patients will be recruited directly through physicians’ offices.

Medical school faculty will observe students interacting with standardized patients on a closed circuit camera and in small groups and will assess the students’ clinical and patient communication skills. These sessions can last anywhere from two hours to a full day.

“It’s a fun job that offers a lot of flexibility, in that people can do it as often as weekly or as seldom as every three months or so,” Sherraden said.

Anyone wishing to audition for a part in the ongoing medical drama at FSU's Clinical Learning Center can contact Sherraden at (850) 644-9800.