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By Nancy Kinnally
October 29, 2003

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Florida State University College of Medicine has taken yet another major step forward with the addition of a doctoral program in biomedical sciences.

Associate Dean Myra Hurt, who led the development of the new doctoral program, said the medical school as a whole will benefit from the expansion of the research program to include doctoral students.

“One of the principles on which modern medical schools were constructed was that the faculty of a medical school should be generators of new knowledge,” Hurt said. “They should be problem-solvers. The people who teach medical students should be doing research in their disciplines.”

A graduate training program is a key element in such a research program. Under the guidance of the research faculty, graduate students help to develop new theories, conduct experiments, and gather and interpret data.

“All of the biomedical sciences faculty we’ve hired are looking at genes and function as it relates to human disease,” Hurt said. “We want to be able to recruit students who are excited by that and who will be training to become future faculty at medical schools or in companies doing this kind of research, where they can help bring new discoveries and products to market.”

The medical school will recruit seven Ph.D. students for fall 2004. That number is expected to grow to 50 or 55 by 2009, by which time the medical school also will have more than three hundred students pursuing the M.D. degree.

The Ph.D. degree in biomedical sciences will be the first degree offered under a new Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Program, which eventually will offer other doctoral degrees.

The medical school currently has 14 full-time faculty members in the department of biomedical sciences under whom graduate students can study, and plans call for hiring another nine faculty members in the department over the next few years. In addition, some 25 faculty members from other science-related colleges and schools at FSU will participate in the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Program.

"The great thing about research at Florida State is that even though we're a new program, we have a distinguished research university and programs that have national recognition," Hurt said.

"We have one of the best structural biology programs in the United States. We have the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. We have a new biomedical engineering program in our engineering school, and very distinguished graduate programs in chemistry and biochemistry, biology, physics, statistics, nutrition, and others across the university. There's a very collegial research environment here and a big research infrastructure."

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by Nancy Kinnally
Dec. 3, 2003

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Florida State University's third-year medical students will be spending the next three weeks working with local community service agencies in Orlando, Pensacola and Tallahassee as part of a community medicine rotation designed to broaden their understanding of the role the agencies play in health promotion and disease prevention.

Among the agencies to which the students are assigned Dec. 3-19 are county health departments, area agencies on aging, indigent care clinics, and home health and Hospice organizations. "Community medicine is a part of any medical school curriculum, but we feel it's important enough to be the focus of a separate three-week rotation with clearly defined objectives," said Dr. Alma Littles, associate dean for academic affairs.

"By working in a community agency for three weeks, students will develop a thorough understanding of how to access community resources that can benefit their patients and how to participate in a team approach to healthcare delivery."

During the three-week assignment, students will observe and assist agency personnel as they provide services to their clients/patients. "Community service agencies play a critical but often overlooked role in ensuring that patients are able to comply with medical treatment plans, that they receive both medical and non-medical interventions that can improve their quality of life, and that they are able to live and die with dignity and according to their wishes," Littles said. "That's why it's vital for physicians to understand and utilize these organizations to the fullest extent."

The third-year medical students participating in the community medicine rotations are based at the FSU College of Medicine's regional campuses in Orlando, Pensacola and Tallahassee.

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March 2, 2004

 TALLAHASSEE, Fla.-Impending changes in the nature and financing of state and federal rural health initiatives were the focus of a day-long summit sponsored by the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida Center for Rural Health Research and Policy at the Florida State University College of Medicine.

National and statewide rural health leaders came together in Tallahassee for the Feb. 27 Rural Health Summit, which drew about 70 rural providers, hospital administrators, rural health network representatives and FSU medical students.

In spite of the constant financial struggle rural communities face in providing health care, Stephen Wilhide, executive director of the National Rural Health Association, said improvements can often result from simply bringing together all the players to identify existing resources, determine how they can be better coordinated and seek solutions for any gaps that are found.

"By maximizing and coordinating their resources, communities can achieve better outcomes," Wilhide said.

Rhonda Sherrod, administrator of Shands Hospital at Live Oak, Joel Montgomery, CEO of North Florida Medical Centers, and Kim Barnhill, director of the Jefferson and Madison County health departments, described many of the daily challenges they face in providing care to rural residents and the efforts they have made to find solutions for their communities.

Dr. Marcia Brand, director of the Office of Rural Health Policy in the Department of Health and Human Services, discussed new provisions in the recent Congressional overhaul of Medicare that steer more than $20 billion toward rural communities and help level the playing field between rural and urban providers of health care.  However, Wilhide noted that proposed cuts to other federal programs that benefit rural providers, such as the Small Hospital Improvement Program and the Rural Hospital Flexibility Grant Program, could offset those gains. Many rural hospitals depend on such programs to support training and new equipment.

Patsy Justice, a registered nurse at the Washington County Health Department, was pleased to hear from Florida Health Secretary Dr. John Agwunobi about plans to improve patient safety by creating an electronic medical records system for Florida.

"We would love to see that happen," Justice said. "Right now (the electronic medical records system) doesn't exist, and yet the paper shuffle we all deal with is unreal. You're constantly getting requests for medical records in, and you're constantly mailing them out."

During the afternoon Dr. Robert Brooks, associate dean of health affairs at the FSU College of Medicine, and his colleague Nir Menachemi, director of the college's Center on Patient Safety, presented preliminary results of their recent research on rural providers and hospitals in Florida. The studies are expected to be published later this year.

Brooks described a 2003 survey of Florida's rural physicians showing the challenges physicians are facing in the midst of the medical professional liability insurance crisis which, if left uncorrected, will result in further loss of services to rural areas.

Menachemi's study identified trends in rural and urban hospital information technology use in Florida. The use of information technology in hospitals has been linked to enhanced patient safety, but the study indicated that due to limited resources, many rural hospitals have been unable to adopt new technologies.

Information about federal grants and other health care resources for rural communities is available at the Rural Assistance Center Web site,www.raconline.org and at www.ruralhealth.hrsa.gov.

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March 23, 2004
By Nancy Kinnally

  TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida Academy of Family Physicians has selected Florida State University College of Medicine faculty member Dr. C. David Smith as Florida’s 2004 Family Physician of the Year.

Although he practices in a Panhandle town of fewer than 600 residents, Smith’s impact is immeasurable to the people of Jay, Fla., and the surrounding area, where he has been the backbone of the health care system for 23 years.

“As the recipient of the Academy’s most prestigious award, we are proud to recognize Dr. Smith’s ability to combine clinical excellence and compassion in a way that makes him an exceptional role model for patients, co-workers and a generation of aspiring family doctors,” said Fleur Sack, M.D., president of the Florida Academy of Family Physicians.

While he was once the only physician practicing in Jay, today the local medical community is thriving as a direct result of Smith’s influence. Not only has he succeeded in recruiting at least a half dozen physicians to the area, but in his teaching role with the FSU College of Medicine’s Regional Medical School Campus − Pensacola, he also is working to influence medical students to pursue careers in family medicine in rural areas.

“Dr. Smith demonstrated to me the extremely critical role family physicians play in a patient’s life and lit a fire in my heart to pursue that very vision,” said FSU medical student Joda Lynn, who did a family medicine rotation with Smith at his practice in Jay.

Smith serves patients from his community and the surrounding area in his private practice, the emergency room, acute care center, hospital and nursing home. He is also team physician for the local high school football team and even makes house calls. Co-workers point to Smith’s ability to relate to patients of all ages, backgrounds and income levels.

“No one is treated differently in his eyes,” said Debra Hayes, his nurse for the last 22 years. “We have patients who are uneducated and cannot read or write, and we have patients with six figure incomes and numerous college degrees. No one is different. He treats them all the same, regardless.”

His patients offer the most effusive accolades. One local woman told the FAFP of how Smith helped her and her family through the death of her mother.

“The community is blessed to have this man among us,” wrote Margaret Miller. “If we could have a statue in Jay of a hero, it would be Dr. David Smith, physician extraordinaire, humanitarian by gift of God, and our beloved rural doctor.”

Smith completed his first year of medical school at FSU through the Program in Medical Sciences, a former feeder program for the University of Florida College of Medicine. He graduated from UF’s medical school second in his class in 1979.

As a young doctor with seemingly limitless career potential, Smith made the difficult decision to cut short his residency training at the University of South Alabama in 1980 when administrators at his hometown Jay Hospital told him the hospital – like many rural hospitals at the time – faced closure due to financial difficulties and a lack of physician manpower. He is credited with enabling the hospital to stay open by setting up his Jay practice at that critical time.

In 1998 the Baptist Health Care Foundation awarded Smith the Hollinger Award for commitment to community, service, dedication and excellence, and in 2002 the faculty of FSU presented him with the Vires Torch Award for outstanding commitment to the fulfillment of FSU’s academic missions.

As a student, Smith was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi and Alpha Omega Alpha honor societies, and in 1976 he received the Emanuel Suter Award as most outstanding graduate in the FSU Program in Medical Sciences. He also was named Best Teaching Intern at the University of South Alabama in 1980.

While he is widely considered a hometown hero, Smith is quick to share credit with his office staff, co-workers, patients and family.

“I just feel like I’ve been very fortunate to always have great people around me,” Smith said. “I could not do what I do without the help of my staff, and the support from my wife and family, and really the entire local community.”

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The Florida Academy of Family Physicians (FAFP) is the Florida chapter of the American Academy of Family Physicians, the national association of family doctors. The FAFP is the only organization in Florida that solely represents the family physician. Its mission is to promote excellence in health care for Florida citizens, to advance and represent the specialty of family medicine, and to serve the unique needs of its members. The FAFP has nearly 4,000 members including practicing physicians, student residents and medical students with an interest in family medicine who are actively involved in continuing education, legislative advocacy, and support for this specialty. For more information visit www.fafp.org.

CONTACT: Meredith Brodeur
(850) 645-1255

by Meredith Brodeur

Alma Littles, M.D., associate dean for Academic Affairs for the FSU College of Medicine, joined local and statewide health officials on May 10 in a town hall meeting that kicked off events in Tallahassee for Cover the Uninsured Week.

Cover the Uninsured Week is a national campaign to annually promote the goal of affordable health coverage for all Americans. The goal is to make it a national priority to find solutions for the nearly 44 million Americans with no health insurance.

Littles joined Cecil Wilson, M.D., a member of the American Medical Association Board of Trustees; J.R. Richards, CEO of Bond Community Health Center; Mary Nzeribe, executive director of Neighborhood Health Services; and Steve McArthur former chairman of the Leon County Healthcare Advisory Council and current CareNet advocate, in a panel discussion about the issue of uninsured Americans on both a local and national level. Locally, more than 31,000 people in Leon County are uninsured.

Littles, who had a family medicine practice in Quincy, FL, for years and is former director of the Tallahassee Memorial Hospital Family Practice Residency program, emphasized the need for individuals to have a primary care physician, which she said could prevent them from major medical consequences.

"When a patient goes for a well-child or well-adult checkup, if a symptom develops, physicians can take care of it ahead of time," Littles said.

Littles said the town hall meeting was successful in bringing together members from the health care community as well as members of the public to discuss the issue.

"The town hall meeting provided a great forum for health care and community leaders from local, state and national organizations to hear and share concerns of the uninsured with individuals directly affected by the lack of adequate health insurance," she said. "While it wasn't a forum to develop solutions, it did give us the opportunity to share those programs in the community that have already proven successful and help educate the public on how to access them. It also provided ideas for future program development."

The College of Medicine also provided speakers for the local Rotary Club and Kiwanis Club meetings in an effort to increase awareness on the impact of the issue of the uninsured upon the business community. The town hall meeting was followed by a week of activities including health fairs, an interfaith breakfast and a poster contest for school-aged children to focus on the importance of good health and regular doctor's visits.

Cover the Uninsured Week in Tallahassee was sponsored by Leon County's primary health care program, CareNet, a coalition of local hospitals and clinics. Other participants included the FSU College of Nursing, the American Red Cross and the United Way.

CONTACT: Meredith Brodeur
(850) 645-1255

May 10, 2004
by Meredith Brodeur

Florida State University's first-year medical students will be finishing out the academic year by training alongside primary care doctors around the state for three weeks in May.

The students have been assigned to work one-on-one with community physicians throughout Florida in a summer clinical practicum focusing on clinical and patient communication skills.

"The FSU College of Medicine has a unique mission - to train physicians who are responsive to community needs, especially through service to elder, rural, minority and underserved populations," said Curtis Stine, M.D., course director. "We're hopeful that this experience will help prepare students to serve these underserved patients."

A number of the Florida Area Health Education Centers, which organize community-based training for students in the health professions, coordinated the recruitment of participating physicians. Most of the students will be working in practices in which the patient population consists largely of one of the underserved groups identified in the medical school's mission.

During the three weeks, students will practice taking patients' medical histories, performing basic clinical exams and reporting their findings - skills they begin to acquire during the first year by working with local physicians in Tallahassee and in a simulated clinic on the FSU campus.

CONTACT: Meredith Brodeur
(850) 645-1255


By Nancy Kinnally
June 2004

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.-Orlando pediatric infectious disease specialist Dr. Michael Muszynski has been tapped to head the Florida State University Regional Medical School Campus- Orlando beginning July 1.

As assistant dean for the medical school's Orlando campus, Muszynski will be responsible for directing the clinical education program for those FSU medical students assigned to Orlando for the third and fourth years of medical school. Muszynski succeeds Dr. Anthony Costa, who recently joined the faculty of the Family Practice Residency Program at Florida Hospital.

Muszynski has served as academic chairman of the department of pediatrics at Orlando Regional Healthcare for the past nine years and division chief of pediatric infectious diseases at Nemours Children's Clinic since 1997. He has served on the faculty of FSU's medical school on a part-time basis since last year.

"I've always seen great advantages in providing medical education in community settings, as in FSU's model," Muszynski said. "I've been very impressed with FSU's program since joining the faculty, and I look forward to applying my knowledge of the local medical community to the growth and enhancement of the medical school's Orlando campus."

Muszynski has 21 years of clinical teaching experience, including 12 years as director of the Pediatric Residency Program at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children and Women in Orlando. He helped develop the residency program into one of the best community-based residency programs in the country. He also founded the HUG Me Program for pediatric HIV/AIDS care and research in Central Florida.

Dr. J. Ocie Harris, dean of the FSU College of Medicine, said Muszynski's extensive background in medical education makes him a great asset not only to the Orlando campus but also to the medical school's education program overall.  "He has broad expertise encompassing clinical care, research and program development," Harris said. "Also, having lived and worked in Orlando for 18 years, he's very familiar with the community, which will be a great help in further developing the regional campus."

The Regional Medical School Campus Orlando is one of three campuses where third- and fourth-year medical students from FSU complete their clinical education. It is affiliated with Orlando Regional Healthcare and Florida Hospital. More than 150 Central Florida physicians working at hospitals, private practices and outpatient facilities throughout the region participate in the education of students assigned to the Orlando campus.

The medical school's other regional campuses are in Pensacola and Tallahassee. A fourth regional campus is set to open in Sarasota during the coming academic year. As of July 6, the Orlando campus will have 30 medical students enrolled.

CONTACT: Meredith Brodeur
(850) 645-1255

By Meredith Brodeur
June 2004

ORLANDO, Fla.- The Florida State University College of Medicine is drawing together more than 75 CEOs and senior executives of Florida’s hospitals to brief industry executives on the latest and most effective medical error prevention strategies.

Hospital executives from around the state will learn from national experts about the most cutting-edge methods for preventing medical errors and improving patient safety:

Friday, June 25
8 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Hyatt Regency Orlando International Airport

The forum, which is a joint effort with the Florida Hospital Association, follows recent Institute of Medicine reports indicating that by improving the health care system, unnecessary deaths and injuries can be prevented. Speakers will discuss substantive patient safety tools, techniques and strategies.

Among the featured speakers are:

• James Conway, executive vice president and COO of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
• Dr. James Bagian, director of the VA National Center for Patient Safety and former NASA astronaut who served as medical investigator for the Challenger and Columbia shuttle accidents
• Dr. Jacqueline F. Byers, associate professor of the University of Central Florida School of Nursing
• Nancy Foster, senior health policy advisor for the American Hospital Association
• Dr. Allan Frankel, director of patient safety, Partners Health Care System, and co-chair of patient safety and perioperative collaboratives at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement
• Dr. Nir Menachemi, director of the FSU Center on Patient Safety.

Due to space limitations, the event is open only to the media and invited guests.

CONTACT
Phone: (850) 645-1255

By Nancy Kinnally
July 29, 2004

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.- Dr. Bruce Berg has been selected to head the Florida State University Regional Medical School Campus – Sarasota, which will begin accepting medical students next year.

As assistant dean for the Sarasota campus, Berg will be responsible for overseeing the clinical education program for those FSU medical students assigned to Sarasota for the third and fourth years of medical school.

“I’m excited about the possibilities for this new FSU clinical campus,” Berg said. “I believe that there will be wonderful opportunities for the students, the local physicians and the community of Sarasota. Everyone will benefit from the medical education that will take place here.”

After practicing pulmonary medicine in the Sarasota area for 19 years, Berg began working on patient safety and quality improvement initiatives for Sarasota Memorial Hospital, where he has served as chief medical information officer since 1998 and as patient safety officer since 2001.

“Dr. Berg has played a critical role at Sarasota Memorial in the area of medical informatics, an evolving field that is heavily emphasized in our curriculum,” said College of Medicine Dean J. Ocie Harris, M.D. “He will help take us in the direction we are wanting to move with medical information technology and its ability to enhance patient care and reduce medical errors.”

Eight third-year students will be assigned to the Sarasota campus beginning in July 2005, while fourth-year students from the college’s other regional campuses will be able to complete elective rotations with local physicians beginning in January. Enrollment at the campus will gradually increase to 40 students.

The FSU College of Medicine has established an advisory board for the Sarasota campus. Founding members are: G. Duncan Finlay, Jr., M.D., CEO, Sarasota Memorial Health Care System; Douglas R. Luckett, COO, Doctors Hospital of Sarasota; Sandra K. MacLeod, M.D., medical director, Sarasota County Health Department; Adam Bright, M.D., president, Sarasota County Medical Society; as well as medical school administrators Alma Littles, M.D., and Mollie Hill.

The FSU College of Medicine is in its fourth full year of operation and has 173 students enrolled. It opened its first three regional campuses in Orlando, Pensacola and Tallahassee in July 2003.

CONTACT: Teng Ma, Ph.D., (850) 410-6558
Yanchang Wang, Ph.D., (850) 644-0402

By Jennifer Schmidt
September 2004

 
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.- Two Florida State University researchers are among the recipients of 19 biomedical research grants announced recently by Gov. Jeb Bush. Of the $9.2 million granted to biomedical research in Florida, a combined $881,000 was given to FSU's two recipients: Teng Ma of the Florida A&M/FSU chemical engineering department and Yanchang Wang of the FSU College of Medicine.

Ma hopes to improve the treatment of heart disease caused by smoking through vascular tissue engineering. Ma's team has successfully used cells from a pig's small intestine to grow primary human smooth muscle cells in cultures. Ma will examine the tissue from these cultures to test the usefulness of pig small intestine for growing blood grafts outside a patient's body. The long term objective is to fully restore the functions of diseased or injured blood vessels by implanting the grafts grown in the lab.

Wang's project is testing the "DNA damage checkpoint" function of an enzyme originally discovered by Nobel Laureate Lee Hartwell to find causes and treatment for cancer. Wang's team has preliminary data indicating that the enzyme, phosphatase 2A, is required to stop cell division when damaged DNA is present in budding yeast. With the state research grant, Wang will try to answer why and how phosphatase 2A is required to stop cell division. The study will provide useful information for human cancer treatment, as phosphatase 2A is also present in human cells.

The grants were made available through the James and Esther King Biomedical Research Program. Bush recently signed legislation that adds $6 million to the program each year and allows multi year grants to biomedical researchers in Florida.