CONTACT
Phone: (850) 645-1255

By Nancy Kinnally
May 2006

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.- The Florida State University College of Medicine will graduate its second class of students at a commencement ceremony on:

SATURDAY, MAY 20, 2006
9:30 A.M.
COLLEGE OF MEDICINE COURTYARD
STADIUM DRIVE AND CALL STREET
TALLAHASSEE

In addition, the 36 members of the Class of 2006 will participate in celebrations at the regional campus where they spent their third and fourth years of study. Those events will be held:

The graduating students have all passed the national licensing exam (USMLE Step 2). Thirty-five have matched with residency programs, where they will begin their graduate medical education in July. The 36th member of the class will be completing a research fellowship at the National Institutes of Health.

CONTACT: Doug Carlson
(850) 645-1255
doug.carlson@med.fsu.edu

By Doug Carlson
June 2006

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Elderly people consume almost 40 percent of all health care services in this country, but in most cases, the elderly do not see a geriatrician when they visit the doctor.

That’s one reason the Florida State University College of Medicine strives to instill the principles of geriatric medicine in all of its students, regardless of their likelihood of specializing in geriatric health care. Now, with a $2 million grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, the College of Medicine plans to expand its curriculum to teach principles of geriatrics care that can be applied across the lifespan.

The college is one of 10 medical schools nationwide to win a Reynolds Foundation grant this year. The Donald W. Reynolds Foundation is a national philanthropic organization founded in 1954 by the late media entrepreneur for whom it is named. Headquartered in Las Vegas, it is one of the largest private foundations in the United States.

The foundation launched its Aging and Quality of Life Program in 1996 with the goal of improving the quality of life for America’s elderly by preparing physicians to provide better care for them.

“What most of us in geriatrics have understood for a long time is that the principles of care that we believe in are not unique or only supposed to be applied in older populations,’’ said Dr. Lisa Granville, associate chair and professor in the college’s department of geriatrics, and principal investigator for the Reynolds Foundation grant.

In order to help patients of all ages, the FSU medical school plans a curriculum that doesn’t label the principles being taught as geriatric. This curriculum will start the moment medical students set foot on campus, allowing broad acceptance and application of geriatric concepts in all disciplines of medical education, Granville said.

For example, a common tool in geriatrics is functional assessment, focusing on a patient’s ability to perform tasks such as walking unaided or driving. While geriatricians routinely employ functional assessment, the concept applies to patients of all ages. Establishing quality communication between a doctor and patient is another practice emphasized in geriatrics that all physicians should regard as essential, she said.

In part, the goal will be accomplished by working with clinical faculty for third- and fourth-year students, extending the training to the more than 800 physicians throughout Florida who work with FSU medical students.

Teaching the concepts across a four-year curriculum will result in doctors better trained in geriatric care as they enter practice in a variety of fields and encounter patients who would benefit from such care regardless of age, Granville said. She noted that this is especially important in Florida, a state in which 18 percent of the residents are elderly - the nation’s largest population of elderly residents - and at a time when life expectancy for Americans is at an all-time high of 77.6 years.

CONTACT: Doug Carlson
Phone: (850) 645-1255

By Doug Carlson

Public health systems in the United States are understaffed and insufficiently funded to meet threats from bioterrorism, pandemic disease and natural disasters, according to a current study conducted by researchers at the Florida State University College of Medicine.

Lead researcher Dr. Les Beitsch of the college's Center on Medicine and Public Health, analyzed 2005 surveys of state and local public health agencies and found that mean per capita spending for public health in 2004-2005 was $149, compared to $6,423 for overall health care. Overall health care expenditures include payments made by individuals, private insurance companies and programs such as Medicare and Medicaid for items ranging from doctor visits and prescription drugs to dental care and over-the-counter drugs and medical products.

The study, appearing in the July/August issue of Health Affairs, notes that public health systems have evolved from focusing on infectious disease and hygiene promotion to preventing and treating chronic disease and now to emergency preparedness and response.

As new issues are identified and brought into focus in part through events such as the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Hurricane Katrina and the emergence of the bird flu virus, public health agencies are not necessarily able to scale back old responsibilities.

"Public health is underfunded to meet the demands of an aging population and is further threatened by terrorism and natural disasters. As health departments take on new roles and responsibilities, old functions are rarely jettisoned,' said Beitsch, a professor of family medicine at FSU and former commissioner of health in Oklahoma.

Beitsch conducted the study along with Dr. Robert Brooks, associate dean for health affairs at the FSU College of Medicine, and Nir Menachemi, director of the college's Center on Patient Safety.

The study is based on surveys conducted by the Association for State and Territorial Health Officials and the National Association of County and City Health Officials and examines staffing levels and per capita public health expenditures.

Health Affairs, published by Project HOPE, is a bimonthly multidisciplinary journal devoted to publishing the leading edge in health policy thought and research.

Beitsch's study asks policymakers to examine the proper range of health department functions, provide adequate systems for tracking public health expenditures and staffing levels and to double federal investments in public health over the next 10 years.

Contact: Toula Kane
Pone: 941-316-8120
Fax: 941-316-8146
Email: Toula.Kane@med.fsu.edu

July 12, 2006

Sarasota - The Florida State University College of Medicine, Sarasota campus, is pleased to announce that Diane H. McFarlin, president and publisher of the Herald-Tribune Media Group, has joined the college’s Community Board. The announcement was made by Dr. Bruce Berg, dean of the medical school’s Sarasota campus.

“We are delighted to welcome Diane to the Community Board of the FSU College of Medicine. Her background and wealth of experience outside of the medical community will be invaluable to us and bring a different voice to our discussions,” said Berg. “We look forward to Diane’s participation and guidance as our campus continues to grow in the coming years.”

McFarlin began her newspaper career as a reporter and copy editor in Sarasota, Florida. She became managing editor of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in 1985, and two years later was named executive editor of the Gainesville (Fla.) Sun, which is also owned by The New York Times Company. She returned to Sarasota in 1990 as the executive editor of the Herald-Tribune. On November 1, 1999, McFarlin was named publisher of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, a New York Times Company newspaper. She has served as a past president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors.

The Florida State University College of Medicine is the first allopathic medical school (M.D. program) to open in the United States since 1982. First- and second-year basic sciences and clinical skills are taught in a new state-of-the-art facility in Tallahassee. For the third and fourth years, students are assigned to one of several campuses around the state where they participate in clinical clerkships taught by board certified physicians in local hospitals, ambulatory care facilities and physician offices.

The Community Board for each of the medical school’s regional campuses serves in an advisory capacity to the campus dean and includes representation from the local medical community, as well as the community at large.

For more information contact Toula Kane at 941/316-8120 or email Toula at Toula.Kane@med.fsu.edu.

Contact: Toula Kane
Phone: 941-316-8120
Fax: 941-316-8146
Email: Toula.Kane@med.fsu.edu

Sarasota - The Florida State University College of Medicine, Sarasota campus, is pleased to announce the signing of an affiliation agreement with Venice Regional Medical Center. This agreement allows FSU medical students to train at the hospital as well as in local doctors’ offices and outpatient facilities.

In making the announcement, Dr. Bruce Berg, dean of the medical school’s Sarasota campus, expressed his pleasure with the affiliation. “Not only will this partnership extend our reach into South Sarasota County, Venice Regional will provide our students with another rich educational environment to continue their 3rd and 4th year clinical training.

“The physicians in Venice have expressed a real interest in our program and we are delighted to give our students the opportunity to work with them,’’ he said.

“The medical staff physicians at Venice Regional Medical Center are all board certified and among the best in their profession,” said Melody Trimble, Chief Executive Officer. “I’m pleased that these physicians are willing to assist others in learning to do what they do so well. At the same time, our staff has an opportunity to stay on the cutting edge of medicine through what the students are learning. In the end, we may even be able to entice some of these students to set up practice in the Venice area.”

The Florida State University College of Medicine is the first allopathic medical school (M.D. program) to open in the United States since 1982. First- and second-year basic sciences and clinical skills are taught in a new state-of-the-art facility in Tallahassee. For the third and fourth years, students are assigned to one of several campuses around the state where they participate in clinical clerkships taught by board certified physicians in local hospitals, ambulatory care facilities and physician offices.

For more information contact Toula Kane at 941/316-8120 or email Toula at Toula.Kane@med.fsu.edu.

Contact: Jennifer Rine
Phone: 850.494.5939
Fax: 850.494.5962
Email: jennifer.rine@med.fsu.edu

November 29, 2006

PENSACOLA – Third-year medical students from Florida State University’s Pensacola regional campus will be spending the next three weeks working with local community service agencies as a part of a community medicine rotation designed to broaden their understanding of the role the agencies play in health promotion and disease prevention.

This year’s students have selected to work with a variety of local agencies including, among others, Covenant Hospice, the Escambia County Health Department, Lutheran Services Florida and the Memory Disorder Clinic. For the rotation period they will participate in the day-to-day workings of these community service agencies. “Community Medicine is the perfect venue for students to discover the value of teamwork in delivery of health care to our patients,” said Dr. Paul McLeod, dean of the FSU College of Medicine’s Pensacola campus.

During the three-week assignment, students will observe and assist agency personnel as they provide services to their clients/partners. Dr. Paula Montgomery, vice president of medical services at Covenant Hospice has led students through community medicine rotations the past three years. “The best way to address disease states that cannot be cured is by attention to the patient and his goals. At Covenant Hospice we focus the students on helping patients set realistic goals and on meeting patient needs for comfort and function,’’ Montgomery said. “The impact on the students is an eye-opening awareness of the challenges and rewards of patient-centered rather than disease-centered medicine.”

The FSU College of Medicine is the first allopathic medical school (M.D. program) to open in the United States since 1982. First- and second-year basic sciences and clinical skills are taught in a new state-of-the-art facility in Tallahassee. The third- and fourth-year’s clinical clerkships are taught at one of six regional campuses by board certified physicians in local hospitals, ambulatory care facilities, and physician offices.

CONTACT: Doug Carlson
(850) 645-1255
doug.carlson@med.fsu.edu

By Doug Carlson
Dec. 18, 2006

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.--Two longtime Florida physicians have been selected to lead new Florida State University College of Medicine regional campuses in Daytona Beach and Fort Pierce.

Dr. Luckey Dunn, a private-practice family doctor and medical director for the city of Daytona Beach, will serve as regional dean of the FSU College of Medicine's Daytona Beach regional campus. Dr. Randall Bertolette, a Vero Beach pediatrician since 1979, will be the regional dean in charge of the Fort Pierce regional campus.

The campuses will open in July 2007. Eventually they will be home to 40 third- and fourth-year medical students, who will complete clinical education requirements at area hospitals and medical facilities.

First- and second-year students at the FSU College of Medicine complete basic science requirements at the school's main campus in Tallahassee before being assigned to one of six regional campuses for the final two years of medical school.

The College of Medicine, with 287 students, also has campuses in Orlando, Pensacola, Tallahassee and Sarasota. Over the next four years, enrollment at the College of Medicine will increase to 480, prompting a need for these additional campuses, which are intended to accommodate a maximum of 40 students each.

"We are fortunate to have two new regional-campus deans who have been active in medical education and who also have strong, longstanding relationships within the local medical communities in which they will serve,' said Dr. J. Ocie Harris, dean of the FSU College of Medicine.

Dunn, a distinguished graduate and valedictorian at the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1976, has been an attending physician with the Halifax Medical Center family medicine residency program since 1993. He also is a United States Soccer Federation-certified referee and coaches the boys' and girls' soccer teams at Warner Christian Academy. Dunn, 52, spent 21 years in the Air Force Reserve.

"I see this as an opportunity to impact both the physicians and the future of medicine in Florida,' Dunn said. "The community-based model of medical education really hits home for me. It's an exciting way of educating medical students and training them to be outstanding physicians.'

Bertolette, 58, a former president of the Indian River County Medical Society and current Florida Medical Association board member, is vice chief of staff at Indian River Memorial Hospital. He has been in private practice since 1991 in Vero Beach and has served as senior staff pediatrician for the Florida Child Protection Team as a certified expert with the Florida Attorney General's office of victims' assistance.

"I've always been interested in teaching and always thought about going into academic medicine all the way back to when I was doing my residency," Bertolette said. "This is a great opportunity for me to fulfill that dream. I was interested in being involved right from the beginning. I'm looking forward to working with FSU's future physicians."

The regional deans will begin work on a part-time basis Jan. 2 and transition into full-time roles as they leave their practices.

CONTACT:
Doug Carlson
(850) 645-1255; doug.carlson@med.fsu.edu
Cell:(850) 694-3735

By Doug Carlson
March 15, 2007

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.- Forty-nine students in the graduating Class of 2007 at the FSU College of Medicine received notification today of where they will enter residency training this summer after graduation.

Thirty-six of the 49 graduating students, or 73 percent, are entering residency in primary care specialties, including family medicine, pediatrics, internal medicine and obstetrics/gynecology.

Other students matched in general surgery, orthopedic surgery, anesthesiology, emergency medicine, physical medicine and rehabilitation, ophthalmology and radiology.

Twenty-one of the students, or 43 percent, will remain in Florida for their graduate medical education. On average about 40 percent of students graduating from allopathic medical schools in Florida remain in the state for residency training, due in part to a limited number of available residency positions in state.

Of those matching outside of Florida, students matched in Georgia, North Carolina, New York, Alabama, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Colorado, Michigan, Maine, Ohio, Connecticut, Kentucky, Massachusetts and Virginia.

“The two graduating classes before this one obviously have made a favorable impression of our students based on the outstanding residency programs our students matched with this year,’’ said College of Medicine Dean J. Ocie Harris, M.D.

The residency match, conducted annually by the National Residency Matching Program, is the primary system that matches applicants to residency programs with available positions at U.S. teaching hospitals. Graduating medical students across the country receive their match information at the same time on the same day.

(Class of 2007 member Kit Lu is completing a research fellowship at the National Institutes of Health)

CONTACT: Lawrence G. Abele
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs
(850) 644-1765

By Doug Carlson
May 15, 2007

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. --The Florida State University College of Medicine is ready to expand its rural medical education program to Immokalee, Fla., now that a transfer of property for a new training center has been completed.

NCH Healthcare System recently transferred the deed on the Isabel Collier Read Building and accompanying 9.4 acres of land to FSU. Isabel Collier Read originally donated the building and land to NCH Healthcare to provide medical care in Immokalee, home to many poor farm and migrant workers.

"We want to thank Mrs. Read, are we are so appreciative of NCH Healthcare and everyone who worked to make her vision a reality," said FSU President T.K. Wetherell. "This will give FSU the opportunity to provide some needed services to an underserved area and, at the same time, give our medical students tremendous experience."

The transfer of the 29,000-square-foot building and land to the FSU Board of Trustees enables the College of Medicine to move forward with plans to offer primary health care services to the community. Students from the medical school's six regional campuses throughout the state will have the opportunity to fulfill several third-year required and fourth-year elective rotations in Immokalee. The first group of students is expected to begin training at the site this fall.

"We are excited about this project because it is consistent with our mission, which focuses on the needs of rural, elderly and other underserved populations, and it enables us to provide innovative educational experiences," said College of Medicine Dean J. Ocie Harris.

Already, College of Medicine students spend time in Immokalee as part of a three-week summer clinical practicum and the FSUCares spring break medical outreach program.

Collier Health Services will handle clinic management, including patient enrollment. The College of Medicine currently is searching for a pediatrician and nurse practitioner to supervise the educational program on site and work with local physicians who will serve as clinical faculty.

CONTACT: Doug Carlson (850) 694-3735 or
Luckey Dunn, M.D., (386) 506-4700

By Doug Carlson
June 20, 2007

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. − Starting July 2, Volusia County residents visiting the same physicians they’ve gone to for years might be greeted in the waiting room for the first time by a sign indicating that their doctor is now a teacher.

Next week is the official beginning of the Florida State University Regional Medical School Campus – Daytona Beach, which is in the process of selecting more than 150 area physicians to teach eight clinical specialties: family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, geriatrics, obstetrics/gynecology, psychiatry, surgery and emergency medicine, as well as a variety of fourth-year electives.

The initial eight third-year medical students, who will be training in the Daytona Beach area for the next two years, are the first wave in what will grow to a group of 20 new medical students a year. At full capacity, the medical school’s Daytona Beach campus will be home to 20 third-year students and 20 fourth-year students, for a total of 40 students. Students complete the first two years of their education on the FSU campus in Tallahassee.

Area physicians who have joined the FSU College of Medicine faculty are as excited as the students.

“We’re looking forward to teaching the next generation. I know that sounds maudlin, but it’s what we were told to do when we were in medical school – go out and teach,’’ said Dr. Pam Carbiener, a Daytona Beach obstetrician/gynecologist and former president of the Volusia County Medical Society. “Those of us who didn’t stay in academic medicine missed that and this is an opportunity to teach that many of us are so thankful for,’’ she said.

Dr. Carbiener will serve as clerkship director in obstetrics/gynecology for students at the Daytona Beach campus.

Perhaps the greatest impact of the program will be in helping Daytona Beach area hospitals, medical practices, health departments and other health-care facilities recruit future doctors. In the Daytona Beach area, FSU is affiliated with Halifax Medical Center, Florida Hospital Ormond Memorial, Florida Health Care Plans and Florida Hospital DeLand.

“I think our students will find many advantages to living and working in Volusia County,’’ said Dr. Luckey Dunn, who served as medical director for the city of Daytona Beach for 14 years and now is regional campus dean for the College of Medicine’s Daytona Beach campus.

“At the same time, I think the students’ presence will benefit the local medical community right now,’’ Dunn said. “I think it will light the fire for their passion for medicine. One of the physicians who has joined our faculty said to me, “Boy, I had an interesting case the other night. I wish one of the medical students had been there to share it with.’’’

The medical school also is launching a new regional campus this week in Fort Pierce for third- and fourth-year clinical education.

The FSU College of Medicine was established in 2000 with a mission of educating physicians to care for Florida’s rural, geriatric, minority, and other medically underserved populations. With three graduating classes to date, the college has produced 111 doctors who currently are completing three to five years of required residency training.